What are your paint correction stage?

choijw2

choijw2

New member
Joined
Jul 25, 2015
Messages
781
Reaction score
0
Hello all,

I am in process of getting my business license and working on price list. (I wont give out full price untill i actually see the car)

beside wash and wax... interior and all the basic stuff

I am building stage 1 2 3 paint correction service.
and of course these stages will include preping car properly before polishing
Stage 1: AIO polishing.. around $150
Stage 2: Compound and polish for around $250
Stage 3: This would be 100% paint correction $500

Stage 3 would be include spot sanding for deeper scratches and paint distortion from bird bomb.

what are your package?? do you mind sharing your price range ??
 
You're selling yourself short. I would raise your prices, like double for each step. AIO $250-$300 1-step $400-500 and step $500-$800. It takes time to prep the car and time to correct. If you feel like you have the skills and can deliver high quality corrections then you should feel confident you can get these types of rates. I thought I was scaring away people at first but once you explain the process and time it takes to get the desired results they understand. If they want a quick buff for $150 I tell them go down the street. Again everything comes down to conditions, size, expectations but it can take me 6-40+ hours to complete correction depending what we're going for as the end result
 
Thank you so much for your input!

I never had proper train such as taking class, but my first time buffing a car ever was about 5 years ago and I recently started to get serious with it.

polishing process is really boring and tough sometimes but seeing the result makes everything so worth it.

anyways.. I been collecting many tools till now and finally i got my own rupes 21es with meguiars m105/205 menzerna 400, 1000, 2000, 4000 and other quality chemicals.

I can see that my buffing skill is getting better and better
also I can sorta picture the end result with choice of machine, pad, chemical combo.
 
Let me grab the popcorn and get ready for this one!

If your area supports double, by all means, do that. Where I am, home of the $40 detail I pull teeth to get AIO jobs for $120 on an regular car. There are shops here that will run a rotary over your car for $80 and call it a day. I start at $120 for an AIO, if you are looking at coatings, I start at $370 but that includes me doing a one step. Don't promise 100% correction for $500, you have no idea what you will be getting yourself into.
 
Never promise 100%. Always under promise and over deliver. That being said your bread and butter will be the $150 clay and AIO. Takes about three hours and it will pay the bills. Your not going to get many $500 jobs and when you do they will be expecting the world. You may also want to offer a coating in that range.


www.JaxDetails.com
www.facebook.com/DentsAndDetails
I may be slow, but I do poor work.
 
How much you can charge is heavily influenced by your location. You can target a specific segment with your advertising.

Always do research in your area to find out what sort of rates are being asked, services being offered, and figure out how to differentiate yourself. Why would I, a non pro, choose you to do my car.

Don't short change yourself, but at the same time don't expect to charge the same price for a 5 year old Kia for a kindly grandmother as you would an Aston Martin for some wall street tech wunder kid.
Figure out what your niche will be, high volume quality or lower volume show car quality.

I am not a detailer, I am learning how to detail my own cars because I enjoy it. My real life job has some similarities for strategy development in growing a business but as with all free advice...
 
Thanks for the input.

I started to buffing because someone key'ed my car and was looking for way to fix it on my own.... and The process was fun and my friends were bringing their cars to me and also they were sending me people.
so I figured i would turn this as my side business for the weekends.

I am looking for maybe 2,3 cars / month with quality work....
whether it's simple car wash or multi step paint correction :D
 
parttimer said:
Let me grab the popcorn and get ready for this one!

If your area supports double, by all means, do that. ...... Don't promise 100% correction for $500, you have no idea what you will be getting yourself into.
Click to expand...

sweatthedetails said:
Never promise 100%. Always under promise and over deliver. That being said your bread and butter will be the $150 clay and AIO. Takes about three hours and it will pay the bills. Your not going to get many $500 jobs and when you do they will be expecting the world. You may also want to offer a coating in that range.
Click to expand...

THIS....:dblthumb2:


I recently got a mailer from Heritage Cadillac with a discount on their "Deluxe Detail" with the end price running $115 (after a $80 discount). That included engine detail and shine, wheels cleaned and shined, interior vacuumed, cleaned (and SHINED), carpets shampooed, trunk mat vacuumed and shampooed, PAINT buffed and sealant applied. ROTFLMAO
I mean SERIOUSLY... who does that?!?! (Even for $195, much less $115.)

I *can* tell you though who FIXES their messes! :D
 
Ticktwo said:
Sadly, I did. For $295 from my local dealer. Swirls and buffer marks were included free of charge.

Which is why I am now here.
Click to expand...

Yup!!!!

And the all too true... er SAD reality is that MOST people do exactly the same thing. They JUST DON'T KNOW.. or even worse... DON'T CARE to know the difference between the local car wash and/or dealership "detail and buff" over a TRUE paint correction and protection package.. :(

Sent via Android tablet on magical AC1900 airwaves
 
choijw2 said:
Hello all,

Stage 3: This would be 100% paint correction $500

Stage 3 would be include spot sanding for deeper scratches and paint distortion from bird bomb.




I would never say 100% correction even on a brand new car.
Click to expand...
 
hmm maybe I should change my pacakges

Stage 1 : AIO for quick polish and save me time from waxing.
Stage 2 : slightly more aggressive Polish to enhance shine and hand wax
Stage 3 : Compound and Polish..
 
I think your prices are realistic but you need to shop your local area to see if they are in line or way off base. There is no such thing as 100% paint correction until you are into show car paint jobs of $10,000 and up so drop that from your vocabulary entirely. If you believe you can correct a daily driver to 100% then you are not ready to go into business.

You will also need to differentiate by car size such as compact begins @ $XX, midsize begins @, SUVS, Trucks, full size SUV, etc. for each segment of detailing. That will at least give folks an idea of pricing. You damn sure don't want a filthy Suburban coming in expecting a wash, vac, windows in & out, dash, seat cleaning, etc, for $35!!!!!! Look at how others have worded their pricing and amend to your uses. CHECK YOUR SPELLING, then have three other people check it. Nothing looks less professional than stupid spelling errors.

You're on the right track with not giving a precise quote without seeing the vehicle.....that can cost you dearly. When you are with the potential customer TALK TO THEM AND LISTEN TO WHAT THEY SAY. 99.9% have no idea what is involved in detailing, you need to educate them as to what you can accomplish and also towards what can they afford. If they are selling the car they want to get by with the minimal expense so you must educate them as to what is actually required to make the POS they are trying to sell more presentable and make them more money. They've gotta spend money to make money, don't forget that. Make sure they understand it.

Enough of the book, I can't pass on everything I learned in a few paragraphs. I did do this for a living by the way and did well.
 
choijw2 said:
Hello all,

I am in process of getting my business license and working on price list. (I wont give out full price untill i actually see the car)

beside wash and wax... interior and all the basic stuff

I am building stage 1 2 3 paint correction service.
and of course these stages will include preping car properly before polishing
Stage 1: AIO polishing.. around $150
Stage 2: Compound and polish for around $250
Stage 3: This would be 100% paint correction $500

Stage 3 would be include spot sanding for deeper scratches and paint distortion from bird bomb.

what are your package?? do you mind sharing your price range ??
Click to expand...

I don't intend to hijack this thread but I would like to know if any of the professional detailers here have noticed or thought that in the past 3 or 4 years that oem clear coat has a lot less mils than previous years and if so has this become a problem as far as repairing deeper scratches?
 
RTexasF said:
I think your prices are realistic but you need to shop your local area....

Enough of the book, I can't pass on everything I learned in a few paragraphs. I did do this for a living by the way and did well.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for your input!!!:props:

haha yes, my price is actually based on few local shops, someone detailing cars for more... regular people but does great job.
I just went slightly lower price since I am not doing it at a studio but doing it at 2 car garage at a house.

also price i posted here was min. price, for moderately dirty small cars... just give customers some idea what to expect. extra for bigger cars, oh yes yes

and Noted.. no 100%
I actually feel stupid of myself for even wiritng that.. because I am the one who always tell other people there is no such thing as 100% lol

Thanks guys,

I am so glad I posted this thread!!
 
btw when you guys do AIO service...

Do you add finish wax on top of it after?
I think that beats the purpose of doing AIO, but just wanted to make sure.
 
choijw2 said:
btw when you guys do AIO service...

Do you add finish wax on top of it after?
I think that beats the purpose of doing AIO, but just wanted to make sure.
Click to expand...

Up-sell a sealant on top of your AIO.

I have 3 levels I offer...

Exterior detail: wash, clay, AIO. Up sell sealant.
Stage I: wash, clay, polish, sealant.
Stage II: wash, clay, compound, polish, sealant.

And then I also offer coatings for the paint correction details (Gloss-Coat, Opti-Coat Pro & OCP+)

You can look at my website for more info and better formatting.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top