Marine Blue

$200 should include cleaning the exterior, polishing the car, applying wax and dress the tires. It should also include a good interior cleaning. Note that this does not mean getting the car ready for a concours but at least a show and shine.

Concours really takes a great deal of time and typically those who win sweat the details.

tomcat

I just detailed my car during the last couple of days. Filled in chips, color sanded, compounded, polished, hand glaze, and wax. Took some time, but the change was significant.

I was told a car should be waxed at least four times a year to protect it. Obviously if left out in the weather, maybe more. $200x4 is $800. If you don't mind doing a little work, I'd invest in a Porter Cable, pads, and various finishing products. Probably $250-$300 when all is said and done. The supplies should last you more than a couple of years.

Shark Attack

about a days worth of work

Exterior wash, buff, polish, wax
all jams
Engine steamed
interor vaccumed and shampooed
all interior scrubbed and finished
interior detail- with tooth brushes and q-tips
wheels and tires dressed

AO

Abby Normal

$200 is not a lot for a detail job if your talking about restoring. If you are talking about a wash and wax job with general cleaning, it's high.

tomcat

Hope you are discriminate about who provides the ancillary services. From the people I've seen working in detail shops, I wouldn't even want them to touch DonT.

heinrich

A $200 detailing will often buy you a wet fuse box; wet leather; etched paint; oiled interior; and so-on

ceedee

i don't leave things wet...

heinrich

Michael my friend I was *not* referring to you!! Obviously you know and understand 928's also!!

ceedee

heinrich, you are the best.

wds928

$200 isn't a bad price for wash, clay, polish, wax, interior vacuum, cleanup, tires. Might get the brake calipers wiped down, but not waxed or polished.

Me, I just put some beer in the garage fridge, turn on some music and go at it. Even cleaning the wheels inside and out, pressure washing the underside and wheel wells, it's an all day job. Take two Aleve about halfway through to ease the pain.

JHowell37

Color-sanding cured paint is a lot different from color-sanding fresh paint. I did my Miata last summer and it took almost an entire day just to color sand and polish it. For $200 I would expect an awesome cleaning and waxing, but after having done it myself, color-sanding and polishing is in a different ballpark altogether.

Mike Frye

+1 for the region of the world (country) you're in.

I think here in the northeast you could get a pretty good wash and wax towel dry, interior vacuum, then shampoo. Treat the leather and clean the wheels really well (without taking them off). They'd probably spend time on the trunk and detail the engine, but concourse, no. You'd probably get about 3-4 hours work for that kind of money.

I agree it's way more than I would pay anyone, but I don't pay for oil changes either. One reason I have this car is so I can be the one to detail it .

dr bob

At a recent gathering in the SF bay area, the guy doing the detailing presentation talked about spending several hours per panel, making an F-car suitable for the Concourso Italiano event. That means days spent just on exterior paint. Add in the interior, under the hood, undercarriage and suspension time. Consider that he's starting with a garage queen and you get the idea.

$200 in the local LA market gets a wash-clean-glaze-wax with no paint repairs, and interior clean and dress but no shampoo, and exterior wheel cleaning with tire slime. It's a 10-ft detail, plenty good for evening drive-by inspections but nowhere close to show condition.


80% of every job is managing expectations, and cleaning and detailing cars is a perfect example. Write down every result that you desire from your project, and let the detailer tell you how he/she expects to get there. Define the results not the method, except you can place limitations on how much machine polishing they can do.

I went with a friend to go buy a black car, and the car he was lloking at had just come in on a lease return. Dealer was instructed, in writing, to not do anything more than wash it. Go to pick it up, an dthe finish had been ruined by a guy with an orbital buffer, doing their "standard detail" job on it. I told the guy to walk away and find another car, but the sales guy offered some money back to close the sale. Two years later, the car looked like hell from the over-polishing, and the only recourse was new paint. Guy was not happy, since the couple $hundred from the sales guy wouldn't even cover a detail job to hide some of the damage. Moral-- find the right guy to do the work and don't try to cheap on the job. A cheap job is too often worse than none, and damage is usually permanent. The guys who do concours quality work get good money for a good reason.

H2

Unfortunately, Heinrich is right on this high possibility. I've seen it too often. some use heaters and fans but the moisture damage to interior may already be done. Risky on a 928.

Harvey