Respect for marine detailers...

Clean Dean · 10-06-08, 08:09

I absolutely love detailing rare and exotic cars, regardless of paint condition. But boats thats another story. I have been detailing a few off shore performance boats for the past 5 years for a few regular car customers, but I never advertise or actively pursue boat detailing. I really do not enjoy it mostly because I never owned a boat, and they are just so much work. I have a lot of respect for those who specialize in detailing boats, and they must really have tremendous stamina, especially when buffing out neglected exteriors.

Today I spent 4.5 hours cutting and buffing this heavily oxidized boat, and cannot wait to get back to detailing a few nice cars tomorrow.

Process w/ rotary:

Hi-Temps Heavy Cut Compound w/ Yellow Schlengel Wool pad
Hi-Temps Heavy Cut Leveler w/ Green Edge foam pad
Waxed with Collinite #885 Fleetwax

Deanski · 10-06-08, 08:25

Oh man, I feel your pain!

We used to do boats, but just to send out they guys with the truck(s) and generators when dry docked etc was too much work and some owners just didn't want to pay at scale.

Most of the boats were not small by any means!

You're right, holding a polisher running full tilt with wool at the other end on a boat is no easy task. One of the guys made up a jig to run the length of the boat as this polishing such a large area was way too time consuming, let alone taxing to the arms and sholders.

Now, in my area there is a company who operates what looks like an auto-wash but for boats via mobil trucks. Cleans and then polishes when they change to pads from brushes. Very slick setup.

Hopefully, you'll not get too many boats again!

Deanski

RitcheyRch · 10-07-08, 04:48

Looks good.

Premium · 10-07-08, 06:20

Yeah, I do boats regularly. I do enjoy them, but its rather difficult to get much more that $16 per foot to detail them though. Nice work!

mercury89 · 10-07-08, 07:58

Looks awesome, I have done a few boats and they can be very time consuming.

Way2SSlow · 10-08-08, 05:20

Looks great Dean! Must be a workout holding the buffer up that high for 4 hours huh? I hope you didnt work arms or back before you did that!

bert31 · 10-08-08, 06:14

I am guessing Gel Coats on boats need claying just like clear coats and single stages on cars? Gee, I bet that is loads of fun to clay a 28 foot boat. Your fingers would feel like that are about to fall off by the time you were finished and you hadn't even starting polishing.

bert31 · 10-08-08, 06:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Premium

Yeah, I do boats regularly. I do enjoy them, but its rather difficult to get much more that $16 per foot to detail them though. Nice work!

$16/ft includes interiors correct? How bad are boat interiors to clean compared to cars?

brwill2005 · 10-08-08, 06:43

I just did a Pontoon boat the other day. Because of the way it is constructed, there was no heavy polishing required. I just had to No-Rinse the exterior panels. I also had to power wash the pontoons, which is difficult because you have to be under the boat. The deck got vacuumed, all vinyl cleaned and protected with 303. The wheel house also got polished with Poli-Seal. Anyways, great job Dean as usual.

Premium · 10-08-08, 10:53

bert31, Yes, that does include interiors if needed. Generally they are much easier to clean than a regular auto interior. Mostly just flushing out tanks and vacuuming out cubby holes and a quick wipe down and protect and you are done. With the exception of the vinyl interior which may require some extra cleaning and scrubbing prior to protection.

Clean Dean · 10-08-08, 11:30

Quote:

Looks great Dean! Must be a workout holding the buffer up that high for 4 hours huh? I hope you didnt work arms or back before you did that!

WAY2SLOW,

Trained shoulders that day (OUCH). Be hitting the iron real hard, and I am now over 240 lbs. Been shocking my body in every conceivable way with high/low reps supersets and drop sets. Planning on competing agin in April 09, but will defenitely diet and additional 4 weeks and try to gradually cut down this time around.

Don't know if I would be able to compete if I detailed boats regularly.