Chris VR6nos 0 Posted September 18, 2006 Yip it's a good job, get ya website sorted and post it around all the forums and i'm sure there will be some takers, try the Merc and Porsche forums etc as they will think less of the money and will appreciate it more than these £3000 cars generally i'd have thought, i think £5 is dear to wash my car but i won't take it through a carwash, prefer to get it hand washed so at least i care that much and if money was less of a restriction then yes, i'd employ the occassional professional to do what you do! Chris Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
marcus 0 Posted September 18, 2006 ok, thats one person who appreciate us :) and one person who doesnt.... http://the-corrado.net/.archive/forum/viewtopic. ... highlight= :roll: Of course i do, i have to, im just playing. Ive been running my valeting business for nearly 7 years now, im 25. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ardandy 0 Posted September 18, 2006 Do you offer the XVZ and QWV25 and FRP6000 as an option or as part of a full valet? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ben16v 0 Posted September 18, 2006 you`ve gotta pay good money to get a good job done cos its bloody hard work!! this morning i`ve just had a bit of a session on my car: degrease engine degrease wheelarches clean wheels rinse car wash car (top then bottom + door/boot shuts) dry car clay rinse car wash car (top then bottom + door/boot shuts) dry car meguiars scratch-x, buff with microfibre twice meguiars step1 paint cleaner, buff with microfibre twice meguiars step2 polish, buff with microfibre twice meguiars step3 wax, buff with microfibre twice clean glass rain-x glass autoglym/turtlewax all trim/tyres open beer! haven`t even looked inside yet as it`s starting to rain :roll: tomorrow i suppose... took me 4hrs with a couple of cig breaks if i was gonna do that on someone elses car i`d want at least £100 if i was using my own products etc... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jim 2 Posted September 18, 2006 Have to totally agree with Roddy, and the others who've sided with the valeters really. To be honest i'm amazed that valeters in the local area seem to charge such small amounts for the work they do.. I look at the cost of good quality car wash & other detailing products, the consumables used, plus the cost of them getting to you to do the work, and then of course the hourly rate and just don't know how they do it for the money. I think its bloody hard work for not a lot of money quite frankly and I know I wouldn't have the patience to do it day in, day out - I like cleaning my car but thats about it - I couldn't do it every day! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lippy 0 Posted September 18, 2006 nice job andy, you could eat your dinner from those arches :D the more of these threads I see the more I appreciate the quality of the kit and experience valeters have. Fair play. ben16v, nice work ben I'd have been gasping for a pint after getting the hose pipe out (pfnarr pfnarr ;)) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
marcus 0 Posted September 18, 2006 Have to totally agree with Roddy, and the others who've sided with the valeters really. To be honest i'm amazed that valeters in the local area seem to charge such small amounts for the work they do.. I look at the cost of good quality car wash & other detailing products, the consumables used, plus the cost of them getting to you to do the work, and then of course the hourly rate and just don't know how they do it for the money. I think its bloody hard work for not a lot of money quite frankly and I know I wouldn't have the patience to do it day in, day out - I like cleaning my car but thats about it - I couldn't do it every day! Why thankyou very much, shame most of the customers dont show this much gratitude - theyre too rich and lazy to bother LOL...which is also the ideal customers...cant have it all i suppose LOL. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jedi-knight83 0 Posted September 18, 2006 i just got home from doing 3 cars today.. nothing major paintwork wise. but i did have a very appreciative customer which makes it nice. It must have been the dirtiest car i have ever done. probably never washed since new. Jim is right... its not brilliant money at the end of the day... what you end up with in your back pocket isnt much after products (especially if your using half decent ones not the cheap crap they often have at £5 hand job places), petrol, tax, insurance (are hand job places insured for up to 1million???) etc etc... which is why it gets a bit disheartening sometimes when people start going on about the prices. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VR6 0 Posted September 18, 2006 £5 hand job places..... Must. Not. Make. Crappy. Joke. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jedi-knight83 0 Posted September 18, 2006 i did write that on purpose ;) you know what i mean though. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ardandy 0 Posted September 18, 2006 It does get on my tits when people say something like this. I mean, for god sake, dealers charge £60 AN HOUR! A plumber, around £50-£75, joiners, sparkies etc. You get what you pay for, go to the albanian car wash for £5 and thats what you get! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
g60greeny 0 Posted September 18, 2006 i would love to do it for a livin,job satisfaction must be quality,and its a better wage than me 200quid a week warehouse job :lol: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jedi-knight83 0 Posted September 18, 2006 dealers charge £60 AN HOUR! try telling that to audi in cambs. £100 plus VAT per hour ! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
marcus 0 Posted September 19, 2006 It does get on my tits when people say something like this. I mean, for god sake, dealers charge £60 AN HOUR! A plumber, around £50-£75, joiners, sparkies etc. You get what you pay for, go to the albanian car wash for £5 and thats what you get! I'm sure that wouldnt be the case if you had to call them out monthly, where as everyone needs a car clean fortnightly, monthly 6 times a year etc. 100.00 a month for a standard valet and wax???? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jedi-knight83 0 Posted September 19, 2006 With my work, the big expensive jobs are one off or 6 monthly ones. I tend not to do many 'quick' wash's, rather i try to educate people on how to maintain the look and finish i give them with the big job. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ardandy 0 Posted September 19, 2006 Exactly. That job I did for £80 was a one off. Wouldn't need a clay bar and full wax every month! As I've said before, the client tells me what they want and I tell them how much. Like many other industries, they get a quote based on hourly rate and materials. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ardandy 0 Posted September 23, 2006 Got a GTI-6 Coming today! Will post soon! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ardandy 0 Posted September 23, 2006 Trying to get the next clean on a new page! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ardandy 0 Posted September 23, 2006 Had a 306 GTI-6 come to me today. Harry wanted it de-swirling and made nice and shiny! No interior work but the engine bay was to be cleaned as well. Here's some pre-clean pics. You can see the swirls and scratches. Some scratches were quite deep but as I was without a paint depth gauge I didn't want to go far. The wheels could also do with a clean Harry! :) Here's a pre-clean pic of the engine bay. We started off by giving the wheels and arches a good blast with the Karcher and then cleaned the wheels with AutoGlym Engine & Machine Cleaner. Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner was sprayed throughout the arches and scrubbed clean. Following that we moved onto the engine bay. Once again using AG Eng & Mach Cleaner. Squirted that all over and agitated with a brush before gently hosing down. Here's a pic of the nice clean engine bay! After that we could finally start cleaning the bodywork. First we hosed the car down and then using Lambs Wool Wash Mitts and 2 buckets (one with soapy water and one with clean water to rinse the mitt with) we give the car a good clean. To make sure any previous wax was removed before the machine polish the car was sprayed with Megs APC before washing. The car was now clean! Or so Harry thought! The car was given a good going over with a clay bar. Meguiars to be precise. This is a picture of one of the clay bars after doing about 1 sq foot of the roof! After the whole car was clayed it was washed once more with AG Car Shampoo and the Lambs Wool mitts. To dry the car we give it a quick spritz with Meguiars Last Touch whilst wet and used a synthetic chamois to dry it off. The cars bodywork was very smooth now, even though there was no wax on it yet! :) Just one more step was needed before I broke out the Porter Cable and that was to mask up all the plastic trim to stop any accidental marking. Blue goes well with Black don't you think! Now it was time to start de-swirling the car. Initially started using Meguiars Swirl Remover but didn't seem to do much so moved onto something a little more abrasive, Megs #83. It certainly reduced the swirls and scratches considerably, even holograms were removed. If I'd have had the Paint Depth Gauge I'd have probably broke out the harsher Menzerna. I used Sonus SFX pad's with the PC and was happy with them. Here's me in action! Harry also did a good part of the car with the PC. We went over the whole car, some parts needing several passes and were happy with the result! I thought I'd give Clearkote Moose Glaze a try and I was definately happy with the result! Applied with the PC it give the black a deeper shine. Following that, we applied Meguiars #16 Professional Paste Wax with applicator pads and took it off with some more Microfibres. AG Fast Glass was used on the the windows and AG Vinyl & Rubber care on the plastic trim, after we removed the 3M Blue tape of course! Bubblegum smelling Rim Wax was used on the alloys and gave them a new lease of life! The result was a deep reflective shine that I'm very pleased with and I believe Harry was too! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
g60greeny 0 Posted September 23, 2006 ardandy, now that looks better!!!ya really comin on we the detailin 8) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mtc R32 0 Posted September 23, 2006 Real gloss look with awesome depth..... Well done mate keep up the good work!!! :) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nick 0 Posted September 24, 2006 Looks really good. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Trig 0 Posted September 24, 2006 OMG, For a second then I thought the turqoise was some kind of hideous styling! ardandy, does the de-swirling last permenantly? Or a few weeks down the line will some of the swirls reappeared? Good job! :) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites