Auto Add on, Headlight Repair

Auto Detailing Add-on; Headlight Repair
By Lance Winslow


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.

By Lance Winslow

Content Courtesy : choosetoprosper.com