Boat Pricing

[mark_g]

I have a client with two boats he wants done. My business model doesn’t include boats just because of the logistics of everything but I love working on boats, these fit in my garage and I’m sure I will be picking up vehicles from him and those in his network after the boats are done The two are a 17 Boston Whaler center console that is fairly new and will only need polish & protection and a 15 Boston Whaler super sport that needs to be wet sanded, compounded, polished and protected. I’m not concerned about the work itself, my detailing background is in boats as I have restored over a dozen for myself with work ranging from simple cleanings to full transom replacements that involve complex fiberglass work.
The issue I’m having here is that I have no clue whatsoever as to what to charge. My initial thinking is $14/ft PER STEP with the wash step and protection step each counting as a half step since they’re the easier parts. So the one that needs wet sanding would be 4 steps. .5 wash, 1 wet sand, 1 compound, 1 polish & .5 protection. Does this sound fair or am I too low?


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[ScottH]

Mark,

My response isn't around pricing but rather to say be careful around things like the boat cleats, railing mounts etc. with your polisher. There are many more "things" for the polisher to get caught on vs. a car. I learned that the hard way with my PO5000C - got off my mark for a sec and the pad/plate hit a cleat at speed 5 and sheered a chunk off the backing plate. A $ 60 lesson.

Best wishes on the projects...
ScottH

[mark_g]

I’m just circling back in this one in case it’s useful for anyone in the future. $14 per ft per step worked out well for both myself and the client. As expected, it was a lot of work (approx 23 hours) but he will be bringing me one of his other boats in the next few weeks for a standard detail.

Here’s a before photo



And an after:







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[sudsmobile]

Looks really good. I wish you had more pics. So, how many steps was that?