Brett928S2

Hi

Here in the UK a full detail...with Zymol etc.....inside and out is around £400 ($800 ish)...so for $200 I would probably expect a wash/wax...maybe a hoover round inside...

All the best Brett

PORSCHE 928 S2 AUTO V8 4.7 LTR 1986 IRIS METALLIC BLUE WITH X-PIPES ,RMB ,PROMAX CHIPS, KICKDOWN SWITCH, K&N, WIZARDS OF NOS - NITROUS KIT 150 HP JETTING - 505 BHP / 500 FT LBS TORQUE
PCGB UK 928 FORUM MODERATOR - Email managingdirector@pchealthcare.co.uk

Podguy

I have some clay, but ahve not seen it accomplish much when used. Maybe I am doing something wrong. What is the purpose of using clay. What is the difference with and without?

I know some poeple live in hard water areas where just washing the car will leave spots. We have good water here and the car comes out clean after a wash.

Just curious since I bought the stuff and now am stuck with it.

Dan the Pod Guy

ceedee

the problem is i don't want to live on an island , a cold one on top of it.
i need space...
creature comforts
but i'd like that kinda money here

Larry Velk

No way $200. brings a Northern street driven car to show status. A Triumph TR6 from CA, maybe. The size and type of car matters greatly. I'd like to know how guys do the front door jambs / fender gap on 928's, for instance. Hatch lids are hard to clean in the center top area. The 951 in the picture is ours. It used to get detailed in Chicago by a previous owner and they keep it up nicely. If the engine was cleaner I could have gotten it show ready for around $250. I'm considering $250. to be 6 hours work by an owner operator who is retired or side jobbing as I would do it. You can't have gangster guest workers doing this as the wheels need to come off and you are running somewhat caustic stuff around your shiny parts. You don't want silicone. Better a little dirt here and there and your paint not burned and your wheels retorqued. No way a color sand at this price - due to liability as much as labor. You don't know who painted what and how they did it unless inspection confirms the originality of the paint. The buff residue is a problem and black stuff needs masking as a result, so the amount of buffing greatly influences price. If you use $5 / hour workers, the best power steamers, a lift, maybe you get more for your money.

dr bob

Clay is used to remove fallout from the car before any other polishing. Fallout includes anything that stands 'proud' of the surface of the paint. Overspray from somebody's nearby housepainting project, or when you decide to paint the grill with spray cans a little upwind. It can include tree droppings, bug remains that have hardened, just about anything that sticks to the paint and won't wash off. Prior to having clay, we used to use polish and elbow grease to get this stuff off. We'd grind through a lot of paint to get that perfectly smooth finish. You can tell when there's fallout on the car. You can feel it with your fingers, and you can easily see it when you try to wax-- those little spots that seem to have a trail of wax dragged behind

I mix up a bucket of thick Dawn suds and do an area of the car at a time. Most fallout hapens on horizontal or maybe better described as the non-vertical surfaces. Load the surface with the detergent and water, and then gently glide a pancake of the clay across the surface with your fingertips. It slides on the film of detergent, and if you press too hard it will drag on the paint. Keep the surface wet with teh detergent and water as you use front-to-back gliding strokes of the clay to get the crud off the paint. It only takes a few passes to get stuff off. You will want to fold the clay and reform your pancacke to keep the accumulated fallout from scratching the paint, but the detergent film does a pretty good job of protecting. Rinse each section thoroughly with water before moving to the next section. The whole process is pretty darn quick, and can save hours of polishing on a car that's driven out in the real world.

DonT

John -
You are going to pay dearly for that remark.

Burma Shave

Once in a while I take in a detail job for preferred customers. Most of the time its not worth it as the expectation is way higher then the reward. The last one I did was a late mustang cobra, all oem paint. The owner had paid $200 somewhere else and was very disappointed. He wanted it cleaned/buffed/waxed. I spent almost 2 hrs. taping windows, moldings, edges and EVERY gap and crevice. I ended up just machine polishing and waxing. The car was super clean to begin with except for some acid rain damage which I informed the customer of so full buff was pointless. I spent over a full day on the car myself and didn't trust it to my detailer as its easy to burn through oem paint and that is prohibitive to warranty for detail $$. In the end I charged him $250. He said the car looked "new" again. In short, to clean interior, exterior, wheels(on car), claybar, polish and wax was worth about $450 in labor. Not for the faint of heart or the inexperienced. A good detail guy is every bit as skilled as a tech or mechanic and deserves good pay. If you get it for cheap, consider the risk involved.

Daniel Dudley

For 200 dollars, I would expect the detailer to say ''What did you expect for 200 dollars?''.

Do you have references ?