Auto detailers have had a rather tough go of it during the recession, and many are looking for additional ways to make money. There are also vendors that want to sell auto detailers more "add on service profit centers" such as plastic repair kits of cars. Why would anyone wish to do plastic repairs?
Well, the technicians at auto body shops are also happier because they can make more money servicing the part if they're working on commission, and the owner of the body shop gets to keep more if he can repair a part, make labor money, than if he has to buy a part to replace a broken plastic piece on that car. Many employees in body shops are commission based.
Another person this makes quite happy is the garbage man, because you are not over filling dumpsters with unneeded waste, and all those broken car body parts. The only difficult thing with plastic repair is it requires lots of training. Luckily there is an inter industry conference called I-CAR Collision Auto Repair which has seminars and vendors have stepped up to the plate who sell the products used to train how to use them. These are annual events and they also have regional training.
If you are an auto detailer you may wish to look into that, or you can buy a plastic-repair-kit from a vendor that either offers free-training or videos with the kit to watch. The rest is learned on the job and the more you do it the better you get.
General Motors before their bankruptcy also offered courses in repairing plastics. Some of these in-depth technical information seminars and hands-on repair skills practice sessions in interior and exterior plastics and sheet molded compounds are very good.
After having sit in on a couple I was amazed at how easy this stuff is and how easy it is to do it incorrectly. What I found most interesting was that you really have to look at the part and determine if it is worth fixing or should I just throw it away and get a new one. So, when you ask me; Should Auto Detailers Add Plastic Repair to Their Offerings? My answer is perhaps it might be a way to make additional revenue, so you'll have to think about it.