The Pad Washer Cart saves the day again

[OCDetails]

I don't typically pack this bad boy up and take it with me, but when I do aircraft it is a must. Walking around a car isn't really that hard, but when you have to walk around 25 foot wings to grab another towel, it can become a pain. Particularly when there are are more than one plane in the hangar and there are all sorts of things you don't want to snag on as you walk around wings. You also don't really want to have to walk all the way out of the hangar to clean off pads, so having the pad washer nearby is awesome sauce to the 10th power! Get one if you hate wasting time as much as I do. Grit Guard Universal Pad Washer,Dual action orbital pad washer, foam and wool pad washer, rotary pad washer, Cyclo pad washer, Porter Cable pad I bought a Rav4 last summer because I was tired of having to disassemble everything and lose my whole backseat to buckets whenever I went anywhere. Now everything fits in the back without even losing leg room in the second row. I love this car...







This is pretty much how mine is loaded up. Throw on a couple bottles of polish, some sealants and protectants for different areas, some QD to get the grime off, a bunch of towels... Oh, and the bag hanging on the side is full of all my metal polishing stuff. The leading edges on this thing are hairy and they like them to shine like mirrors. I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but the right side has yet to be polished. You can see the shade change right about halfway across. This is just after the first pass as I'm getting the haze and gunk off the edge. After the second pass they were absolutely like mirrors.



My child labor isn't as cheap as it used to be now that he knows more about what he is doing. Getting bugs off the bottom of the wings is still a huge help to me, but he wanted to wipe down some of the tail too. Just as a side note, my FLEX 3401 took a tumble off the top of that ladder once. Not a crack on it and it still runs like a champ!



And just for good measure, a huge cock with a Camaro.

[fly07sti]

Very cool. Especially having your boy with you. Hope when my daughter gets older she will like detailing like her dad.

[dlc95]

Ha! That is great! Love the rooster too.

[OCDetails]

It makes me a proud papa when my kids detail with me. Doing something big like a plane is a 12 - 15 hour job. I take him with me on the second day and he works his butt off for 9 hours straight without complaining at all. I'm glad he thinks it is fun. I do too, so maybe that helps. Like my dad always told me, find a job you enjoy doing and you'll never work a day in your life. Sometimes detailing feels like work, but 90% of the time it is just too much fun.

[theautospa]

Cleaning and polishing this entire plane takes you only 12-15 hours!?

Looks beautiful

[rms64]

Looks like a Fetzer valve problem...

Bring me some 3-in-1 oil, ball bearings and some gauze pads.

(Great work - I really hope someone gets that)...

[Driven Auto Detail]

Awesome! Love that your kid is working with you and love the pictures of what you're working on.

Do you do a lot of planes? Is that some sort of high-end/private hanger? I'm not in a lot of airports, but that hanger looks PRISTINE - as does the plane.

Seeing your pictures has me thinking that I should maybe go talk to a high-end/private airport that's not too far away from me. I'd interested to hear more about your airplane detailing.

Subscribed!

[tpr1634]

Looks like a Fetzer valve problem...



Bring me some 3-in-1 oil, ball bearings and some gauze pads.



(Great work - I really hope someone gets that)...

Preston or Quaker state😎

[VISITOR]

very cool, like father like son...

[OCDetails]

Awesome! Love that your kid is working with you and love the pictures of what you're working on.

Do you do a lot of planes? Is that some sort of high-end/private hanger? I'm not in a lot of airports, but that hanger looks PRISTINE - as does the plane.

Seeing your pictures has me thinking that I should maybe go talk to a high-end/private airport that's not too far away from me. I'd interested to hear more about your airplane detailing.

Subscribed!

Aircraft detailing is a tricky business. There are crazy things that can happen which will cost you more than you can imagine. Denting something or snagging on something could cost six figures to replace. Moving ladders around to reach everything can be stressful, especially in tight spaces. This client has been a car client for years and started a couple years ago letting me do their jet and helicopter. They do some hangaring for other aircraft and we have an arrangement for a cut if they offer my services to their clients, but honestly I'd rather detail cars. I don't know what detailing companies that work with aircraft insure themselves for, but I know the company that runs the tugs that parks them in the hangars is insured for $100M for a reason.

Maybe I'm ridiculously cheap for a plane detail, but I charged $900 for the job I did on this one. I just did it last fall after the bug season, so it wasn't in terrible shape. It just needed it's every two year cut and polish to bring back the slickness that just sealants can't provide. After 15 hours of back breaking labor (including the 8 or 9 hours of work that Erik did scrubbing bugs under the wings, sealing everything below my knees, and cleaning the landing gears) that is $60 bucks an hour. Considering I charge $220 for about 3 hours of work on a car (more like $70 something an hour) I make better money detailing things with smaller wing spans. But these guys are friends and their business is important to me, so I'm happy to hook them up and hook up their clients too. I detail this one three or four times a year and maybe 3 or 4 other planes as well, so it isn't a huge part of my business by any means. It sure is fun though. You can show pictures on your website and let people know that if these guys trust me with their $8M plane, then surely you can trust me with your $20K Civic.

The process is almost exactly like a car other than the washing part. Clay, polish, sealant (and lots of it). Once someone comes out to feel the surface they never want to go back to the way it felt before ever again. Slicker surfaces on aircraft translates into better fuel economy and faster speeds, so they definitely know the advantages. Every little bit helps when it comes to flight. I couldn't use that selling point to someone and their daily driver. lol Anyway, look at it like a really big RV with about half a million dollars in sensors and strange things poking out that you don't want to break.

If you can get in with some of the local residents who hangar their prop planes then that would be a great starting point. Some people can't afford hangaring and they barely have tarps covering them most of the time, so the added protection of what we do is worth it to them. After you do the job once or twice you will get the hang of how long it takes and how much you want to charge them for your time. I'd suggest pricing it out like an RV or a boat (by the foot) but planes are a little more three dimensional than RVs and boats. They go up and out and all around and the paint is very different than automotive paint or gel coat. It is diamond hard and takes a little effort to clear it up completely without leaving haze behind.

I know there are guys here who do more aircraft than I do and they probably have more of a process for their planes, but the ones I deal with are fairly well maintained and pretty easy to do once you get going. I wouldn't charge this little on a plane I hadn't ever detailed before. Honestly this is more like a $1200 or $1500 job if you have to really clean it up or work on the interior. Actually, if the interior detailing was involved then I'd probably tack on another $300 or $400, so a plane like this could cost upwards of $2000 if I was detailing it for the first time. The average I charge their clients is $2500, but their planes are usually a little bigger anyway.