What would be a fair price to expect for a full detail (hand wash, clay, polish until there's no swirls/spiderwebbing, sealant, and other misc. stuff)

I got my car detailed back in July, but the spiderwebbing and swirls have already come back, probably failure on my part to properly maintain it.

I feel like the price I paid for the first time around was just too much. It neared the $400 mark.

Would it be better to just do it myself? Or should I just find a different detailer?

 

damn 400!! you could bought your own porter cable kit with pads and all. I paid around 100 for mine, dont think they included clay bar. (they said they did but hard to tell after they polish and wax it)

 

WAY TOO MUCH... $150 should have got you all of that

 

Way too much I pay a little over $100 for mine

 

$400 isnt too bad IMO. Depending of course on how bad the paint's condition was and how much correction the detailer achieved. If you were happy with the results after he was done then why take a chance with a cheaper guy?

You definitely get what you pay for when it comes to a detailer Majority of the detailers out there will charge $100 for a "full detail" when they actually just hide the swirls and they end up showing up a month or 2 down the road =/

This time around be sure to practice proper washing/drying techniques and you're $400 will stretch A LOT further

 

The price you paid is a fair one for quality work. It varies from one area and one detailer to the next, but for what you got the price wasn't expensive at all.

No amount of money in the world can stop it from getting screwed up again if you aren't maintaining it properly. You can buy the equipment and products and learn to do it yourself, but be prepared to do a lot of learning and spend a LOT of effort and hours doing it right. It is very labor intensive and requires quality tools and supplies to do a good job.

 

The car was brand new. Still had the temp license in the windshield. So I could imagine the polish job wasn't too intensive. When we bought the car, I had forgotten to ask that they don't clean the car in their "detail shop", but they did. So maybe I had swirls from the get go. I was a little too excited to really notice any imperfections with the paint when we bought it though, I just wanted to jump in and drive her home from Washington.

 

you'd be surprised how much work a brand new car needs to get it up to par. 400 is up there but for a "real" detail it sounds about right.

 

This is the interesting part. You want perfection. Sometimes perfection takes time especially on a black car and typically complete swirl removed takes multiple compound steps.

Depending on the situation with the swirls, $400 could be high or it could be low.

 

Impossible to tell if that is fair price without seeing what they really did. Lots of detailers will say they polished...but for some reason that seems to be a subjective term depending on who you talk to.

I agree with gamedog and g35sedan5at though....if you got a true quality detail job, $400 sounds about right. To tell...pull your car into the sun, and see if there are any swirls, marring, etc. If not...you got a good detail. If yes...you got screwed.

 

It takes us about 8-10 hours to do a 1-2 step paint detail ($45-60 per hour) so depending on location / skill level / /reputation, to transform your vehicle back to ‘like-new condition’. A Professional using high quality products may spend over $40 in product use alone; so expect to pay a fair price for the amount of work involved.

Detailing

Exterior (8 hours)
• Wash and dry exterior paint – 1.5
• Detailer’s clay – 1.0
• Tyres and Wheel surfaces – 0.5
• Clean exterior glass – 0.5
• Clean and lightly polish paint – 1.5
• Wax or seal paint -1.0
• Clean and protect rubber seals – 0.5
• Exhaust, tyres and trim etc 1.5 hours

Interior (4.5 hours)
• Brush and Vacuum carpets – 0.5
• Shampoo mats – 0.5
• Shampoo / extract carpet – 1.0
• Clean upholstery – 1.0
• Apply protection to vinyl and leather – 0.5
• Clean interior glass -0.5
• Deodorize interior - 10 min
• Protect carpet and upholstery – 0.5

This level of detail on an average sized and condition vehicle would take approx 13 hours, a larger vehicle will obviously take more time, most professional detailers will charge between $400 and $550 to do this level of work. Depending on location / skill level / /reputation, to transform a vehicle back to ‘like-new condition’.

A Professional using high quality products may spend over $20 - 30 in product use alone; so expect to pay a fair price for the amount of work involved.

 

I need to find a detailer around here to do all that. We have a place called ProDetailer and they do not dress the trim or engine. They say they don't have the product

 

How long did your guy take to detail the car? I had one guy quote me $350, and he wanted the car overnight.

 

From ten in the morning to about 3 in the afternoon. 5 hours of work.

 

this is definitely one of the easiest DIYs. save yourself a ton of cash...and get a decent workout to boot lol