Airplane Detailing

What ever you think you would charge to detail an airplane, multiply by three and expect the person to take it in a heartbeat....

Years ago when I had my airplane and hung out a lot at the FBO, EVERY summer a kid would come out to the airport looking for summer work and would come in and ask if there were any airplanes that he could detail and wax?.... The guy behind the counter would point out the window at one of their airplanes and say "yea, how much to do that one right there?" The kid would reply "ok, how about $30" thinking that was a lot of money and that the guy would want to dicker with him about the price (ok this was about 30 years ago). The FBO owner Jim would say "Great, go ahead and get started"... Which typically shocked the kid and he wouuld get his stuff and get right to it...About 7 hours later the kid would come in (usually in more or less obvious pain since he wasn't using a polisher) and claim his pay, and Jim would give him the 30 bucks and a $10 tip and say, "hey, I got a lot more airplanes that need a wax job, you wanna do some more? EVERY time the kid would pocket the money and say,,, "well, I don't know", and would NEVER be back..... Each wing of even a typical light plane has more square footage of sheet metal than a typical car. Add to the the fuselage and the empenage, and you've got as much metal area as four or five cars and it's a lot harder to reach a lot of it... It is a huge amount of work and that's why even fastidious owners get a hangar and keep their airplanes out of the sun and don't wax them that often....

Keep that in mind and if you are reasonable there is a good market for it.....

 

Make sure you understand the intricacies of detailing aircraft, such as how to locate and avoid static ports, pitot tube openings, etc. Someone who is not knowledgeable about detailing aircraft exterior can create big problems if they do not properly protect the sensitive locations.

 

It took 90 minutes to do a Cessna 152 with almost a dozen people. Granted we were joking around a bit, but it is a lot of work.

 

My airplane is a combination of a mirror polished fuselage and painted wings. Just as a point, I try to have it done 1 - 2x per year. It takes lots of ladders and power orbital buffers, but when it's done, polished planes are stunning. Also there are apparantly techniques to polishing plexiglass clear as on windows and canopies.
It does a take about 2 days to wash, polish and wax my plane with 2 - 3 people.
It is a lot of work.

 

I had considered the same when I was asked to do one but (I was told) you have to use different products than on a car. I don't know why though. Plexiglass was an issue because I never worked with it, I don't know anything about planes and what I can and can not touch or what I have to be carefull with. I am also a one man crew because I like things done my way and thats it. I am VERY meticulous and a plane would probably kill me. lol I turned it down and started to research a bit, it is a ton of work and I didn't want to get all new products for it. You might be able to use the same products that you use on a car but I was told different and just like autos, there are TONS of waxes, polishes, compounds, techniques etc. I'll stick with cars and bikes.

 

^ Jason, I am not sure this is true. I own a Cirrus SR-22. It is an all composite aircraft. While some owners wash 'n wax their aircraft with product may especially for airplanes, many others use high-quality car polishes to the same result. As long as the car polish is a quality product, it can be used for a GA (General Avaiation) aircraft. I agree that you have to be more careful when washing airplanes to ensure that pitot-static ports don't get water-clogged and to ensure other sensitive areas (like in my aircraft the TKS anti-ice leading edges) are properly covered, but from a cleaning perspective it ain't that much different than a car. I will agree with others that the pure surface area of a plane may require more time, but if you've got a buddy or two that can assist, and you price your services accordingly...I say go for it.

Best.

 

The biggest hassle is the red tape. Apart from the city/county business license you will need to get an airport work permit for each airport you want to work at. Most airports will require allot of insurance....... general liability and property insurance with high limits.

Insurance coverage to do airplanes is expensive and hard to get. If your not doing allot of aircraft it will not be worth it. You have to look at it as all or nothing. Isnt worth it to meet all the requirements for a few jobs now and then.

Also if your going to wet wash the planes then the airport will require you to abide by the federal clean water act so reclaim equipment is required.

Once you have all the permits and insurance in order you will then need to get training to properly detail an aircraft. Some companies will not let you use products that arn't Boeing spec'ed so you will need to look into that.

Good luck
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I looked at a business plan years back for a start-up plane detailing company here in the Midwest. We rejected their application primarily due to the cost of insurance and water reclamation, and potential liabilities from not doing this. The environmental requirements are nuts for this type of activity, and its generally being performed on government prop. so good luck. (I seem to recall the biggest issue being collection of deicing fluids coming off the planes, but not 100% on that)

 

I am not sure what you mean by this statement. I have TKS anti-ice fluid in my aircraft, but it is in a sealed compartment in the wing that would not be opened during washing, similar to how the gas is stored.

Other planes may have different locations for storage their de-icing fluid, but in no event should the fluid run-off and have to be collected unless you were purposely having to drain it.

But interesting post on the insurance and environmental issues when thinking about the business side of aircraft cleansing.

Regards.

 

Look at the interior cleaning side for the corporate jets. Operators tend to want the interiors to always look really nice all the time.

For a company that does aircraft cleaning as their core business look to Appearance Group.

Jeff

 

i work for Gulfstream here in Savannah, and Aero Services has a contract to do all of our Customers jets. they have separate groups for interoir, exterior, and another that just does the buffing of the leading edges and engine nose cowls. they have at least 6 people and a Lead per group, as we , the A&P's, have to sign off on their work , and do an inspection to make sure there is no FOD anywhere they worked.

if someone drops a ladder on an aircraft and dents it, you could be looking at $100k by the time you do labor, materials, and Engineering time.

you are going to have employ people who can pass the background and Airport security checks to even be on the property, much less near a normal civilian aircraft. Government and Military aircraft require a much higher clearance and special Airport issued permit. i respect the TSA men and women, but some of them are very overzealous!

good luck to you , i do hope it works out.

 

I meant cleaning off deicing residue that was on the exterior of the plane-water containing these contaminants must be collected, it cannot runoff into drains. but again this was a while back, laws could have changed, or I could be thinking of something else. I've killed a lot of brain cells since then...

 

Hey, how much to wax on wax off my A380 Danielson?

sorry, couldn't resist...

 

Talk about training????

The P-51 in the above photo.... The guy is polishing the "anti-glare" area on the nose with a buffer..??????

I guess that it's better than having the glare of polished aluminum in your eyes, but polishing it ?????

 

The guy in the pic (me) is applying a coat of wax to the entire airplane as per the owners instructions. Polished aluminum? Yea we do that to........
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Who are the major players in this segment?

Reap, I couldn't find a website for Aero Services. Do you know it?

I own cleanestjets.com as well as a few other domains for this market, I'm just starting to think what to do with them.

 

A quick online search will produce he big dawgs in the aircraft detailing industry.

Such as appearance group and similar.

 

I figured as much....

just keeping the thread alive. I guess you could pretty much check google for most questions asked.

Nice work btw

 

Thanks you, I enjoy it.

We have had some awesome jobs even though we mostly do the little ones. Still fun none the less!!
Image Unavailable, Please Login