Hey guys i have a customer that owns a truck company and he wants me to detail all his dump trucks. I've been working on cars, suvs and mini vans but never on a semi trucks. I need advices what equipment to use and what products to use. I don't know yet if he wants full detail with polishing or just washing and interior detail. How much should i charge for one truck?? What to use to clean the old cement on the trailer??
I've done a few semi trucks. As long as you are just doing the cab (and it isn't a sleeper) it isn't *too* hard. This one guy wanted me to do a sleeper cab plus the long ass trailer that it was towing, I gave him a look like "...you're shitting me...", the conversation never got beyond that (LOL). Definitely charge by the hour, and make sure you have ladders, etc. For the exterior, I would wash, get the bugs and tar off, and go with a solid one step product (HT-69 "Paint Perfection" is an excellent candidate). Polish all aluminum and metals, clean rims, I'll be honest on the trucks I did I never dressed the tires (just cleaned them). The interiors suck, it is a pain to get up in them and the floor (or anything for that matter) never gets completely clean. It is not fun work, I will honestly probably never do it again unless I am in desperate need of some $$. It isn't really "detailing", more like cleaning. Good luck.
do you think that $40/hour would be a good rate for this kind of job?? How about removing cement from the trailer??
Buy a flagged brush that fits on a painters style extension pole. And then get the pole, Home Depot carries them. Best of luck
This might work for cement removal. Haven't tried it so I don't know anything about it. Cement Remover
that product maybe helpful to some of the construction companies around my area... lots of houses going up.... lots of trucks with cement splattered on them
My advice to you is to RUN!! I used to do tractor-trailer cleaning. I had a proper hot water system set up in a cube van etc. It is really crappy, dirty work. Chances are you WON'T be working on a paved parking lot so you're stuff is going to get dirty plus there is the added bonus of cleaning grease off your hoses etc. Now that's alot of fun. Its up to you but I've done it and my recommendation is to stick with cars and trucks.
+1, I forgot about that. You will likely be working on gravel or dirt, so all of you stuff will get dirty, imagine what will happen if it rains the night before you go to do them. Once you do your first truck and see what the experience is like, you will likely just say "screw this", I would just stick to cars and trucks too.
makos, I received your PM if it's okay with you I'd like to respond to your PM here on your thread. Well to be honest detailing big trucks, semi's and fire trucks ect..ect..IS ALOT OF WORK! So you need to make sure you charge accordingly, I enjoy a good challenge and I'm all for a challenge but to be honest detailing the fire trucks that I've been fortunate to detail I learned very quickly that I needed to invoice appropriately. Having said that $40/hour is not bad but don't forget to include all your other materials, break your material down and come up with a rate that you feel is fair for you and fair for the customer. Having said that I can't really comment as to how much to charge because what is reasonable for me to charge where I'm located may be perfectly fine but other places and economy may not allow to charge so much or it may even be too little, so that's why I recommend you look at it from a business perspective and charge accordingly, phone around to see what other shops charge and get a feel as to what is reasonable and what is not. Believe me I’m sure your client has already been phoning around asking for quotes, so do a little home work from your end so your well prepared when setting a price with the customer.. For me detailing the fire trucks is just that detailing, but keep in mind, the fire trucks that I detail are brand new...they are just driven from the US over to Canada so they get quite dirty but nothing like full blown use of the trucks after a few years or so that and I’ve been provided a nice clean space to detail the trucks in. When I detail the fire trucks I treat them just as I would treat any other vehicle I detail, the only difference is the size and after you detail one big rig you will realize that it is a lot of work. As to what equipment to use, well like I said it all depends on how you choose to break down the cost, me personally I use products that have proven them selves for me, such as P21S, ARO, Optimum, Menzerna..ect..ect..ect..really the list goes on, as for LSP I would have to recommend Duragloss, I mean big rigs like the fire trucks wont be detailed frequently or washed frequently for that matter and I can only assume the same for the trucks you might be detailing as well, so protection and durability are an absolute must. So that’s why I’ve been using Duragloss and to be honest even the owner of the business asks for Duragloss now. As to removing cement I honestly have never had to do any kind of cement removal so I wouldn’t know where to start Oh if you choose to do big trucks, this is something that I’ve learned. It really does make a difference on the mentality you bring to such a big job, I mean if your positive and maintain appositive attitude through out the detail you’ll enjoy the detail but if you come in with a negative attitude or an attitude that the job is too big for you and you can’t do it well..to be honest you wont make it. Trust me I’ve done some huge fire trucks that have left me wondering how I managed to get it done in one day but to be honest don’t’ worry about the size have a positive attitude towards the job and you’ll be fine, treat it like another SUV and you’ll be just fine…but know that you will be busting your rear end all day. Well that’s just my opinion, hope it helps eace:
Some great advice from Nica. Only thing I would add to it is if you take the job on get a gameplan together before you start and try to stick to it. If you go about it haphazzardly then you will waste a lot of time. If you have a gameplan and stick to it then after the first one you will be able to critique it and figure out where you wasted time and what things you did very efficiently.
If your are still interested after everything posted then pm me and I will give you the name of a man that spends his days doing trucks and is on of the best and loves to tell you about hoew to do trucks he would be a great life line for you.
