how long does it take you?

[two in the goo]

just started valeting as a bit of a sideline and was wondering how long it takes a professional to do it ...

what i do

wash
clay bar
wash again
polish including all door jams
two coats of hd wax
polish windows inside and out
hoover inside
leather condition seats
polish dash and all trim

all this is taking me 3.5 - 4 hours  can just do two in a day . how does this sound?
clean wheels and tyres

[DubSociety]

If your charging £50-60 a car then thats not bad ... i'd do that on my saturdays and sundays if I had a constant supply of 4 cars every weekend!

[Guy]

depends what the client wants... i can usually do a full in and out in 2 hours

but claying, polishing etc take a bit longer and don't come as standard 

[two in the goo]

yeah im charging £50 for this which i thought was quite good

[JonnyG]

When you say Polish - what are you actually doing ?

A machine polish with paint correction normally takes me a full day !   

[two in the goo]

no mate just apply by hand ,maguiars polish and hd wax not doing paint correction until i get insurance. im only doing it for a while as ive just been made redundant

[Dan J]

if its just bog standard valeting 3 to 4 motors a day, used to do that on a daily basis when i was at volvo having the life sucked out of me by the very fussy boss, mobile valetings different and a pain if you've not got all the motors in one place. 2hrs at a good standard is the norm really, as guy said it also depends on what the customer wants done, and again as guy said claying,polishing,correction work is extra extra read all about it 
valeting for me now is like a warm up compared to a full paint correction and protection

[Guy]

if its just bog standard valeting 3 to 4 motors a day, used to do that on a daily basis when i was at volvo having the life sucked out of me by the very fussy boss, mobile valetings different and a pain if you've not got all the motors in one place. 2hrs at a good standard is the norm really, as guy said it also depends on what the customer wants done, and again as guy said claying,polishing,correction work is extra extra read all about it 
valeting for me now is like a warm up compared to a full paint correction and protection

 

i also found that putting in that extra work a lot of the time isn't worth it for non-regular 'normal' punters as they don't give a damn and for their regular washes will just use sponge bob supermarket pants so you work will go straight down the drain

[Dan J]

if its just bog standard valeting 3 to 4 motors a day, used to do that on a daily basis when i was at volvo having the life sucked out of me by the very fussy boss, mobile valetings different and a pain if you've not got all the motors in one place. 2hrs at a good standard is the norm really, as guy said it also depends on what the customer wants done, and again as guy said claying,polishing,correction work is extra extra read all about it 
valeting for me now is like a warm up compared to a full paint correction and protection

 

i also found that putting in that extra work a lot of the time isn't worth it for non-regular 'normal' punters as they don't give a damn and for their regular washes will just use sponge bob supermarket pants so you work will go straight down the drain

you can figure out who appreciates your graft and the people who are just lazy and like you said will just use the polacks down the supermarket when your not available.

[JJH]

3 hours used to be my norm. When I was into valeting many moons ago I could do 8 cars with a mate, I'd also go a buy a dull looking 10 year old car, shine it up and usually make about £400. I did eight one year and spent 3 weeks in the carribean enjoying the fruits of my labour. If you into machine polishing and like need mules to work on investing a couple of grand buying the right car from an auction aint a bad idea...