Changing career, Do auto detailers make decent money?

[6thGear.]

OP. You are too vague in what your asking. Collision repair(auotobody/refinish) is completely different from dipping and wrapping(which is really a phase that'll phase out) If you want to do custom bodywork aka molding kits and custom one off and custom painting you better be damn good and specialized at it to demand big money and be able to do 1 car at a time. A good example is Chip Foose/RWB/etc. Otherwise you'll be struggling. An old coworker of mine went that route. Quit his comfy body tech position and opened up his own backyard custom shop. All was well the first year or so until he hit a bad customer. Buddy refused to pay his bill cause he kept changing his mind on his car. Coworker wouldn't release his car until the bill was paid up. Customer came back with a couple buddies and a .45

As for collision work don't be fooled by people telling you its good money and you'll make close to $100K. I'd say maybe 10% of people will make that mark and they are good and fast and it'll take maybe 7-8 years minimum to make that type of salary. The rest make anywhere from $40k-$60k. These days most shops here are looking for good workers which is hard to find and IMO the industry is getting more competitive as customers are becoming more and more demanding in quality and time and customer service. Eventually all the shitty shops will shut down (thank god) and only the good ones will survive. Keep in mind shops will never make every customer happy. We get customers happy with their BMW cause it looks shiny again and customers with POS Suzuki's who think they own a million dollar show car. If you feel this is your calling and you absolutely love fixing cars then by all means change your career and go take a course at BCIT/VCC and learn your ABC's of the trade. Please don't waste shop time by learning the basics on the floor. Sounds mean but I've been doing this for well over 15 years and I've seen it all and I know what I'm preaching about. But at the same time I've never seen shops hurting for good workers. If you're a quick study and can think fast on your feet you'll make it no problem

[Liquid_o2]

Also a thing to remember is that we are going through a huge paradigm shift in the car industry right now. How relevant is a body repair shop going to be 20 years down the line when self driving cars are prevalent? I don't think there is anyone who can answer this questions just yet, but important to consider where the industry is going long-term.

[Iron Chef]

I'd argue the top 10% in there field no matter what the field, get paid good money. Focus on being the top 10% and the money will eventually follow.

[Limitless]

Originally Posted by doritos

does detailing and wrapping require training somewhere? I have a little bit of knowledge for everything, tinting, installing hids, modding headlights, dipping wheels, I learned all that during my free time as hobby and I do enjoy it even as work. My current job, It felt like it was fun everyday I went to work until recently, longer hours, traveling to other cities.

It doesn't require training, but it'll help a lot. I also do a little bit of detailing and wrapping on the side, but the learning curve on it takes so much longer if you're just doing it on your own haha. If you're thinking about doing it for work you should definitely go through some training, worth the money if you think about the amount of time and material you save from learning on your own. You also really don't want to still be learning while working on other people's cars (lol). Perfect your work on your own car, and it'll go well from there

Keep in mind though, at least in my opinion detailing and wrapping are some of the most time consuming things for cars. Wrapping an entire car will easily take 20+ hours to do properly, and detailing can take that long too if the condition of the car is bad enough.

Originally Posted by Timpo

Yeah I think wrapping/dipping is poor man's painting.

If you're picky about details, I'm sure you would rather have a top quality paint job.

I think people that are wrapping/dipping are looking for cheap alternatives to painting. So if you charge too much money, no customers.
Maybe also a convenience of peeling off too, but still, it needs to be cheap.

Basically, that's why I'm wrapping my miata lmao. Wrap will never look as good as paint, and dip is just eck. Peeling wrap also sucks and costs a fair amount of money to get the car looking proper again afterwards hahah. But yes wrap needs to be a lot cheaper than paint, and I think it's only viable if you're able to wrap at least a couple of cars consistently every month.

Wrap is a dying fad though :/ but detailing will always stay alive

[alwayslive]

From someone who has first hand experience in the detailing industry owning @vancity.detailing, it is a hard business to do well in. Especially in Vancouver with our hectic weather, a lot of people do not want to get their cars detailed most of the year. Unless you completely love it you are going to quit very quickly. On the flip side though, I love what I do and have been able to scale up the business quite a bit since I have started. Having some business experience/knowledge helped a TON though.