# How did you approach starting to detail other peoples cars



## Lazy_boyo (Apr 2, 2008)

Im looking to start detailing other peoples cars but the problems im occuring are as follows. Firstly getting mates to actually pay me do it and pricing the job as its obviously not ya average car wash. And secondly getting people to bring there cars to you and leaving them with you as we all know a detail takes 1-2 days 

Im struggling to know what to charge too as i know im new to it all so dont want to charge the earth and i dont want them to be disapointed but i need to detail cars to get better, feels abit catch 22


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## Prism Detailing (Jun 8, 2006)

Do you have insurance ?


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## Lazy_boyo (Apr 2, 2008)

Nope, when i do it i want to start up as a sole trader, but at the moment i just wanted to do mates cars to get experience.


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## Guest (Jul 26, 2010)

I do family cars for free, that includes machine work.


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## Lazy_boyo (Apr 2, 2008)

iv ran out of cars now, done my dads and my sisters. haha


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## Matt. (Aug 26, 2007)

Yep as above.

Edit, meant as Matt1263's post


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## Guest (Jul 26, 2010)

Do your mates for free then.

Nothing like practice :thumb:

(i would do more but hose pipe ban in effect  )


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## Prism Detailing (Jun 8, 2006)

But be honest with your friends, because if you make a mistake it will be a costly one !

Tell them you are learning etc...then its their choice if they let you near their cars, alt buy an old banger and practice on it.


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## Lazy_boyo (Apr 2, 2008)

where abouts you from matt? hose pipe ban in effect here too on the north west. i dont mind the doin it for cheap or the fact its takin up my time but how do you cover the cost of pads, polishes etc if you do it all for free


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## Guest (Jul 26, 2010)

Its why I have a full time job, it pays for my hobby :thumb:


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## Lazy_boyo (Apr 2, 2008)

prism i would alwasy be honest they all know my ocd levels and i have enough confidence to know i could only improve the paintwork and not make it worse, one other concern i have is i dont have a paint depth reader, is it essential?


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## Guest (Jul 26, 2010)

Yes, because how do you know if its had a spot repair? Been attacked with rotary before?

I did a reading on a car and it read 64um, thats as close to failure as you can get when you consider that the inside of the doors read 68um.

Without the gauge how would I have known?


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## alxg (May 3, 2009)

I would forget about doing it as a source of income until you have a) all of the basic kit at the very least, and b) the knowledge and skills to use them with confidence before you even do mates cars; a friendship can turn very sour very quickly when you cost them £100's or even £1000's to repair damage caused through inexperience. 

Not meaning to sound negative or offensive in any way, it just seems a bit ambitious. :thumb:


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## Lazy_boyo (Apr 2, 2008)

Oonly so many times i can detail mine and my dads car tho, i know i would never cause damage but i agree a paint depth reader is sumthin i should look into,


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## stangalang (Nov 27, 2009)

I have been asking people if they would let me do their cars for nothing just so i can scratch my itch so to speak. To get people interested i find doing others cars at their house in veiw of others drums up lots of interest, but reality most are curious but only the very few actually want to spend money for results. If you do the right cars for the right people you will attract attention, but you have to make sure you are doing a good job at the same time


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## Guest (Jul 26, 2010)

How are you doing it with the hose pipe ban in effect?


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## stangalang (Nov 27, 2009)

matt1263 said:


> How are you doing it with the hose pipe ban in effect?


Dont know about others but i am of course observing said ban and driving dirty cars:thumb:


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## Guest (Jul 26, 2010)

So am I, which is annoying, only because I have a drunk dolite neighbour who would phone up straight away if I even got the gilmour out


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## shaqs77 (Jun 10, 2008)

First of all its a hobby and I don't do it full time. Because its a hobby I do it on the street. Normally I get appraoched for a price and what I do. 99% don't come back due to the cost and don't understand the concept what £5 car washes do to a car. The 1% that do come back are very happy with the result and couldn't believe their car could look like that. The majority of my work is word of mouth.

I need to charge to compensate for water, electricity, products, pads. If I didn't charge my wife wouldn't let me buy new products of the ptg I've got my eye on (she doesn't know that yet!!!)

I don't have insurance as I don't machine too heavily and don't have a ptg so hence why I only remove minor/medium damage.

I find if you have to approach people your wasting your time as they are happy and content with corner car wash. If your work is good enough people will come to you.

Hope that helps.

Ps. With what I've bought so far, I still need to do two more cars to come out of the red!!


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## alxg (May 3, 2009)

Jesus, only 2??!! :lol:

I found that once people see you doing cars other than your own, they become more inquisitive - until the time wasters hear it costs more than £5 of course!!


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## vince007 (Sep 12, 2009)

shaqs77 said:


> First of all its a hobby and I don't do it full time. Because its a hobby I do it on the street. Normally I get appraoched for a price and what I do. 99% don't come back due to the cost and don't understand the concept what £5 car washes do to a car. The 1% that do come back are very happy with the result and couldn't believe their car could look like that. The majority of my work is word of mouth.
> 
> I need to charge to compensate for water, electricity, products, pads. If I didn't charge my wife wouldn't let me buy new products of the ptg I've got my eye on (she doesn't know that yet!!!)
> 
> ...


I agree with you on that one , I'm doing the very same , done a friends car he told a friend and so on , but my costs are to cover products used to gain experience and maybe more custom , I to dont do agressive work and never wet sanding thats for the pro''s :thumb:


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## Auto Finesse (Jan 10, 2007)

Im amazed how many people think detailing is an easy thing to get in to and run
as a profitable business.

As a professional, i get cars to come to me by stating thats what has to happen 
if you want me to detail your car (we dont do corrections out and about all in house) protection and enhancement can be done mobile.

We price a job by having come to a figure we have to charge per labor hour, simple.
it is what it is.


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## Beau Technique (Jun 21, 2010)

If its a hobby then state the facts that your not insured etc but if you damge a friend/familys car, would you feel happy that they will supposedly be fine about it?
What would be said if you potentially caused strike through or any damage for that instance and it was noticed by one of there work colleagues and so on, could spell a bad start for you.
Maybe hang fire and look into it a little bit wider and further.


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## Incredible Detail (Sep 26, 2007)

And it's also amazing the people that post asking how to get customers. Why would anyone who runs a detailing business tell people how to get customers. Word of mouth is the best way but obvioulsy word of mouth won't happen until you get customers and you need to be very professional and very good at it to get very good customers.



Lazy_boyo said:


> i have enough confidence to know i could only improve the paintwork and not make it worse, one other concern i have is i dont have a paint depth reader, is it essential?





Lazy_boyo said:


> i know i would never cause damage


Very strange comments to make. If you've done 2 cars so far then clearly you don't really have experience. Too much confidence isn't a good thing. It's VERY easy to damage a car and it can be very costly - not just the cost of the repair.

The only advice I can offer is what has already been said. Do friend and families cars for beer tokens to build up experience. I wouldn't recommend trying to do it full time until you've done loads of car and are very confident / very good at it. Although, to be fair, it doesn't usually stop people :thumb:

Sorry for the long post. Don't know how to keep it short.


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## Mullins (Aug 7, 2009)

The OP isnt asking for an appraisal on his abilities he is asking for a rough guide on charging mates rates. He sounds similar to me, i know my abilities and know i wont damage any paintwork, if i can feel a scratch with my nail i wont tempt to polish it out, even if it looks a tad deep ill just give it gentle treatment.

Most of the time i ask for materials to keep my stocks high and buy new things:thumb:

My bosses boat cost him a full set of pads, all the polishes, microfibers etc, plus i got my basic days money too:thumb:

maybe just do it for materials or say get a few of them to buy you a paint gauge reader:thumb: then just get any others to drop the car over with various pads, polishes in it etc, they dont know a pad lasts a while, and lets face it that is a cheap detail.

Give them a buisness card to give to others if any ask the mates how they got the finish, then look into going pro, maybe get some training from the lads on here....


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## Incredible Detail (Sep 26, 2007)

Get training is the best advice. Saying you also know you won't damage paint isn't.


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## thesilentone (Jul 14, 2010)

Agree with ^

I wouldn't do any correction without having a PTG and knowing (properly) how to use it. Scrap panels first. Someone else previously might have mopped a spot down to within a micron of its useful life. But you would never know.


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## Ultimate Shine (Jun 3, 2008)

I used to be a car salesman and i left the company i was working for and started to buy and sell for myself. I machined every car i bought and i would buy cars with specific paint issues to then understand how to sort.

I would buy a car for £600 spend 3-5 days getting it perfect and sell for £1200-£1500, when i got better i could do 2 a week.

If you make a mistake its on your car at that time and no need to worry about the mistake for selling as peoples expectations are never that high. I never had a customers walk away from any car so first to see will buy always.

At the end i started to get a buzz from seeing customers face when they saw it, always parked in garage with door shut and i would ask them to stand outside and i would drive it out.:doublesho:doublesho

I would then do other cars for £50-£100 for exterior machine. I machined at least 200 cars before i started detailing as a company.:thumb:


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## Greedy80 (Jul 6, 2010)

I know it's a bit off the point of the original post but it is really interesting hearing how the Pro detailers on here got their business started. In fact it might e worth a new thread....


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## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

I happily paid a mate £50 to do my Mk4 Golf and he did a fantastic job! He's done a fair few cars, and i knew i could trust him - At the end of the day if he'd done a major **** up and done any damage i would have just had to accept it, but i took the risk and let him do my car with a good feeling he'd do a good job and he did!

I think you just need to be honest with people and explain that if anything were to happen you can't afford to pay for the repair so it's up to them - As you say i know some people are very confident they'll never do any damage, but you only need to get cramp, or slip or something and you could easily do damage - even without machine polishing odd things can just happen if you're unlucky... It's just one of those things with doing it non-professionally without insurance etc....


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

shaqs77 said:


> I don't have insurance as I don't machine too heavily and don't have a ptg so hence why I only remove minor/medium damage.


Damage can be caused in all manners of ways regardless of minor machine polishing, you could be using the softest pad and polish approach possible, but the edge of a backing plate will still strip the paint in a milli second.

Not causing a fight, just a lot of people detailing for beer tokens should take into account the risks involved.

Does nobody work from the bottom up anymore? Speaking for myself I learnt the basic cleaning and valeting tasks for a couple of years prior to even picking up a rotary or da, stands you in good stead for most eventualities.


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## WHIZZER (Oct 25, 2005)

Insurance is really a must - even if you accidentaly strike through this could cost you more than the insurance would.


You can strike through very easily is you are not sure of the paint - and plastics bumpers , mirrors etc are very easy to damage ... 

Really think about it - Even though you say you are doing it for a mate - if its his pride and joy he wont be a) too chuffed in having to have the car repaired b) possible cost etc to repair c) could strain a friendship

Mates Rates - TBH i would do most of my mates car if i had the time for a beer - and hope that they may return the favour if i needed something


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## shaqs77 (Jun 10, 2008)

Gleammachine said:


> Damage can be caused in all manners of ways regardless of minor machine polishing, you could be using the softest pad and polish approach possible, but the edge of a backing plate will still strip the paint in a milli second.
> 
> Not causing a fight, just a lot of people detailing for beer tokens should take into account the risks involved.
> 
> Does nobody work from the bottom up anymore? Speaking for myself I learnt the basic cleaning and valeting tasks for a couple of years prior to even picking up a rotary or da, stands you in good stead for most eventualities.


im not doubting what your saying and infact i do agree with what you say. damage can occur at anytime, wether your a pro or just hobbyist.

what i tend to do is walk around the car with the client and i would let him point out any scratches or swirls he is aware of. i would also point out any other damage. whilst walking round i would tell him what could possibly get removed and what wouldn't. i have always mentioned that i dont have a ptg and for that reason i dont do anything to deep explaining then what a ptg is and what it does.

i then offer what products they would like me to use and also give my recommendation. for example i did a mk4 golf in black just before inters. i suggested lpl and bv as this is what i use on my own mk4 in black. i think the customer then feels they have an input on what goes on their car. if my work was just ok, then i wouldnt be getting new customers and returning customers.

its all about experiance and how good you are. i'm far from brilliant and compared to some of the pro's here ive got ALOT to learn (bows to the pros!!!!)


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## VIPER (May 30, 2007)

Gleammachine said:


> *Does nobody work from the bottom up anymore?* Speaking for myself I learnt the basic cleaning and valeting tasks for a couple of years prior to even picking up a rotary or da, stands you in good stead for most eventualities.


I agree totally with that Rob, and as I've said various times on here, we (DW) are partly to blame for that not being the case - if indeed there is any 'blame' so to speak to be apportioned. The huge growth of this site and subsequently detailing's popularity was always going to give rise to people reading things on here and then going out and working on the public's cars, when they are _maybe_ not fully equipped or sufficiently experienced to be doing so - not everyone of course, but this will be the case for some, and it is risky. As the saying goes _"a little knowledge is a dangerous thing"_ (don't know who said that originally but it matters not).



WHIZZER said:


> Insurance is really a must - even if you accidentaly strike through this could cost you more than the insurance would.


And that's why this ^^ is a must, in fact I'd go further and say it should be mandatory in this industry when detailing goes further than doing mates' cars and you're into the territory of working on a complete stranger's motor.


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## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

The problem with insurance though is the £500 excess - you'd have to be pretty stupid or careless to do more damage than that! I think it's only worthwhile if you're working on supercars, or cars £50k+ which would probably require repairs in excess of that amount.

The bigger/wider problem is the lack of regulation - anyone can do this and appear to be a pro, but the industry is still pretty new, so something along the lines of Gas Safe is years off. I guess this is the value of being Swissvax Authorised or similar. They at least check the quality of your work once a year to check it's up to scratch.

Agree on the experience thing though, and you see it all the time of other forums - people buy a G220 then thing they can 'detail'. They don't even understand differences in polishes, pads and other basic products, yet start offering their services for money.


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## Guest (Jul 27, 2010)

I am working at the bottom :lol:


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## Miglior (Feb 12, 2006)

With regards to insurance (which is an absolutely must amongst a huge amount of other "must haves"), you really dont want to be charging anything for work without insurance. Even charging "beer money" you really cant (in my eyes) not have insurance.

Damaging a car is very easily done without a machine polisher. Im sure i read on here once about a snow foam lance coming off a pressure washers and quite badly denting a car?

How would you deal with that if you had charged £50 for a machine polish?

The moral of the story is, do as many cars as you can to build up your confidence but do them for free. Make sure the owner knows that you are experimenting, because lets be honest, you still are.

Another thing that i wouldn't dream about not having even before i was trading was Public Liability insurance. 

hope this doesnt come across too harshly, and im not wanting to stamp out the detailing passion in you, but you should think about every circumstance before committing yourself to something


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## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

Agree on Public Liability - a must for £80.

What's the point in insurance with a £500 excess though??


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

RussZS said:


> Agree on Public Liability - a must for £80.
> 
> What's the point in insurance with a £500 excess though??


Depends upon what your working on, the perspex engine cover on the F50 I recently detailed and machine polished was £15,000 to replace.
I have had some clients ask to see my Insurance document before even allowing me to work on the car, and this was doesn't necessarily mean it was a high end vehicle, but gave the owner peace of mind.


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## stangalang (Nov 27, 2009)

RussZS said:


> The problem with insurance though is the £500 excess - you'd have to be pretty stupid or careless to do more damage than that! I think it's only worthwhile if you're working on supercars, or cars £50k+ which would probably require repairs in excess of that amount.
> 
> The bigger/wider problem is the lack of regulation - anyone can do this and appear to be a pro, but the industry is still pretty new, so something along the lines of Gas Safe is years off. I guess this is the value of being Swissvax Authorised or similar. They at least check the quality of your work once a year to check it's up to scratch.
> 
> Agree on the experience thing though, and you see it all the time of other forums - people buy a G220 then thing they can 'detail'. They don't even understand differences in polishes, pads and other basic products, yet start offering their services for money.


I think this is a very good point that everyone should bare in mind cause we have all been or perhaps are still there. You get your first polisher, try it once, dont get the results, ask some questions, try again with better results and then think we have it sussed. 12 months later you realise how wrong you were and what a learning curve its been. Thats why i like doing different cars, for free mostly, as i get to do what i enjoy and learn something everytime. Getting to know your products is so important, actually understanding them really makes a difference imo


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## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

Yeah exactly, but for anyone not working on supercars, or anything over £50k, I don't see it as being a must!

It definitely is for you guys though, and as you say, your customers will expect to see proof.


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## Miglior (Feb 12, 2006)

I guess we should just put that down to personal attitudes to working on other peoples property. I definitely would not want to put a snow foam lance thru a wing even on a W reg Golf.


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## SimonBash (Jun 7, 2010)

JPC said:


> With regards to insurance (which is an absolutely must amongst a huge amount of other "must haves"), you really dont want to be charging anything for work without insurance. Even charging "beer money" you really cant (in my eyes) not have insurance.
> 
> Damaging a car is very easily done without a machine polisher. Im sure i read on here once about a snow foam lance coming off a pressure washers and quite badly denting a car?
> 
> ...


Guys, thought I'd chip in on the insurance aspect here as that is my profession (I am an insurance broker). There a several generalisations regarding insurance and Public Liability (PL) insurance in particular.

1. Most PL policies/sections will EXCLUDE damage to property worked up / treatment risk / defective workmanship - so strike through is not covered

2. Defective workmanship cover is included under most good Motor Trade Policies within the PL / Products Liability sections of cover, however in the main this is intended to deal with mechanical work - for example you don't tighten a wheel up properly, the damage to the wheel etc is excluded but the RESULTANT damage (when the car hits the floor...) is.

3. I have briefly looked at the DW insurance supporters threads and they appear to have a good facility to accomodate detailers needs (in principle as I could only comment for sure upon sight of a policy wording), as cover for property worked upon appears to be covered.

Motor Trade insurance is also very misunderstood in my opinion, the state I have seen of main dealers existing insurance arrangements is....scary.

Feel free to fire questions!

Simon


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## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

JPC said:


> I guess we should just put that down to personal attitudes to working on other peoples property. I definitely would not want to put a snow foam lance thru a wing even on a W reg Golf.


How is that down to 'attitude'? If you put through a window on a Golf, it would cost you say £200. If you made a claim on your insurance for that, it would cost you £500.

Are you seriously telling me you'd claim for it? My point is you've got to be pretty silly to do £500's worth of damage on anything this side of £50k, unless you destroy the engine somehow.


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## tamandlee (Mar 14, 2010)

In theory if you have removed the wheels to do the inside and forget to tighten the nuts up you could do untold damage (has visions of Final Destination inspired trip to the airport to pick someone up as the wheel flys past and bounces along the runway causing the plane to hit the airport terminal..............)


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## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

True... which is why without insurance I'd never do that, or mess with an engine bay!

I guess the same could apply to tyre dressing though...


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## tamandlee (Mar 14, 2010)

lol, you could slip in a puddle of spilt tyre dressing - where there is blame there is a claim!!

I believe if you fall down a mates stairs you can claim of their house insurance, I have this in mind as we currently have no hand rail......."They let me use the wrong type of stairs......" lol


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## Miglior (Feb 12, 2006)

SimonBash said:


> Guys, thought I'd chip in on the insurance aspect here as that is my profession (I am an insurance broker). There a several generalisations regarding insurance and Public Liability (PL) insurance in particular.
> 
> 1. Most PL policies/sections will EXCLUDE damage to property worked up / treatment risk / defective workmanship - so strike through is not covered
> 
> ...


When i said "another thing i wouldnt......" that was meant to differentiate Insurance from PLI


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## SteveOC (May 26, 2007)

Nobody yet mentioned pad failure and subsequent damage as a reason for having insurance?
Happened to more than one very experienced detailer on here.

Steve O.


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## Miglior (Feb 12, 2006)

RussZS said:


> How is that down to 'attitude'? If you put through a window on a Golf, it would cost you say £200. If you made a claim on your insurance for that, it would cost you £500.
> 
> Are you seriously telling me you'd claim for it? My point is you've got to be pretty silly to do £500's worth of damage on anything this side of £50k, unless you destroy the engine somehow.


Im sorry you seem to have gotten the wrong end of the stick. I didnt mean to come across that your attitude is a bad one to have. Sorry about that.

What I meant to challenge was the idea you have of "you've got to be pretty silly to do £500's worth of damage".

Its not just what you do that you will be liable for. Anything that can happen whilst the car is in your care you will be liable for.

What would happen if a car was stolen when you were working on it? The owner would claim from his insurance then his insurance would be onto you.

Yes ok, you might say to the insurance "well im screwed if im paying that" and they may well let it go, but do you really want to be in that position.

Please dont take this out of context, I know its an extreme POV but these days, you literally cannot be too carefull.

Only trying to help


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## Incredible Detail (Sep 26, 2007)

There is loads of things people haven't mentioned that could damage a car though. Would take a while to list them all.


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## Incredible Detail (Sep 26, 2007)

SteveOC said:


> Nobody yet mentioned pad failure and subsequent damage as a reason for having insurance?
> Happened to more than one very experienced detailer on here.
> 
> Steve O.


There is loads of things people haven't mentioned that could damage a car though. Would take a while to list them all.

I'd probably say the most likely one to happen if your not "polishing to hard" as people have said is taking an edge off.


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## Miglior (Feb 12, 2006)

SteveOC said:


> Nobody yet mentioned pad failure and subsequent damage as a reason for having insurance?
> Happened to more than one very experienced detailer on here.
> 
> Steve O.


Eeak.

You see thats a classic example of a very real outcome. Rare but real.

If that was mentioned on here had it have not happened, people would have gone "oh yeh..but that would never happen"

Well, it looks like it did. And im sure as s*** i wouldnt want to find out the hard way how likely that would be!


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## Incredible Detail (Sep 26, 2007)

Regarding causing more the £500 worth of damage. What if you strike through on an older car or even a newever car and they can't match the colours perfectly?

A full respray is a possibily or even painting / blending in a side is likley to be over £500 at a decent bodyshop.


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## M.J (Mar 17, 2010)

i,ve enjoyed this thread as i,m in a similar position to the op , its been a real eye opener tbh as i,ve always vouched that i,d never machine polish a car without insurance or either explaining the risks and using their car as 'practice' for free/beer tokens

Never really considered the endless possibilities this trade poses, doesnt put me off though

very interested about insurance and PL definately need to get some since reading here 

Mike


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## SimonBash (Jun 7, 2010)

JPC said:


> When i said "another thing i wouldnt......" that was meant to differentiate Insurance from PLI


Ok cool, what I was trying to say was that even most motor trade policies will not help regarding machining issues, strike through was my issue/train of thought here.


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## Miglior (Feb 12, 2006)

Yep, sure Simon.

Some will cover that, most wont.


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## SimonBash (Jun 7, 2010)

Exactly my point, however the Coversure scheme with this extension looks good IMO, not an extension I have come across so far elsewhere, although motor trade is not my area of expertise.

Cheers:buffer:


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## thesilentone (Jul 14, 2010)

Incredible Detail said:


> There is loads of things people haven't mentioned that could damage a car though. Would take a while to list them all.


Could we start another thread for possible ways to damage a car? That would be good for a laugh.


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## SNAKEBITE (Feb 22, 2010)

I would love to start up a "casual" buisness however there are so many pitfalls it doesn't seem worth it.

Biggest downside is the fact that the jam rolls in the carparks can shine up a car for £5 or £7 for that "microfibre special" and 99% of people are well chuffed with the swirl marks and blemishes!

Oh and the tax man, don't forget that the tax man will want his share of the beer tokens!!


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

What alot of people don't seem to realise either is that just because the top guys are maybe charging £2/300 a day doesn't necessarily mean they're making loads of profit - it would surprise you how little we make off the detailing. Sure, you can make a good living from it if you work damn hard and barely take any weekends off but the product sales is what makes the likes of Polished Bliss tick over - the detailing is just a showcase for what the products can do and it gives buyers confidence in the products knowing they will work and if they dont, we have the experience to advise them where they're going wrong.


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## Mirror Finish Details (Aug 21, 2008)

SNAKEBITE said:


> Oh and the tax man, don't forget that the tax man will want his share of the beer tokens!!


What if you get paid in actual beer, would the tax man still want some of it!!!! :tumbleweed:

Thats how I started.


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## chrisc (Jun 15, 2008)

Gleammachine said:


> Damage can be caused in all manners of ways regardless of minor machine polishing, you could be using the softest pad and polish approach possible, but the edge of a backing plate will still strip the paint in a milli second.
> 
> Not causing a fight, just a lot of people detailing for beer tokens should take into account the risks involved.
> 
> Does nobody work from the bottom up anymore? Speaking for myself I learnt the basic cleaning and valeting tasks for a couple of years prior to even picking up a rotary or da, stands you in good stead for most eventualities.


good advice there the bottom bit for sure:thumb:


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## AndyC (Oct 25, 2005)

Good thread this.

However a couple of minor misleading comments over insurance cover. For my sins I've spent the last 16 years in the motor trade insurance field and look after several people here (the chaps at PB amongst others).

If you use a good broker you can be covered if you damage a car. Period. You also need to look way beyond strike through. How about damaging a safety critical system during cleaning? I'd wager that the fallout from non functioning ABS would be significantly worse.

Second point. The customer's insurer can only claim back from you if you can be proven to have failed in your duty of care and are legally liable for the damage. The process is known as subrogation; this is a crucial one for my classic car clients as many routinely handle vert exensive cars (we've just sent in our report showing cars we cover worth over £1M and it totals close to £230M as at last week.....)


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## FlawlessDetailing (Mar 13, 2010)

Guys

i think were getting way off topic here, this is a thread about giving advice and helping others, not bettering one anothers ego's with price comparison and dissing ones way of making a living, be it by charging a few quid extra or not. 
IMHO if i got away with it, id charge it too, and lets not lie and say we all wouldnt !!!!
life is no charity.

lets just leave it at that yea. 

some great tips from the pro's regarding insurance and experience :thumb: 

thank you 

padraic


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## WHIZZER (Oct 25, 2005)

Can we keep this on Topic !


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## deanchilds (Dec 11, 2007)

Ive been going nearly 3 years and still dont offer corrections yet I am the NO1 on google for detailing for my area even above this site, Paul Dalton and everyone else. 

I dont enjoy correction work much to be fair but I can still make £300-£400 with out a rotary in sight.


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## SNAKEBITE (Feb 22, 2010)

What about going down to a friendly scrappy and asking to practice on some old dogs?
Find all the faults possible in the paintwork and polish away.

You practice to your hearts content, maybe even tart up some of the cars they sell on. This will get you known by people who are in the trade and if you are good then you will get customers.


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