I was just wondering how long it takes you guys to detail your cars.

Just stripping off old waxes/polishes/road grime with dish soap and clay bar took me three hours. It takes me an hour per coat of polish with a half hour inbetween each coat with Zaino Z6... and I haven't even started with the windows/plastics/interior yet for the new season. To me this just seems like an awfully long time, does it take you guys this long to detail your own cars?

 

I'm right there with ya, takes me about 4 hours for me. Yes, I know that's crazy, but I'm really picking with my Hawk. Yet she only see's 3,000-4,000 miles of driving a year.....lol

 

It takes me 6-8 hours for:

Wash - 30 min.
Clay - 30 min. - 1 hour
Wash & Dry - 30 min.
Polish Menzerna IP - 45 min.
Polish Menzerna FP - 45 min.
Wax/Seal x 2 - 1.5 hours
Glass & Interior vacuum and dress - 30 min.
Dress tires and trim - 10 min.

 

Exterior... takes me a good 4 or so hours, but actually much longer cuz I spread it out, I do a coat and let it sit while I go off and do other stuff, I have left coats of Zaino on the car for 2 hours to overnight before.

People go nuts cuz they think I detail my car for like over a day, but in reality I just spend like 20 min putting a coat on then leave it on for hours. If I do it all at once I get lazy it seems also maybe its me or something but seems like when I put it on for a long time it looks better.

As for interior...

Usually go to the carwash place, and do a quick wash, and have them do my interior/windows. ~$30-40 job but then again, I get it done for free wouldn't do it if it wasn't free. They do a sweet wash. And a job better then I have ever on my interior only time I have ever had my interiors look that good is disassembly it and clean it while watching TV by hand. PRobably because they have like 1-2 people per job, like 2 people vaccum one person does windows, and like 1-2 people do plastic trim.

 

All day.

 

I would never wash my car at any public carwash wether it is automatic or not or those cheer leaders trying to make some extra money by washing cars. Think about this, a guy washes his 1975 muddy ford 4x4 rust bucket and then you come in right behind him and wash your car. Everything that came off his truck is in the brush or rag and then it is on your car scratching it up. Those automatic ones are bad about scratching the paint too. Only hand washing it by myself will assure me that it is done right.

 

it takes me about 2-4 hours.
15 minutes to wash.
10 minutes or so to clay if i need it
5 minutes to dry
30 minutes to polish
30 minutes to wax
30 minutes to dress tires and finish off the rest of the car.
and 30 minutes to stare and smile

 

I just did the inside since I got the car and it was the nastiest interior ever...french fries and stuff all over the place. To do that it took me about 6 hours, I pulled all the seats out vacuumed, febreezed the whole thing (get out smoke smell, worked well) cleaned the leather, cleaned up the plastics and put it all back together. I work at a car wash (touchless) so I just ran it thru that for now, the Zaino is going on as soon as I get the pinstripe off and some time.

 

A full detail day is a thing of the past for me. I have to schedule and prioritize detailing (along with everything else). The wheels themselves can take two hours. I'd say that not counting the first big clean, polish and wax, that a washing will take me 45 minutes on average, and wax (done the old fashioned way) will take two hours.

 

It takes me about 3 hours to "fully detail" my car.

~20 minutes to clean the engine with degreaser and soap.
~30 minutes to wash the car
~10 minutes to clean out cracks, emblems, around lug nuts, etc.
~10 minutes to clay
~10 minutes to dry(have to use the leaf blower to blow out cracks)
~20 minutes to apply 1 coat of wax
~15 minutes to remove wax
~5 minutes for tire shine
~15 minutes to clean the glass
~10 minutes to vacume
~10 minutes to foam shampoo mats
~10 minutes to clean cup holders, dust, clean the dirty plastic door sills, and clean steering wheel
~5 minutes to condition leather on the steering wheel and shift ****

I wax about once a month because my wax doesn't last very long(but it sure looks nice for that month ) I maybe clean the engine every other month, clay bar and condition leather about twice a year.

 

I have never heard of the clay bar being used. What does it actually do?

 

It removes contaminents in your paint that regular soap and water will not get. After using the clay bar, if you rub the paint, it should feel perfectly smooth. You would be suprised at what one can do. I use it for really heavy bugs, stains in the paint, and it removes overspray like nobody's business.

When I detailed cars professionally, we had 100 cars that we had to claybar and wax because some idiot contractor used a spray gun on a windy day when painting a school.

 

depending on how far I go with it, it can be about 4 hours or a full day from morning till night. I usually like to apply atleast 4 or so coats of wax, jack up the car, polish the inside of the wheels etc etc. I try to do things while other things are going on, such as put wax on the car then do something else on it like wash the carpet or something. I even got a heater for the garage during the winter so I dont have to worry about the cold.

typical detail:
wash car
buff
wax X 4
jack up car, take off wheels, polish wheels
engine bay
interior(leather care etc etc)
polish plastics
exhaust tips
tire shine

usually doing this around 8-9 hrs

-Brian

 

Bills Car wash??? if so, sanford or lake mary

 

I remember the 1st time i ever did it with zaino it took me around 8 hours or so, may have been more but i cant remember.

I have since gotten it down to about 5 hours. means
Wash/dry
Claybar
Wash/Dry again
Apply/unapply 3 coats of zaino with z6 inbetween each one
Wheels/tires
Int.
Windows