Pros: Does your detail include cleaning the engine compartment?

detailsbydennis said:
We do clean the engine cavity on full details. The area is purged to remove loose items such as leaves,acorns,pine needles,etc....The underside of hood, cowl, top of fender jambs and engine shroud are cleaned and dried. However we do not degrease components.


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Is that built into your price? It sounds like a fair amount of work. I'd have no problem building it into my price, but unfortunately that would price me well above most of my competition for a service that most people don't care about.
 
People are weird. When I want to buy something or am looking for a service, I go over everything I can on the company's website to make sure it fits my needs. Seems like this is not the norm from all the conversation I have had with people over the years. Just today:

Phone rings, I answer and the person tells me he wants to make an appointment to get his car detailed. Great.

So I ask him if he visited our website. He tells me he did.

So I start taking down his info. When I get to the detail, I ask him what package he was interested in: "Oh! I did not look at the packages"... so I proceed to discuss with him what he wanted done and suggests a package to him. Great.

When I am done taking his info down I ask him if this adress is his residence or workplace. Tells me it's his residence. I ask if there will be acces to water and/or electicity. Guy is puzzled and realises we are mobile.

How the hell do you go on my website and not know I am mobile? The front page is me in front of my detailing van with the headline AT HOME CAR DETAILING SERVICE. Then on every page of the website there is a rotating banner saying we are mobile. On the contact page there is a text explaining we do not have a garage and are exclusivelly mobile....

This is very very frustrating, and it has been going on since I opened. 80% of the people who call me are clueless. I get about 5 calls per day asking me where we are and people thinking we are a car wash.

Anyway, my blood is starting to boil so I will stop LOL
 
Oh and regarding engine details. Not included in any of my packages. Like you, I found that 95% of my clients are not interested in this. I do offer it as an add on option if the car is 10 years old or younger. Won't do it on older cars.
 
Hey, I've got Mobile Auto Detailing in the name of my business. How I answer the phone. People still want to know where our shop is located.
 
Funny timing of this thread...

Earlier today during a detail, I was set to clean the metal grill of a car when I noticed 1 of the rubber fingers holding it in place was loose on the other side of the grill... I didn’t want to risk blowing it away during the drying so I popped the hood in order to put it back in place.

And even though I don’t usually do anything to anyone elses engine compartment, I just couldn’t leave this be. My OCD got the better of me.

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Nothing crazy. Just grabbed a couple of paper towels and sprayed them with APC and did a quik wipedown of any black plastic/rubber under the hood. Then I sprayed some Hyper Dressing @1.1 and closed the hood. I opened the hood about an hour later and I think it looks alot better than before?

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The main reason I decided to do it was last time I detailed another vehicle for this customer, he asked me if I detailed the engine and I said no. And while this may not be a full on engine detail, I think he’ll appreciate it.
 
About 70% of my customers from car clubs ask for engine bay service. I have three packages for the engine compartment - one for maintenance, one that aims to make visible surfaces presentable and protected (for car shows) and one that is meant for owners whose engine bay is the primary focus of their vehicle.


Eldorado2k said:
The main reason I decided to do it was last time I detailed another vehicle for this customer, he asked me if I detailed the engine and I said no. And while this may not be a full on engine detail, I think he’ll appreciate it.
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Good going on that one - a dirty Mopar engine bay makes me sick to my stomach. 🤣
 
Looking back through my pictures, we've done six engine compartments since we've been in business. Four of them were for cars that were going to car shows.
 
Eldorado2k said:
Funny timing of this thread...

Earlier today during a detail, I was set to clean the metal grill of a car when I noticed 1 of the rubber fingers holding it in place was loose on the other side of the grill... I didn’t want to risk blowing it away during the drying so I popped the hood in order to put it back in place.

And even though I don’t usually do anything to anyone elses engine compartment, I just couldn’t leave this be. My OCD got the better of me.

909f4b0846caf161e4a95d3d7a65e8c1.jpg


79473d4dc3e5666d79c2ffa1303ff0a6.jpg


6ba36b1c8779377516df4d162207e47c.jpg


Nothing crazy. Just grabbed a couple of paper towels and sprayed them with APC and did a quik wipedown of any black plastic/rubber under the hood. Then I sprayed some Hyper Dressing @1.1 and closed the hood. I opened the hood about an hour later and I think it looks alot better than before?

bc9da5113fd85d6257dabd9ab20e8b90.jpg


dc748ab3b8780907927462181a9f6bea.jpg


ff439b254099131383a7d7637749a614.jpg


The main reason I decided to do it was last time I detailed another vehicle for this customer, he asked me if I detailed the engine and I said no. And while this may not be a full on engine detail, I think he’ll appreciate it.
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Sorry man, I see no difference.


:)
 
osiapstndp said:
About 70% of my customers from car clubs ask for engine bay service. I have three packages for the engine compartment - one for maintenance, one that aims to make visible surfaces presentable and protected (for car shows) and one that is meant for owners whose engine bay is the primary focus of their vehicle.




Good going on that one - a dirty Mopar engine bay makes me sick to my stomach. ��
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Ya, that would make sense if people have car they are bringing to car shows. How much do you charge and how much time do you spend? Making an engine perfect could be a very long process. Especially if it's an engine coated in dirt and oil.
 
Calendyr said:
Ya, that would make sense if people have car they are bringing to car shows. How much do you charge and how much time do you spend? Making an engine perfect could be a very long process. Especially if it's an engine coated in dirt and oil.
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Stage I starts at $60.00 and takes 30 to 45 minutes. Stage II starts at $120.00 and takes 60 to 75 minutes. Stage III takes as long as needed and the price varies quite a bit - the most one has taken me was about 20 hours of labor, but that included polishing every piece of aluminum (including an intake manifold that took forever) and getting everything clean enough to eat off of. The customer ended up winning the car show that he and I competed in.

I think I've only used running water four or five times on customers' engine bays. Every other time it has been a rinseless wash with ONR or D114 or N914, various brushes and towels, and Power Clean at 3:1. I called Optimum a couple years ago and talked to Ron about this and he gave me the thumbs up and said ONR at rinseless dilution is enough to rinse away the Power Clean residue.

Dressing varies based on the kind of finish the customer wants. Lately I've liked using Perl at 1:1 with a brush to "paint" the product onto the easy-to-reach areas (and spray the others) when the customer wants a finish that is a bit more than satin. If the customer wants satin I'll spray Opti-Bond at 1:1. All the painted surfaces (a lot of guys have as many components painted as possible so there can be a lot) used to get D156 or similar until I started using Bead Maker - now I use that instead of a spray wax.
 
Nope, it's listed with the other a la carté svcs.

Now, I've heard that some production detailers who do contract work for dealers include the engine bay in the pkg. but that's the only time I've ever heard of it not being considered an additional service.
My question to rude lady or the owner would have been if they had ever had a vehicle detailed that included the engine bay and when they stated they had not, the next question would have obviously been why they expected you to include it.
 
I'm sure if asked, she would have told me that all other detailers do it, which I know is untrue. The go to move of people that want something for nothing is to lie about what other people do at the same price. I'm over it. The bad feelings I had for somebody complaining about the quality of my work passed when they called back the next day to complain again. I'll chalk it up to a learning lesson about who I do business with.
 
Whoops. Sorry. For pros only. If I was detailing for $ it would be a separate cost for sure. BTW you were completely in the right on the Toyota detail.
 
Eldorado2k said:
Funny timing of this thread...

Earlier today during a detail, I was set to clean the metal grill of a car when I noticed 1 of the rubber fingers holding it in place was loose on the other side of the grill... I didn’t want to risk blowing it away during the drying so I popped the hood in order to put it back in place.

And even though I don’t usually do anything to anyone elses engine compartment, I just couldn’t leave this be. My OCD got the better of me.
...
Nothing crazy. Just grabbed a couple of paper towels and sprayed them with APC and did a quik wipedown of any black plastic/rubber under the hood. Then I sprayed some Hyper Dressing @1.1 and closed the hood. I opened the hood about an hour later and I think it looks alot better than before?
...

The main reason I decided to do it was last time I detailed another vehicle for this customer, he asked me if I detailed the engine and I said no. And while this may not be a full on engine detail, I think he’ll appreciate it.
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I probably mention too often I fix cars for a living vs detailing them, but seems like a fitting time to mention it-

I hear you on the OCD and hating to see things dirty. It’s a daily struggle to not start spot cleaning in customers cars because they’re such a wreck (cleanliness wise) on the inside. But, it’s not what I’m getting paid for; plus so many customers honestly wouldn’t even notice/appreciate the fact I did.

What I have been doing though, is on any car where their bill is around $1k or greater, I wipe down all their underhood plastics with ONR at rinseless dilution. I’ve got a box of cut up bath towel pieces I use so I’m not sacrificing any decent towels. Towel gets too dirty? Toss it.

The ONR does a surprisingly nice job, and while not leaving the underhood looking “detailed”, it does look like it was cleaned with intention (which is all I’m going for). I also like that it’s not leaving anything heavy, so on the off chance someone did want to have their car detailed and underhood done, I haven’t left anything overly permanent/hard for someone else to remove.

Like you mention - it’s amazing what a difference a speed-wiping can make.
 
@oneheadlight. I never knew you fixed cars for a living... My thought has always been “I don’t know how to fix cars, but I sure know how to clean them” lol.
 
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