John_Doe Posted July 30, 2005 Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 Good people of the forums, can anyone recommend any good valeters in the north east? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleanimage Posted July 30, 2005 Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 you may have to be more specific... the North East is pretty big. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Doe Posted July 30, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 Cleveland, South Durham, North Yourkshire sort of areas from Durham to Scarborough and all inbetween lets say, not so big in an S4!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted July 30, 2005 Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 I've looked into this before. The only people of any real note are Specialist Cars of Malton (Porsche Specialists). They are the North east's only authorised Zymol finishers. However, I have to say there is no one apparent of the class of Miracle Detail. There is a huge gap in the market in the Tyne & Wear, Cleveland & County Durham area for someone who really knows their stuff. I would happily pay £500-800 for someone in the class of Paul at Miracle Detail to do a full job including Vintage Wax. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avus_Bub Posted July 30, 2005 Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 [ QUOTE ] They are the North east's only authorised Zymol finishers. I would happily pay £500-800 for someone in the class of Paul at Miracle Detail to do a full job including Vintage Wax. [/ QUOTE ] WOW! Is that what it costs for a 'Full Works' valet using a top of the range wax............? I really would like to see a car after that sort of treatment. I think my detailing is pretty high but £800 high? I'm not so sure Then again our workshop charge just on £100 an hour and you've got to be looking at a days work for 'The Works' I guess. The bike had done about 9500 miles when this was taken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted July 30, 2005 Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 That's just for a days work - some will get 2-3 days work and more. The results are astonishing though. Check them out..the guy has the right name for his company. Miracle Detail - Click Here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avus_Bub Posted July 30, 2005 Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 Yes very impressive. Sometimes I wish that I went for a darker colour , just to show my effort more. The car is 11 months old now and there isn't a single swirl mark on it. It looks stunning in the right light though. It almost 'glows' But I'll never have that 'wet look' you get with a dark colour BUB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim52 Posted July 30, 2005 Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 Outstanding, totally outstanding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Doe Posted July 31, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2005 MrMe, I have contacted the guys in Malton and they charge 225 pounds plus VAT for a 1 day Zymol treatment, I agree with you regarding the void we find ourselves in the North East as I too would gladly pay good money for valeting. I may just go to Malton after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted July 31, 2005 Report Share Posted July 31, 2005 That's a very good price actually, very good indeed. If someone were to set themselves up in a high class/high results valeting business up here they're looking at earning £500 per day easily. Clear that of raw materials and travelling costs and I sincerely think someone could realise an income of £4-6k per month without any problems at all. If anyone had a love of cars and a need to get themselves a career or a good little venture under their belts, I honestly think this is a winner all the way up here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omi Posted July 31, 2005 Report Share Posted July 31, 2005 I'd need a financial backer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Doe Posted July 31, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2005 Let's discuss further at Scotch Corner!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleanimage Posted July 31, 2005 Report Share Posted July 31, 2005 [ QUOTE ] That's a very good price actually, very good indeed. If someone were to set themselves up in a high class/high results valeting business up here they're looking at earning £500 per day easily. Clear that of raw materials and travelling costs and I sincerely think someone could realise an income of £4-6k per month without any problems at all. If anyone had a love of cars and a need to get themselves a career or a good little venture under their belts, I honestly think this is a winner all the way up here. [/ QUOTE ] Such jobs are few and far between, especially in the winter. There really isn't a market for this kind of work in the UK, once there is the prices will go down, seriously go down! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted July 31, 2005 Report Share Posted July 31, 2005 [ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] That's a very good price actually, very good indeed. If someone were to set themselves up in a high class/high results valeting business up here they're looking at earning £500 per day easily. Clear that of raw materials and travelling costs and I sincerely think someone could realise an income of £4-6k per month without any problems at all. If anyone had a love of cars and a need to get themselves a career or a good little venture under their belts, I honestly think this is a winner all the way up here. [/ QUOTE ] Such jobs are few and far between, especially in the winter. There really isn't a market for this kind of work in the UK, once there is the prices will go down, seriously go down! [/ QUOTE ] Miracle Detail would disagree with you I suspect - especially as you can't get him booked to work on a car for up to 3-4 weeks!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brazo Posted July 31, 2005 Report Share Posted July 31, 2005 Guys you could always post on autopia and look for a UK autopian in the North East area, there are many examples of their outstanding work to be seen via autopia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleanimage Posted July 31, 2005 Report Share Posted July 31, 2005 [ QUOTE ] Miracle Detail would disagree with you I suspect - especially as you can't get him booked to work on a car for up to 3-4 weeks!!! [/ QUOTE ] Good luck to him... it's good for the industry that people like him are raising the profile of valeting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy_PC Posted August 1, 2005 Report Share Posted August 1, 2005 He's about to get a very nasty shock is all I'll say!! It's the old "you have this treatment because you have an expensive car" nonsense yet again. You do NOT need to spend 3 days valeting a car (it's called VALETING in the UK BTW) just so you can charge silly money because you use "natural" products and waxes which last years. I agree that some of these companies are raising the profile of the industry and I'd say that there is work to be had at this level but trust me, Miracle Detail does a fair bit of trade work (as I know the dealer he works for) and he's certainly not charging hundreds for it! The main issue with the Zymol/Swissol crew is that they appear unable/unwilling to accept that anything else comes close and that all other products are rubbish - mind you, if I'd just done £70-odd on a bottle of chocolate sauce and a wax which in reality is little better than P21S in terms of ease of use and final results, I'd be fairly reluctant to accept that anything else could possibly be better.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brazo Posted August 1, 2005 Report Share Posted August 1, 2005 I couldn't agree more on the zymol/swissol crew thing! I could understand if they preferd the look of it over another product, after all we all have our faves but to insist nothing else even comes close is sheer stupidity imo and as for 12 months protection from a natural wax £500+ to detail a car is crazy when someone like Andy will do an 'at least' equivalent job for half that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Doe Posted August 1, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2005 [ QUOTE ] Guys you could always post on autopia and look for a UK autopian in the North East area, there are many examples of their outstanding work to be seen via autopia. [/ QUOTE ] Brazo, I'll give them a coat of looking at .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleanimage Posted August 1, 2005 Report Share Posted August 1, 2005 [ QUOTE ] He's about to get a very nasty shock is all I'll say!! It's the old "you have this treatment because you have an expensive car" nonsense yet again. You do NOT need to spend 3 days valeting a car (it's called VALETING in the UK BTW) just so you can charge silly money because you use "natural" products and waxes which last years. I agree that some of these companies are raising the profile of the industry and I'd say that there is work to be had at this level but trust me, Miracle Detail does a fair bit of trade work (as I know the dealer he works for) and he's certainly not charging hundreds for it! The main issue with the Zymol/Swissol crew is that they appear unable/unwilling to accept that anything else comes close and that all other products are rubbish - mind you, if I'd just done £70-odd on a bottle of chocolate sauce and a wax which in reality is little better than P21S in terms of ease of use and final results, I'd be fairly reluctant to accept that anything else could possibly be better.... [/ QUOTE ] Feck me! The voice of reason! Call me a coward, but I didn't want to say anything incase it sounded like sour grapes. but as there are now more people on this thread that are interested in valeting as a busness than just polishers, i think I can safely add a comment or two. Lets talk business! I can't see that it's a good idea to build a business around a fashion item. Zymöl seems to 'back in' at the moment, but last year is was Swissol that everybody was raving about. Really it's all about marketing - not just the products but also different valeting companies. We do 3-4 jobs a week that are in the £750-£1500 range, but while you have people on this forum saying "£600 detailing - thats a proper job", you have people on other forums saying "£300 for a fecking valet! My mate Vinny can come round in his van and do it for £50". Having looked at the Miracle Detail web site, it seems he doesn't do anything that we don't do except Orange Peel removal (in our opinion, this shouldn't be done unless the car has been re-sprayed for the purpose), and we get similar results, but we aim for a different market. So we keep all the pictures of Bentleys and Ferrari's off our web site... otherwise they scare away the people with Audis and VWs. And believe it or not, it also scares away the seriously rich people!!! After all, most rich people got to be rich my being good with money. If you sugest to them that you use a tub of wax that cost £1500, they will either laugh at you or ask you questions that Zymöl/Swissol don't have the answers to (like, what the hell can you put in a wax to make it worth £150, let alone £1500 or £6000 - One kilogram of grade one Carnuba costs about £4.50!). No matter what market you aim for, the biggest challenge facing Valeters/Detailers/Grooms is that most people don't want to pay £30, let alone £300 if they think that their car is going to get dirty again as soon as they drive it away because it's raining. At this time of year there are at last a couple of car shows on every weekend and when the sun comes out, everybody wants to go posing in a clean shiny car... but come October its a different story. It's not unusual for Mobile valeters to have more work than they know what to do with at this time of year, but many of them pack up for the winter and go work behind a bar instead. Many of these top end cars go into storage in the winter... some of those photos actually look like they are taken in private car parks. Now if you wan't to make money, car storage could be the way to go. And you get to valet them at your liesure through the winter months, although if you are talking about high security, air conditioned, de-humidified premisis, how many cars can you reasonably expect to store? We have looked at all the options, done reseach, hired business consultants, etc. There millions of cars on Britain's roads and thats where the money is, there should be more than enough work for everyone... aiming for those fickle 0.01% who own concourse show cars (and thats really what we are talking about) is always going to be a risky foundation for a business. But as Andy says, this guy does trade work, so it's probably not the foundation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brazo Posted August 1, 2005 Report Share Posted August 1, 2005 No matter what market you aim for, the biggest challenge facing Valeters/Detailers/Grooms is that most people don't want to pay £30, let alone £300 if they think that their car is going to get dirty again as soon as they drive it away because it's raining. You've hit it on the head there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy_PC Posted August 1, 2005 Report Share Posted August 1, 2005 This is why I'm being careful in setting myself up. I spent today doing more a detailing job on 2 cars - more of the "detailing" in a mo... First was an Alfa GTA used in the Top Hat Series. Somewhat battered around and in need of a good polish/seal and fettling (that's what the customer wanted). All I did was VMW glaze then NXT, dress tyres and PlastX (sp) the glass/perspex - it's got to have some repairs so no point spending loads of time & effort plus I did whilst waiting for the main event.... A 1970's sports GT racer worth more than £500,000 (gulp). Same process as above plus complete dressing of the front spaceframe and engine bay/cockpit. Bodywork was easy but the rest - arghhhh! Back from painting so dust & overspray everywhere so out with the clay, metal polish and thinners. Didn't go too bad and pics will be up at autopia shortly. This was probably whatI'd call detailing - just fettling rather than machine polishing, shampooing carpets (neither car had any as it goes!) but it will/has got me a bunch more work via the chap who owns the workshop and I'm hoping the owner of the 2nd car (he's got several others - Daytona GT/C, Ferrari 512 Can-Am etc) I also had a meeting with a Lamborghini dealer who will give me work and refer me into his customer base. This is all great but TBH I simply need to earn so am also happy to do basic washing/vacuuming and so on. My problem is that many of my existing clients feel that I should charge them the same price - i.e. below £100 - for machine polishing, carpet cleaning and so on. As Brazo says, they're loathed to pay "proper" money - even though my basic prices are little more than the drive through places will charge you - go figure I guess. There are people who will pay good money, then there are those who will be taken for a ride by some cleaners who persuade them that they're doing a "better" job using "better" products - when any fool knows that, as with much in life, it's mostly about careful preparation. You can put a six zillion pound a tub wax on poorly prepped paint and it'll still look cack - hours of careful and sensitive prep are key. I'd be happy to take £500+ from someone to fully clean and prep their car but so many have been fooled by the "lasts for ever" waxes that I think they'd expect too much. I aim to try both Zymol and Swissol within the next few weeks so I can rate them properly. That's not an autopian "must have" statement, rather a "money where my mouth is" comment - if either are remotely worth using and in any way out perform the waxes I use then fair play, I might add them to my kit and from what I've read, both can be had for this side of £40. Maybe worth getting some for the car care clinic? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleanimage Posted August 1, 2005 Report Share Posted August 1, 2005 I don't know if you have seen the Guru report on waxes? It's flawed, but no more so than most other reports carried out by the industry. Anyway, as far as I know Swissol hasn't been tested, mainly because it's the Americans that do the testing and they have never heard of Swissol. But products like Zymöl never rank too well, usually out-classed by the likes of Meg's Medallion, Collinite, Pinnacle, p21s, Klasse and even Mothers! If Carbon, Concours and Titaniam can't do any better than some of the mid-range products, despite costing almost 10 times as much, I'm not tempted to go and try their top of the range products. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Doe Posted August 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2005 Wish I'd never asked now.....Seems like the thread was breeched once again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brazo Posted August 2, 2005 Report Share Posted August 2, 2005 I drove past my local hand valet place today £8.95 all in. The amount of top end cars lined up to be butchered was astonishing and I mean 500Sl's and V8 masearatis (sp) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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