Cost for detailing a car?

What is the price to detail a tacoma? It took me 4 hrs to detail my car, and im kinda getting into it, still learning about it. do you guys charge by the hour?

 

charge by the work u need to do and what kind of color. dark color are much harder to do

 

Prices will vary big time. Its all about quality and expectations.

Its similar to a paint job...you can spend $99 for a cheapo or $20K for a car you might enter in shows. I know a guy who charges $1,000 to detail a car in preparation to show it (for competition). Its an 11-hour job.

However, a soccer mom won't know a swirl mark if it bit her in the bum, so she'd be happy with a $99 detail that takes 1-2 hours.

And yes, dark colors are VERY difficult to get perfect (as in show-quality). Getting them to shine in the shade or on a cloudy day is easy. To get dark colors (especially black non-metallic) to look perfect in every angle under a cloudless sunny sky takes time, patience and the right tools and products.

 

I've seen anywhere from $70 by a local guy who does it in his spare time. to $300 from detail places.

 

for me, I charge by what package the customer wants. if they want the basic wash, wax, interior, and exterior i charge 25$ if they want the full deal, which is full interior detail, exterior detail, 2 coats of wax and carpet and claybar treatment I charge 70$. I also give discounts depending on certain things.

 

I've payed between 25 and 175 for details for my cars.
The 25 was a real solid wash and cleaning out the inside.
The 175 was after about a year of paint neglect and had the guy taking out interior panels to clean in the creases and spaces behind stuff.

 

the way we charge is how big the car/truck is or how much surface area there is so smaller car obviously its gonna be cheaper....

for a wash/mini detail for a tacoma (which includes washing doing rims tires windows vacuuming the inside and wiping down the inside) is about $45-$50

but for a full detail for a tacoma (which includes washing claybar a full wax and polish, doing rims tires windows vacuuming the inside and wiping down the inside conditioning leather shampooing and a few other things) costs around $250 and our details for mid/ full size truck take about 4 hours



then again ive been working for a guy that has been doing it for 18 years... he started in highschool as a part time job and it just blew up
we do planes boats cars trucks suvs... etc

 

I say judge each car by looking at it and finding out what the custormer wants. Some people just want the car washed, windows cleaned, and interior done. But, some people are slobs. If you cleaned my interior, you would be done in 20mins. Some slob, you could be there for a few hours.

For paint correction, I would only offer that if you are very sound in your technique of correcting. If you mess up your truck, well it's yours. If you mess someone else's truck up, you gotta pay. So you would need some sort of insurance to cover your ass. Then there is the fact that you might have to register as a business to get your insuranance, so there is the BS that comes with that.

I would start by offereing a wash/wax/tires/trim detail for $35-$50 depending on the condition. An interior detail of shampoo/vac/clean/dress could run about the same.

Get a following and contiunue to work at your paint correcting. If business starts to go good and you feel confident in your abilities, start offereing the correcting for $125 for 1 pass polish 2 coats wax plus above exterior detail. You can always add more services. If the paint is bad, you could offer another pass of polish to further reduce defects. Show the customer who is weary a section where you polish up the fender with 1 pass and then 2 passes. Throw a quick wax on it and they are usually sold. Headlight restoration can be another service. If you do quality work and don't gong the custy for a rate you will have plenty of work.

Hope that helps out in some way.

 

appreciate the input guys