Its official

[imported_turbomangt]

Perfect Auto Finish is now into fine aircraft detailing. Based on the recommendations I got here on contacting my insurance company, I have added the additional liability to my policy to get started. Now that I have one plane behind me, that owner has put me in tough with several other plane owners so I will be starting full scale next week. I plan on doing the planes on the weekend and cars will be weekdays. The money for planes is huge. I;m allocating two people for an average single engine 4 seater to detail at 7-8 man hours. Prices will start at $600 - $700. which is a little below the competiton. I have to under cut to get in the door. Its just like cars, once you have the reputation, and they have your trust, you build from there. Gary

[a.k.a. Patrick]

Nice move Gary!

[imported_mirrorfinishman]

Hey Gary,



Please tell us what it`s like to clean the underside of a plane. You know, where all of the grease, oil and engine exhaust dump out and stick onto the fuselage of the body of the plane during flight. And what it`s like to clean, polish and wax the underside of the wings on an average single engine plane. And what it`s like to work around all of those metal rivets.

[imported_turbomangt]

That`s weird, I got a repsonse posted on my email but it didn`t show up here?????? HMMMM. strange. anyway,someone asked about cleaning the underside of a plane. It` s a job for someone under the age of 25 years old. NOt 53. next time I will know better. I used a half gallon of all purpose along with solvent cleaner and about 25 shop rags. I was under a flat roller cart and my neck was stiff for a few days. Moving around the rivets is not any more of a problem than working around trim on a car. definatley a two person job though not one.

[imported_mirrorfinishman]

Here in Southern New Jersey we`ve got about 25 small airports and plenty of planes that need to be cleaned. Yes, there is big money in cleaning planes, however don`t be fooled into thinking it`s easy money. It`s not. It`s hard work. Hey, I`d much rather be doing a dockside maintenance detailing of a small boat.



What`s it like to detail a small plane? I`ve been detailing planes for more the 15 years and I can tell you first hand that it`s not much fun, especially when it comes to cleaning the underside of a plane. You know, where all of the grease, oil and engine exhaust dump out and stick onto the fuselage of the body of the plane during flight. It`s also not much fun cleaning, polishing and waxing the underside of the wings on a single engine plane. It`s also not much fun working around all of those metal rivets.



Now-a-days I am very selective about the planes I will work on. Just like working on garage kept cars, there is a very big advantage of working on planes that are stored in hangers. Those types of planes stay in a lot better condition for a longer period of time that those left outdoors. The other thing is, you can`t be in a hurry to get the job done quickly. I do it mostly as fill-in work. That way I can take my time and do the job right.



Since I do everything by hand, I really have no competiton. That allows me to price my work way above most plane detailers. When I first started doing planes my prices were $600 - $700. Now there well over $1500 for most small planes.



From a marketing standpoint, doing planes is like doing boats, you almost always get to also detail the owners vehicles too. And, like Gary said, you also get plenty of referrals of other plane owners. If you like hard work, it`s a win, win situation.