Looking to get into detailing airplanes....suggestions?

S

SShine

New member
Doing cars is alright, but when I detailed down in the Florida Keys I enjoyed doing boats. Id rather work on a large job that takes 1-5 days instead of having to land numerous jobs a week. That being said I would also like to do airplanes. I would imagine you can get great pay doing it, it's just a matter of getting the jobs. My uncle has a rather large aviation company in Orlando so I will be talking to him about it. Now should I expect to pay a percentage to the aviation companies, assuming they "sell" a job for me? and of course I would have the appropriate yellowbook ad and my website with the right keywrods.



Anyways any experiences or suggestions would be great:dance
 
I looked into it last summer. Just type in detailing airplanes into google and you'll be treated with just loads of very good information. The biggest thing is all the new product you'll have to buy you can't put automotive products on airplanes. There are some very detailed step by steps websites out there on just how to do it and what to use. Lot more cost involved to get started but your right the payoff on the backside is far more than in the automotive world.
 
Jakerooni said:
I looked into it last summer. Just type in detailing airplanes into google and you'll be treated with just loads of very good information. The biggest thing is all the new product you'll have to buy you can't put automotive products on airplanes. There are some very detailed step by steps websites out there on just how to do it and what to use. Lot more cost involved to get started but your right the payoff on the backside is far more than in the automotive world.
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Yea I noticed that I will need aviation specific products for the wash and whatnot for prevent corrosion. I would imagine polishes are fine though.



I also realize you have to be very careful when doing anything basically.
 
SShine said:
Yea I noticed that I will need aviation specific products for the wash and whatnot for prevent corrosion. I would imagine polishes are fine though.



I also realize you have to be very careful when doing anything basically.
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Aircraft paint is hard as heck usually - no matter what combo we used (everything in between Meg's Marine Line oxidation remover on a wool cut pad, to M66 on a soft foam pad), it didn't really affect the swirling.



The big issue is the little parts that are easy to break and expensive - insurance is a must, and really the biggest hurdle of the whole operation. Degreasing bellies is a pain in the butt, but the rest of it is cake money and if things had worked out differently, I probably would be buffing planes right now in lieu of college.
 
Quick story. When I first started my detailing business back in 1986, like you I also decided that it would be good to get into boat detailing and also small plane detailing. Well, I still do the boat detailing, although I have fined tuned that market to only doing the boats maintained on a regular basis, like three or four times a season.



My decision to get into small plane detailing was rather short lived. Oh, I lined up a few jobs and did work on a few small planes, however the work was extremely difficult. Of course, I was doing all of the polishing and waxing by hand. The money was great, hey, where else were these people going to get someone local to take care of their plane. The biggest pain was cleaning the underbelly of the plane. That is where all of the engine exhaust goes while the plane is in operation. Wasn't very much fun, especially compared to boats.



The best advice would be to get out there and clean up a few small planes. Keep in mind that most small planes has plenty of small rivets all over the place. I never did understand how people who use machine buffers go about polishing the surface without running into hundreds of those tiny rivets. Maybe someone will read this and explian how it is done.



Shoot me a pm and let me know if you need any more information.



Regards,
 
would say, a wool pad be able to go over the rivets? They are rounded off and therefore pretty flush I would imagine. but thanks for the info :)
 
I have detailed a small single engine aircraft once before, it took me about 2 whole days to finish it up because I ran out of materials/pads and had to get more. It was the first plane I detailed and it looked horrible before I started and when I got done with it, the plane shined like a new one. The owner actually was bragging about his plane and all excited about how shiny it looks. He didn't think it could look that good again. He was going to have it repainted. I simply used the DeWalt 849, a wool pad, then foam pad. To me the hardest part was the wings, since it was over the cab, I had a heck of a time trying to stay on the wing and a ladder without falling off of it. The second day I used a scaffolding they had and finished it up. The belly was the first thing I cleaned and buffed. Since it was the first plane, I underestimated the work involved and charged him $475.00. But it really wasn't that bad.
 
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