Boat cleaning service?

Hey wiggo that would be mighty kind of you to let us pratice on your boat free of charge, i would take it that i wouldnt be able to charge you to for covering the cost of the products, lol,

I take it that user names marine reflections & warpa you are propper boat valeters or detailers in the boating world,

Lookin at warpa's pics are they of cars or boats, as the relections on them are brillant, & i know that to get that sort of relections is all about the prep work to get the wow facter.
 
I'm a carpenter by trade, detailing is just something I'm pationate about and prefer to do mainly for family and friends :)
 
Ha ha! I am a pro detailer/restorer by trade and do carpentry for family and friends.. how strange, we have even more in common it seems Warpa, nice correction pics by the way, I bet your mate didn't even know that flake was under there. :)

Jabster, joking aside I would give some serious thought over taking Rick_s or Wiggo up on the offers, it may be the way in you are looking for.

With regards to pricing, it is possibly the hardest thing to nail, viewings are essential, else expect a haircut in the post.

If all the surfaces are performing as they should (beading high) then I can pre-soak, pressure wash, hand wash then fibre towel dry a 40ft in under an hour.
If the surfaces are normal then it may take all day and then some.

It has continued to amaze me that in the car world a top end £100k pride and joy can be treated to 5k of correction/detailing, but a £500k boat sitting in the elements 24/7 is lucky to get the £1 per ft treatment :confused:

Spending more so it will cost less, is not a popular opinion, yet!
 
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Warpa, scuse my ignorance, but please can you explain what's going on in your 2nd-5th pictures. I don't get it. What are the photos with the Lumix camera guy actually of? And the last pic - what is that of? (I can see what's going on in the first pic with the swirl marks on the VW van from electric machine!)
 
Pic 2 shows the swirls with a torch instead of the sun. I know what you want for christmas Warpa :D

Pic 3 shows the surface after correction (no swirls).

Pic 4 shows the finish and the product used (i'm guessing Mezerna final finish).

Pic 5 shows the fleck revealed.
 
hey marine relections,
this gonna be a real daft qts then to yer, would you be able to use snow foam on a boat then? if so would it be worth useing, or is no good for the gel coat?

and yes i would take anyone up the offer if they allowed me, as there's nothing like leaning a new skill, and puttin it to good use,
just like doin the cars i treat these as they where my own, and how i would want them to look so people think wow he's cleaned that up really well,
and there's nothing like seeing the owners face in what you done and they think WWWWOOOOOOWWWWW,

p.s soz to have hijacked the thread a bit,
 
Marine Reflections said:
Jabster, joking aside I would give some serious thought over taking Rick_s or Wiggo up on the offers, it may be the way in you are looking for.

With regards to pricing, it is possibly the hardest thing to nail, viewings are essential, else expect a haircut in the post.
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+1. Get it wrong and you just bought yourself two days backbreaking labour for £100... ;)

I'm happy to pay for materials and a reasonable labour rate if you want to figure out what exactly is involved with doing a 40' flybridge boat on the water.

I seem to remember learning the hard way that dropping the electric polisher in the marina trips the pontoon supply...
 
Marine Reflections said:
It has continued to amaze me that in the car world a top end £100k pride and joy can be treated to 5k of correction/detailing, but a £500k boat sitting in the elements 24/7 is lucky to get the £1 per ft treatment :confused:

Spending more so it will cost less, is not a popular opinion, yet!
Click to expand...

Although I agree with the point you are making, you overlook that £100k cars are kept in cossetted garages and probably only used on high days and holidays, so after detailing / valeting they will stay looking that way for some time afterwards.

Boats on the other hand, as you correctly state stay out in all weathers. So they could need the same treatment every week - and even someone with Bill Gates' money would struggle to justify £5k a week cleaning / detailing cost. Probably considerably more than the mooring fees!
 
Trundlebug said:
Although I agree with the point you are making, you overlook that £100k cars are kept in cossetted garages and probably only used on high days and holidays, so after detailing / valeting they will stay looking that way for some time afterwards.

Boats on the other hand, as you correctly state stay out in all weathers. So they could need the same treatment every week - and even someone with Bill Gates' money would struggle to justify £5k a week cleaning / detailing cost. Probably considerably more than the mooring fees!
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You are quite correct, there is a vast difference in storage and therefore exposure.
Correction is not cleaning or an application, it is reversing damage that has been caused through poor cleaning or polishing techniques, or just plain old exposure.
They certainly wouldn't need the same treatment without further damage being caused.
£5k to correct a car in my mind is ridiculous as it would take about a week tops, but if it saves a £10k re-spray it's worth it having it done as people do.

The point I guess I am making is that once a surface has been corrected and left in perfect (high beading) performing condition, the interaction with the elements the surface now has makes for easy cleaning / maintenance and therefore less £££.

A perfect surface will also provide the most protection as it will reflect light much better than a swirled or oxidised surface.

Think of it in terms of these huge office buildings covered in glass, they could have huge window cleaning bills.
In order for the owners to keep the cost of maintenance down they need the glass to be performing the best it can on it's own.

The method to date and in the future is making the surface hydrophobic (water fearing) so the water beads up and rolls off taking dust and dirt with it.
This effect has the same dramatic results on boats and cars.
The higher the contact angle of the bead the better it will work.
Rain-x used on car screens for example gives a contact angle of around 90 degrees so it can be classed as hydrophobic, there are products being developed that have a contact angle of 165 taking them well over the superhydrophobic class of 150.
To date, the application of the superhydrophobic applications has been restricted to special conditions.


Just to add, Jabster yes you can use snow foam on gel, same rules apply really, but I tend to use my foamer for normal ph neutral on the pre-soak, it wont sit as the snow does but coverage is easier.
 
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Marine Reflections said:
Pic 2 shows the swirls with a torch instead of the sun. I know what you want for christmas Warpa :D

Pic 3 shows the surface after correction (no swirls).

Pic 4 shows the finish and the product used (i'm guessing Mezerna final finish).

Pic 5 shows the fleck revealed.
Click to expand...

Well that answered that :D

Snow foam on a boat i dont really rate (dont on a car too much either) a car has a lot more nooks and crannies that can be helped with the foam, plus a car is generally a lot more dirty than a boat and any surface contamination will just cause more swirl marks in the wash process.

Having said that my boat was in a right state;

picture105tc.jpg


So a foam was just a helping hand, it doesnt really remover anything though imo.

picture108mu.jpg


Still green aftera power wash

picture110vl.jpg


And oxidised

picture114po.jpg


Not too bad now though

picture122dv.jpg


When i take it out for the winter its having a full wet sand with some very specialist discs i came across, this will take the grp back to factory if not better so i can then put on the new maxum decals.

The leg could use a paint touch up too.

picture026yw.jpg


inside and glass done too, even had one of my cats doing an inspection:eek:

picture118w.jpg


Not too bad for a 14 year old boat, will be able to get top money when i sell as it will be one of the best out there and the mechanics are maintained in the same way.
 
Yes sorry, answered that one for you, hope you don't mind.

The snow foaming is only really for removing the big bits (hands free) so to speak it certainly won't remove scale, it does wonders on the pre-soaking and helps to soften contaminates.

My partners in love with your cat by the way and wants to see some more pics, but that would really drift it.
Also apologies to the OP for the drift, I hope we have been of some help though. :)
 
Wiggo, that would be good,
Maybe we can sort something out for in the next couple weeks maybe just to view the boat & 4 me to see what would be involvod, if your happy with this, have chat & go from there
I have had a message off another member on & will be hopefuly takeing them up on the offer to, they have a smaller boat, so with urs & there's would give a better scope on the size of different boats if that makes sense,

Warpa, in useing the snow foam i would have worked it in like the cleat & anchor areas, & possible work it in to the seaweed, in trying to lift it off,
Must say tho top job on what you did to get it like that & would hope that my work would match it to make it that good,
 
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One of my friend said about the boat cleaning service. Is there any professional cleaning services are available? What is the minimum period for cleaning a boat? Please produce some more attachments about the topic for view detail information.
 
jeffkinnelson said:
One of my friend said about the boat cleaning service. Is there any professional cleaning services are available? What is the minimum period for cleaning a boat? Please produce some more attachments about the topic for view detail information.
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About a day for a proper wash down, but again it all depends on the state of the boat. A pound a foot is about the going rate for a wash. Hull i tend to allow 2-3 days for, and the same for topdecks. Topdecks on the white Princess 42 im doing at the moment will be a push for 3 days but that included the wash (and i have a lad or two)

Have just registered as a limited company , polo shirts on on their way, so are business cards and website is under construction.:cool:

Like i said, i have only had a couple of evenings to work on the site, and have a long way to go sifting through all my images:eek:

southcoastshine.com
 
Try warpa of this forum, he is just starting out, currently doing the works to my boat, he has already done a couple of huntons and what an impressive job, will let you know what mine is like when I see it the weekend
 
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