Q's on detailing boats in storage??

[Chubs]

I was just talking to a friend last night about detailing, boats in particular. He asked me how many boats I can handle. He has a friend that bought an old building where they used to make steel products. Now it’s empty and he stores about 300 to 500 boats in the winter. My jaw dropped. But there’s one catch there’s probably no electricity, heat, and water. The water I can probably work without besides what I need for my spray bottles. I can get a generator for the electricity, though I might have to worry about lighting. Now I’m stumped on the heat problem, since it will be between 10 and 40 degrees outside and it’s a very large building it probably won’t be much warmer. I know I could use a torpedo heater to keep me warm but what about the other chemicals I’m using, wax will never setup and window cleaner and dressings will freeze on the boat before I wipe it off.

What I want to know is has anyone ever came across this or currently do this, and how they deal with the problems. This opportunity would be awesome and hate to pass it up if I can find ways to do it.

Any ideas on what to do would be great. I’m running out of them.

Thanks,
Chubs

[mirrorfinishman]

Interesting situation. All you need to do is figure out a way to get those boat customers focused on getting their boats cleaned-up during the winter. Usually, once the boat comes out of the water there is really not much that the owner thinks about until next spring.

One suggestion would be to offer a pre-winter washing that would be done before the boat is stored for the winter. Then simply deduct the cost of the wash from the complete wintertime detailing. Washing the boats before they are put away would also eliminate the need for washing the boats during below freezing weather.

Just a side note about the frequency of boat detailing. Years ago I used to just do a complete detailing of my customers' boats once a year in the spring, before the boat went into the water. Now almost all of my boat detailing customers get their boats detailed three times a year; 1- complete detailing in the spring, 2- dockside detailing in the middle of the summer while their boat is in the water, 3- pre-winter detail after their boat comes out of the water, before it gets stored for the winter.