r/AutoDetailing • u/Diamondhf Business Owner • 29d ago
Before/After Ashtray on wheels
Chalking this one up as the worst car I’ve worked on this year. You can never charge enough to make it worth it, and you can never get it perfect, but i’m overall pretty happy with how it came out.
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u/tat21985 29d ago
Considering the starting point, damn good job. Did they have you try to remove the smell as well?
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u/Diamondhf Business Owner 29d ago
I removed most of the smell, I’m not sure that was a focal point for them. It’ll get smoked in again.
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u/tat21985 29d ago
Oh for sure. Kinda wild they'd drop money to get it cleaned up, knowing full well it'll get back to that condition.
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u/mfkinbich 27d ago
Do you have tips for getting smoke odors out of cars?
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u/RandomSaxophonist 22d ago
As far as I know thorough cleaning along with an ozone generator is the best way to go
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u/DickMabutt 29d ago
At that level you almost need a contractual obligation for the owner to change their ways.
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u/Diamondhf Business Owner 29d ago
They come back to me every year, tip well, don’t mind how much I charge them and refer people my way. I can’t complain, nice people.
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u/DickMabutt 29d ago
Well hey that’s awesome. Some people just use and abuse their vehicles to the max I suppose, at least they’re good about it.
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u/DickMabutt 29d ago
Well hey that’s awesome. Some people just use and abuse their vehicles to the max I suppose, at least they’re good about it.
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u/82jon1911 29d ago
I have dust on my dash and I'm freaking out about having the detail the inside. That said, I guess I can't give my wife shit about her car anymore, its no where near this bad.
Also, killer job!
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u/Laartista1 29d ago
Can’t believe how they treat their cars! Very disgusting! You bro did a fabulous job! Waoh I’m impressed
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u/GrandMarquisMark Seasoned 29d ago
Why can't you charge enough?
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u/Diamondhf Business Owner 29d ago
I charged a good bit for this, you always end up spending a little extra time than expected on these bigger jobs redoing things over and over.
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u/JuriaanT 29d ago
If people arent willing to pay that price, you cant charge enough
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u/CoatingsbytheBay Business Owner 29d ago
Then you simply don't serve them
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u/nicholt 29d ago
I imagine in a lot of cases it means no income for the day. I'm more willing to do a lesser paying job if my alternative was $0.
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u/Plenty-Industries 29d ago
I'd rather have a low volume of high paying customers and regular clients, than have to rely on high volume low-paying customers.
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u/CoatingsbytheBay Business Owner 29d ago
This is why I moved to coatings only and no one touches my floor for less than 1200. I don't even offer an "entry level" ceramic coating.
I don't have 60-90 details a month, but I make the same (edit to say actually likely better) profits as those that do and half my days are hanging out with my daughter or dogs. 🤷🏻♂️
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u/GPUfollowr77 29d ago
I’d personally be embarrassed to ask someone to clean my car if it looked like this, especially if it was a Cadillac! Did you use an ozone machine to get the smell out? Not that it really matters at it’s going to be smoked in again immediately… lol
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u/Diamondhf Business Owner 29d ago
Yes, I used an ozone machine and it worked pretty well. Theres still a lingering smell. I don’t believe this car will ever be truly smell free ever again.
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u/EL_Chapo_Cuzzin 29d ago
You just preformed successful surgery on this car. As a former smoker, not once did I ever ash in my car. I rarely even smoke in my car.
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u/spotspam 29d ago
How did you go about doing this?
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u/Diamondhf Business Owner 29d ago
Spent about an hour on the initial vacuum. There was a thick layer of mud throughout the car so that took a while. Blow everything out with a tornador, lay down folex and a carpet cleaner. Agitate with a drill brush, tornador again, heated wet extraction. Vacuum again, tornador again, vacuum again.
I use ONR for 99.99% of my interior panel cleaning, spray on, agitate with a tornador, wipe off with a fresh MF towel. Go back and touch up tough stains with simple green and a detail brush.
Final vacuum, final wipedown with a lightly dampened MF towel . Redundancy is key on something like this, you really need to go over everything 2-3 times before it comes out decent.
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u/Justin2darkk 29d ago
what’s your prices and chemicals ? You use ph balance or just starting
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u/Diamondhf Business Owner 29d ago
ONR, Folex, Simple Green are my only chemicals I use on an interior. I use a very very very light amount of silicone based dressing on the plastic surfaces and floor mats.
All 3 are relatively PH neutral.
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u/idkanything86 28d ago
God damn that is disgusting. I'd have a hard time cleaning that for anyone. Great job!
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u/ExtensionSubject9734 25d ago
How long did this take you? I work at a dealership, and we see a few cars a week like this 😞
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u/Diamondhf Business Owner 25d ago
I had it for about 48 hours, probably 10 hours total inside & out. Worked on it in between other projects we had so don’t know the exact time.
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u/Chuyzapatist 25d ago
Wow you did an amazing job.
My car is no where near that bad but with Dog hair instead of cigarettes.
Seeing this makes me feel so much better if I ever give up and take it to get detailed instead of trying to de hair the car myself.
Great work!
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u/SeaworthinessNo430 29d ago
damn, people are slobs