Planes?

[Wiserphil]

Can someone point me to the right thread if there has been one or help me answer a couple questions. First off what do you charge to detail a plane and rvs? And is their a certain kind of wax to use on both?

Thanks

[Mike Phillips]

Can someone point me to the right thread if there has been one or help me answer a couple questions. First off what do you charge to detail a plane and rvs? And is their a certain kind of wax to use on both?

Thanks

For both you really want to try to use a one-step cleaner wax.

Why?

Because you don't want to be doing more than one-step, (besides washing), to large transportation items like planes, RV's and even boats.

Be careful when getting into RV detailing as high-end RVs have the same type of basecoat/clearcoat finish modern cars have and in my opinion it's not a good idea to swirl-out a large RV with a bc/cc finish.


As for pricing it's all over the board when it comes to RVs. Most charge by the linear foot but I'd say figure out want you need to make per hour to make it profitable and then figure out your hours.

As for planes, that's a whole other ball game. I've only buffed out one plane, a small Cessna and I used a one-step cleaner/wax and don't remember what I charged as that was at least 20 years ago. The owner helped and I think we used Meguiar's #6 Cleaner/Wax. I wouldn't do it again unless the money was simply ridiculous.

Most the money and business in plane detailing is doing interior detailing as most planes are white in color and they are either shiny white or dull white and most people don't care which.

There's also a few serious safety concerns when working on airplanes. I'd recommend contacting Renny Doyle or Alan La Bergere as they have both detailed planes as a business.


Hope that helps...

[Mike Phillips]

The article I link to below has more information about the "idea" of cleaner/waxes and using cleaner/waxes than you'll find anywhere else on the net.


How to choose and use a one-step cleaner/wax by Mike Phillips



My article here explains the two-fold problems with holograms in the boat detailing industry but these same to problems apply to the RV detailing industry.


Holograms in gel-coat boats by Mike Phillips

[pointillistic_practitioner]

For both you really want to try to use a one-step cleaner wax.

Why?

Because you don't want to be doing more than one-step, (besides washing), to large transportation items like planes, RV's and even boats.

Be careful when getting into RV detailing as high-end RVs have the same type of basecoat/clearcoat finish modern cars have and in my opinion it's not a good idea to swirl-out a large RV with a bc/cc finish.


As for pricing it's all over the board when it comes to RVs. Most charge by the linear foot but I'd say figure out want you need to make per hour to make it profitable and then figure out your hours.

As for planes, that's a whole other ball game. I've only buffed out one plane, a small Cessna and I used a one-step cleaner/wax and don't remember what I charged as that was at least 20 years ago. The owner helped and I think we used Meguiar's #6 Cleaner/Wax. I wouldn't do it again unless the money was simply ridiculous.

Most the money and business in plane detailing is doing interior detailing as most planes are white in color and they are either shiny white or dull white and most people don't care which.

There's also a few serious safety concerns when working on airplanes. I'd recommend contacting Renny Doyle or Alan La Bergere as they have both detailed planes as a business.


Hope that helps...

I have detailed cars, planes, and boats. Regarding transportation, I've only not worked on RVs and trains! Haha. Anyway, I have realized that I don't like to do boats or planes. (Sometimes realizing what you don't like to do is as important as realizing what you do like to do). In fact, my uncle recently purchased a 25 y.o. 50' sailboat and is trying to get it into the water this season. Its hull needs to be stripped and repainted, and the gel coated paint needs to be compounded and waxed. He wants help, but is relatively stingy about paying labor. Because I know what goes into doing a boat like that, I politely declined.

My last job was working at a private aircraft cleaning company and let me be the first to tell you, it is completely different than even boats. I would personally, not even consider doing planes alone, or with help from one or two people. We normally had 4+ people working on a plane at a time (we did G4s, G5s, Legacys, etc). 2 interior workers, 2 exterior. It was exhausting; especially washing and waxing (Normally for exterior we'd only use an aerosol spray to do wing tips, edges, bottoms, and nose/windscreen, and underside of engines. that was the extent of cleaning exteriors). Doing interiors was manageable with one person, but we were doing basics (vacuuming seats and carpet, cleaning lavatory and galley, cockpit, windows, dusting wood trim). Washing and waxing, though, required scaffolding/lifts, and multiple hours. It was, in a word, exhausting. Also, even with scaffolding/lifts etc cleaning plane exteriors is dangerous, so Mike is definitely spot on about the safety concerns. Even when doing the underside of a plane, there's something as simple as the oil that often drips from the engines
(if you weren't expecting to anticipate that, you could slip and hurt yourself easily)

Anyway, I'm rambling now. My advise is that if you want to try the exterior of, planes, which is a huge commitment, make sure you have a couple other people working with you. Knowing what goes into maintaining a plane, I wouldn't attempt to do one plane alone; even a small one.

[TFTADetail]

You can take a look at my pricing if you like.

I am very specific with the pricing and clients normally don't have too many questions after reading through the page etc.

RV Pricing

[Wiserphil]

thanks for all the help.