Cadillac Detailing and Appearance Modification Interior and Exterior including Body and WheelsForum for discussions regarding cleaning, detailing, painting, and accessories for enhancing appearance.
Cadillac Forums: How Much $$ For A Real Detail Job
there is no real answer to this. There are several different levels of 'real detail jobs.' If you pay a single person to do it himself, it will probably cost 150+ and take at least 4 hours. If you take it to a place that details several cars a day it might be a bit cheaper and only take 2 hours or so.
It really depends on what all you want done. If you want a COMPLETE detail, which may include full exterior wash, polish, wax, sealant, wheels, wheel wells, engine compartment, etc and full interior detailing with high quality products could take a long time and a lot of money. If you paid some guy to do it, it could take 4 or more hours and maybe more than 150, depending on what kind of products he uses and how good a job he does.
Around here it's $150 at the best place in town A.J.s auto detail...That's for a "complete" detail in/out but not under the hood ($50 more) They do an exellent job by most peoples standards.....Not mine!
Well in a business like that you cannot afford to be AS detailed/anal about the quality you are doing. If you tried to do as good a job as most of us do then it would take longer and cost way more to be as picky. We have all the time in the world to detail our own cars but they aer trying to turn a profit and push as many cars through the line as possible in the shortest time allowed. Probably setting up an assembly line where the vaccuum is done, then the exterrior wash while someone inside is working on windows, dash, vents. Then the wheel wells and wheels and a strip,polish,wax job, and out it goes.
so if you want a real good job do it yourself. I have seen places here who calim to be the best detail a ford explorer. The things looks great until we went mudding in it and took it to the car wash afterwards. Then the oxidation came right back the red faded to pink right away within a weeks time. So what did that shop do? I don't know how they made it look so deep red like new again only to have it wash off at the car wash and streak badly. They say "Never powerwash" and blamed that instead of their $6/hr high school summer intern. So we took a little hand action with some rubbing compound and a whole saturday and it looked better than they did for $200. AND it didnt streak after a power wash.
If I had that attitude in my business I'd be out of business! I do all jobs as though it were my own vehicle. Actually I probably do better on customers vehicles than on my own.
All it is attention to DETAIL, thats why they call it detailing. I have done a few cars that werent mine, and i have tried to do a better job than i would on my car.
Originally posted by elwesso All it is attention to DETAIL, thats why they call it detailing. I have done a few cars that werent mine, and i have tried to do a better job than i would on my car.
You should talk to some of my friends that do (win) conours events. Talk about attention to detail. Not only do they park the car so the text on the wheels face upwards, but one guy i know goes (had an old jag, was a 50's something, completly restored from a pile of junk to a car that usually scored in the %99.5-%99.7 range and won many jag events), under the hood and makes sure all the screws/bolts are turned so they line up the same.
