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Iimpressed by local valeter/detailer



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Chi

  Z4, VW172, R26
I am intending to try some detailing myself when I get clued up however I thought Id use the services of a local company and was suitably impressed, he charges £20 an hour but car gets the works.

20130620_125511_zps2e355863.jpg


 

Chi

  Z4, VW172, R26
His van is ace!

It is mate, brand new too.. Im in the wrong job.. TBF he flies round the car.. Snow foam, rinsed, washed,Clayed and polished, treated leather and sold me a can of bubblegum blast.. All in £30 cant complain..
 
Different vans and mobile number, so guessing it's a different company. Would just be interested to see if the former is a rip off of a well known DW detailer, the one I posted up.
 
  182/RS2/ Turbo/Mk1
Authorised or not your car looks clean now :)

Says on his site approved by meguirs / autoglym / chemical guys


Lets face it though, its cleaning a car not brain surgery anyway, so if the customer is happy and no damage done then surely thats all that matters?
 
Authorised or not your car looks clean now :)

Says on his site approved by meguirs / autoglym / chemical guys


Lets face it though, its cleaning a car not brain surgery anyway, so if the customer is happy and no damage done then surely thats all that matters?

Point missed, but I agree with the first comment.

"Approved by" means jack all. It means he's used the products. I'm "approved by" GT/AG/Megs because their reps have commented positively on detailing threads on DW. Authorised means they're trained and certified.

Last point, meh. It depends how far you want to go. But I know discussing this with you is likely to start a debate. And I'm tired!
 

Gally

Formerly Mashed up egg in a cup
ClioSport Club Member
He actually mentioned chamois? Really! Jesus HHHHHH!
 

davo172

ClioSport Club Member
  TCR'd 172
It is mate, brand new too.. Im in the wrong job.. TBF he flies round the car.. Snow foam, rinsed, washed,Clayed and polished, treated leather and sold me a can of bubblegum blast.. All in £30 cant complain..

He did all that for 30 quid !! wow !! how is that £20 an hour :S
 
  182/RS2/ Turbo/Mk1
Thing is, people who arent into the "detailing scene" and use terms like "valet" isntead when they refer to cleaning a car have been perfectly happily drying cars with a leather chamois for the last 100 years before they had heard of a microfibre, and providing its an excellent quality chamois and is properly maintained it doesnt actually scratch the surface anything like the detailing community says it does (cheap chamois is totally different and are evil and frankly you may as well use sandpaper but I think a lot of the detailing scene lads dont know the difference TBH and label them all the same way)
 

Gally

Formerly Mashed up egg in a cup
ClioSport Club Member
With due respect chipinator that's poppycock. It doesn't matter how good the chamois is.

Also Richard at Perfection Valet is one of the most respected detailers in Britain. See the name. I agree detailing is a buzzword but you have to justify why you're twice as expensive as the guy down the road offering full valets for £25.

It takes me 2-3 hours before I even get the car inside for drying. Those guys can "valet" about 2-3 cars in that time.
 
I'm a valeter, and I'm OK. I work through 300 cars a day.
Love a sponge and a chamois too, but talk about PDGs - I don't have a clue!
 
  182/RS2/ Turbo/Mk1
With due respect chipinator that's poppyc**k. It doesn't matter how good the chamois is.

To satisfy detailingworld I agree, to do a job that the general public are perfectly happy though I disagree.

In fact I have seen cars WIN concours at proper shows (ie the RS scene etc) where the owner is still drying them with a chamois because that is what he has always done and he has no interest in "microfbire technology"

To say that you cant do a decent job of a 20 quid valet using one is missing the point, sure if I sent my F430 for a 2000 pound detail I want the best possible products used but thats not this end of the market.

Its much like when people on here claim that a normal garage cant do a clio 172 cambelt, when in reality of course most can, sure you might lose a few lbft if they get the timing very slightly wrong etc, but it wont make your car explode like CS would have you believe and using a good quality chamois on your car occasionally isnt going to make all your paint fall off like DW would have you believe.



Also Richard at Perfection Valet is one of the most respected detailers in Britain. See the name. I agree detailing is a buzzword but you have to justify why you're twice as expensive as the guy down the road offering full valets for £25.

It takes me 2-3 hours before I even get the car inside for drying. Those guys can "valet" about 2-3 cars in that time.

Twice as expensive? based on those two links its more like ten times as expensive in fact.

Im sure the expensive guy does an amazing job, but if I just wanted my couple of grand runaround cleaned so it looks respectable in a clients carpark I would happily pick the 20 quid guy and shake his hand after he chamois my paint dry and causes some tiny micro scratches so small that no normal person who isnt obsessed with detailing is ever going to notice them, its still a huge step up in cleaning care from putting your car through a car wash which is what most people do!
 
To satisfy detailingworld I agree, to do a job that the general public are perfectly happy though I disagree.

In fact I have seen cars WIN concours at proper shows (ie the RS scene etc) where the owner is still drying them with a chamois because that is what he has always done and he has no interest in "microfbire technology"

To say that you cant do a decent job of a 20 quid valet using one is missing the point, sure if I sent my F430 for a 2000 pound detail I want the best possible products used but thats not this end of the market.

Its much like when people on here claim that a normal garage cant do a clio 172 cambelt, when in reality of course most can, sure you might lose a few lbft if they get the timing very slightly wrong etc, but it wont make your car explode like CS would have you believe and using a good quality chamois on your car occasionally isnt going to make all your paint fall off like DW would have you believe.





Twice as expensive? based on those two links its more like ten times as expensive in fact.

Im sure the expensive guy does an amazing job, but if I just wanted my couple of grand runaround cleaned so it looks respectable in a clients carpark I would happily pick the 20 quid guy and shake his hand after he chamois my paint dry and causes some tiny micro scratches so small that no normal person who isnt obsessed with detailing is ever going to notice them, its still a huge step up in cleaning care from putting your car through a car wash which is what most people do!

I think Kev was talking about an hourly rate. So the valeter charges £25 for an hours work, whereas the detailer charges £350 as it takes them a day or more.
 
  182/RS2/ Turbo/Mk1
I'm a valeter, and I'm OK. I work through 300 cars a day.
Love a sponge and a chamois too, but talk about PDGs - I don't have a clue!

Again though, Ive seen some stunning looking cars winning concours at shows that have never had a paint depth gauge near them since they were made.


For what *most* people want from a valet in a car, they are of no real value, if you are some high end car collector than fair enough, but when people start using them on hatchbacks (£5K clean on an astra etc, lol) its all a bit pointless unless you are doing it just for the sake of it being your hobby.
 
  182/RS2/ Turbo/Mk1
I think Kev was talking about an hourly rate. So the valeter charges £25 for an hours work, whereas the detailer charges £350 as it takes them a day or more.

Ok mate, on the site linked though the "bronze" service (325 for for a medium car) is down as about 4 hours, so 80 quid an hour ish versus 20, so still 4 times as much.

I realise his overheads are higher, Im not saying that isnt fair if you want that sort of level of service, im just saying that to anyone not obsessively into detailing its going to sound like a bit of a rip off.

Its easy for people obsessed with detailing to come across like no one's car should ever be cleaned unless its to this standard.
 
But surely it's all about education? How many people now use the sponge/chamois brigade over the brushes at automatics? Why? Because it says "no scratches hand wash" on the sign.

If you went through the entire car owning population and told them about the 2BM, more people would do it. But granted, some will not have time, not be fussed, not see a difference as you quite rightly mentioned etc etc.

However, if you are doing a job (such as being a detailer) surely you should do it properly? And with a company name of Pure Detail, surely that's technically like calling your business "Michelinstard pizza take away"...?
 
  182/RS2/ Turbo/Mk1
But surely it's all about education? How many people now use the sponge/chamois brigade over the brushes at automatics? Why? Because it says "no scratches hand wash" on the sign.

If you went through the entire car owning population and told them about the 2BM, more people would do it. But granted, some will not have time, not be fussed, not see a difference as you quite rightly mentioned etc etc.

However, if you are doing a job (such as being a detailer) surely you should do it properly? And with a company name of Pure Detail, surely that's technically like calling your business "Michelinstard pizza take away"...?

I dont think "Detail" is a protected term TBH mate, so in your analogy it would probably be more akin to putting "gourmet" in the name of a kitchen and then selling fairly average food. And frankly that happens ALL the time!
To most people a 20 quid meal out is a nice meal, and to most people a 20 quid valet is getting their car cleaned, I dont think the detailing community will have any more luck convincing eveyone to pay 300 quid every time their car needs cleaning than the top chefs will of convincing people to pay that for every meal they eat.

Its just people obsessive about detailing thinking that the rest of the world gives a monkeys if their terms get used for a lower standard, just like im sure there are chef's in france who would have a heart attack if faced with a Gourmet Burger Kitchen meal.
 
But that's the point. If you clean you car properly, you won't need the detailers to correct the work... Valeters damage the car more than is necessary. They do more damage in a single "sitting" than I/Kev do/does over 6-12 months. So again, it's education.

We're not saying you need to spend £350 on a detail each week. We're saying why pay £20 for your car to be "cleaned" when you would do less damage yourself...

And again, he has not detailed that car. So PureDetail.net as a company title is misinforming clients. PureDetail.co.uk however, is correct definition of his company's trade.
 
  182/RS2/ Turbo/Mk1
But that's the point. If you clean you car properly, you won't need the detailers to correct the work... Valeters damage the car more than is necessary. They do more damage in a single "sitting" than I/Kev do/does over 6-12 months. So again, it's education.

I agree, but like I said the damage isnt damage most people who buy a car drive it around for a year or two, get it valeted half a dozen times during that and then sell are ever going to notice let alone care about.
So for the masses, its fine.


We're not saying you need to spend £350 on a detail each week. We're saying why pay £20 for your car to be "cleaned" when you would do less damage yourself...

But to a lot of people they dont want a job as a cleaner whether it be on their own stuff or someone elses, they would sooner pay someone else to do the mundane nonsense like that in life (trust me I know that to people like you it probably doesnt seem that way as I know my mrs actually ENJOYS cleaning cars) so even if they could do a better job with a 2bm and a cheap microfibre towel they probably still dont want to.


And again, he has not detailed that car.

As I have said to you already, "detail" is not a protected term, you need to accept that I am afraid mate!
So if he says he has detailed it then I dont think you can say he hasnt, its a bit like when a garage "service" a car, that term can mean vastly different things to different people and unless you are claiming to have stuck to an OEM schedule when you havent or similar, you arent misrepresenting what you are doing if you say "full service" and then do what to me is only very basic maintainance and not full at all as it hasnt included a belt for example.


So PureDetail.net as a company title is misinforming clients. PureDetail.co.uk however, is correct definition of his company's trade.

As I said before, its not different to whacking gourmet in the name of a restaurant, everyone will have a different opinion of what that means.

4501.jpg


In this case for example the customer is not only accepting of the service that he has had from the "detail" guy, he is actually IMPRESSED with the detail he got so much that he has started a thread about it?
 
  182/RS2/ Turbo/Mk1
Oh and lol at you using protected when discussing detail as term - I see what you did there ;)

FLOL! Would love to take the credit for the clever double use of the word but it was just an accident!

I meant a legally protected word, like you cant call yourself a paramedic without the correct qualifications you are just an ambulance technician even though people use the term wrongly all the time.
 
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