It's boat season time

D

Detailing NY

New member
Oh boy, it's time to start detailing boats again. Got my first boat job this sunday. 31 feet. oh boy will it be a long day.

I really need to speed the detail up with this boat but i do not want to sacrifce quality workmenship. Anyone have any ideas for me as i am running out of ideas.

and yes Jason will be helping me on this.

any advice would help as i have not detailed a boat since last summer and i know i will be getting about 10 more boats this year.

i will be taking before and after pix.
 
I haven't detailed a boat in a few years. Just isn't worth the time and effort and additional product (gelcoat specific stuff, etc) for 5-10 a year. Besides, I don't like detailing them enough to turn down a car detail.



Check with Meguiars-they have some great boat/rv products.
 
Scottwax is right. The Meguiar’s cleaner wax and wax work well. I don’t think they are any different than their automotive counterparts, my guess is it’s just a different label, maybe not. Wax and wax hybrids are fine for gelcoat but don’t use them on epoxy based paints they will yellow the paint. Stuff like Klasse, Zaino etc. are fine though.





SJS
 
Depends but it’s pretty straightforward for an Autopian. You can treat the paint more or less like you would a car’s paint. There’s lots of different kinds of boats though, from big sport fishers that get used hard an partied on to primped and pampered boats like Swans and Hinckleys that require different levels of care depending on the client. Other than the paint you have to deal with metal polishing, some boats have teak decks that need taking care of, cleaning and polishing plastic, glass, canvas etc. The guy I worked for was a yacht manager so he took care of lots of other things as well. I did lots of bright-work too (varnish).





SJS
 
hey intel before you offer you better set a price for boats ahead of time. It's not like your 100.00 car detail. Whatever you do, do not undercharge for your business. It is a royal pain in the @$$ to do boats. I usually do around 20 a year, each one takes almost 8 hours. It is an all day event. The boats i do are not small boats, nothing less then 31 feet with double cabins. I have done some bigger and the bigger they are the more i charge. Dont be afraid to charge them. I have charged up to $2,000 for a yacht and that was just for the inside. It took me over 2 days to clean it last summer. I felt like a slave!!!!!!!!

detailing them is easy but it is just hard work, you will need some different products though. Meg's makes a great boat line. but i use auto compound for the boat as it is the same thing.

Most of the products are just the same under a different label.
 
NY detailer is right. Boats take significantly more effort than most cars do. The vinyl seats are a pain to clean, they are covered in sweat, suntan lotion, etc. The storage bins always seem to be a mess and it can all be very time consuming. I wouldn't charge less than $7.50 per foot.
 
hey scott, 7.50 per foot. In NY is starts at anywhere from 14-19 per foot. i hate doing boats, but it's the money that brings me to them. I do have fun going on the docks and spending the day on the boat but they are a pain to clean. Most of my customers are reffered to me by each other and some friends i have. It is pretty cool when i am hanging out on the docks when i am not detailing and people come up to me telling me the boat looks great and want to make an appt with me.
 
On our boat nothing worked better on the exterior gelcoat then Nu-Finish. Liquid Glass is also a good product for boats.
 
I have tried nu-finish for the boat, but after trial & error and seeing how the boats come out at the end of the year, i have stayed with the same steps over time for better protection.
 
It's a clean water/fresh water boat and the Nu-Finish was a nice one step for it. Lake conditions and water type probably plays an important role.
 
Nothing better then a pure glass, spring fed Minnesota or Iowa lake. You can almost dip a cup in it and drink it. When we go to a local music fest in Minnesota we just clean up in one of the lakes each morning after camping out. It seems like we are actually making the lake dirtier.
 
<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' >

<em class='bbc'>Originally posted by TBird [/i]
<strong class='bbc'>Nothing better then a pure glass, spring fed Minnesota or Iowa lake. You can almost dip a cup in it and drink it. When we go to a local music fest in Minnesota we just clean up in one of the lakes each morning after camping out. It seems like we are actually making the lake dirtier. [/b]</blockquote>
This is why you dont want us New Yorker's coming to your lake, you wash up in it and we will pee in it.:D
 
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