Auto Detailing Add-on; Headlight Repair
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By Lance Winslow
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Have you thought
of adding Headlight Repair to
your auto detailing business?
A new set of sealed beam headlights
on a New Jeep Cherokee could run
as high as $70, however your team
can make money lightly sanding
and coating these headlights with
the Micro-Glass product in the
Micro-Mesh Kit by Micro Surface
Corporation. It is important for
the detailing companies to constantly
review such products, this innovation
has propelled our team to come
up with the solutions for our
fleet customers and help us bundle
services to compete against the
other large vendors to these fleet
companies. One company we compete
with out of New Jersey does offer
this service, but we do and we
are able to use this to our advantage
on bidding on fleet detailing
work.
This is just one more way you
can bundle services to provide
a value added service to your
customers. We have talked to managers
of fleet wash companies and fleet
detailing companies in their various
markets. Some of these managers
have told us they have been looking
into doing headlight restoration,
because their customers are now
asking for the service. Many of
the high-end to Auto detailing
shops do offer headlight restoration
using various methods. Recently
with the floods that we've had
in the United States, we have
seen Auto auctions start to offer
this service also. Generally the
Auto auctions that we've seen
do not know how to deal with sealed
beams, instead they're much better
with none sealed beams, and by
removing the lens and wiping down
the inside and using glass wax
they are able to make the lenses
look transparent and therefore
the car looks sellable as runs
through the auto auctions.
Whereas this is a good idea for
auto auctions it is not good enough
for the fleet customers especially
those that assign their cars to
specific individuals. Companies
like the Baby Bells, quest, Cox
cable, AT&T, FedEx, United
States Postal Service etc. have
thousands and thousands of vehicles.
Generally these vehicles are assigned
for the most part with very few
as a percentage of the total fleet
being pool cars like at the GSA
office. As the vehicles get back
from Iraq and Kuwait and were
ever they do next to wipe out
terrorism from the face of the
planet, they will have sand blasted
headlights, from the very fine
silica type sand of the Middle
East. So how does one go about
taking care of this problem? Well,
it is much simpler than you think.
The first thing to do is to assess
exactly how bad the damage it
is this can be done in a number
of ways; first, you would get
the opaqueness or cloudiness of
the lens. Second, you look to
see if there's any pit marks and
hard water spots. This is how
you assess which method you'll
use to either clean or restore
the surface. Let's face it if
there's too much damage, the time
it will take to fix the lens will
cost you more than to replace
it. The micromesh is cool because
you can use it either wet or dry
when you're sanding. How much
do most detailers charge for this
service? Well in depends the tupe
of vehicles and locations of the
fleets; vans such bread companies,
wholesale companies, small package
delivery companies, online grocery
services, dry cleaners, flower
shops, armored car services, limo
services, school buses, garbage
trucks any other fleets mentioned
above, we have found that is not
difficult to get 8 to $10 per
lens, remember each of the service
trucks or cars have between two
and for lenses.
This can add up to quite a lot
of money very quickly. We have
also found that used car dealerships
will go for it once you show them
how it works. We also found it
to be a nice add-on to keep our
crews busy in inclement weather.
As you know the Northeast United
States has been slammed by snowstorms
and Nor-Easters, these additional
services provide an extra revenue
generator when wash cars.
There is a great article in TSP
magazine in the October -- November
2003 edition about this product
and ease of use. The micromesh
soft touch pads are only three
by four inches with a phone center
but they were killer since they
have micromesh upon both sides.
When using them they bend with
the lens as you're working so
you can go fast with even pressure.
We found that we could clean,
micromesh, white and buff a lens
in about six to eight minutes.
If you're working indoors on a
fleet of vehicles in the winter
in the northern colder climates
of the US or Canada you can make
money no matter what the weather
is in this is just one more way
we are solving the problem of
continuing sales with a mobile
carwash or mobile detailing rig
in the harsh winter weather climates.
By using the micromesh can't it
cuts down the time to do the job
significantly. The old way was
to use different levels of fine
grit sandpaper slowly working
up. For instance starting with
a 1000 grit and working upwards
to 12,000 grit in a micro fiber.
This is great if you're restoring
your car, but it just wasn't worth
it if you're detailing one. Another
company which recommends using
the product is Bud Abram’s detail
plus: http://www.DetailPlus.com
which I believe also sells these
Kit's.
You should take a look at the
micromesh product and its uses
and think about using this as
an add-on for your existing auto
detailing business.
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"Lance Winslow" - Online Think
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