REFINISHING

How to Refinish a sailplane for $8500 (US)

1. Hire high school kids (part time)
2. Pay them $10 per hour.
3. provide them with:
A. Walk-Man, CD player (large headset)
B. Dust mask.
C. Gloves.
D. Air-board or DA with ample 36 paper.
E. Give them 10 min break every hour.
F. Free lunch.
4. Supervise your employees.
5. Charge customer $20 per hour.
6. Average refinish should be around 350 hours:
A. 350 x $20 = $7000
B. Materials, sandpaper, fillers, paint, etc = $1500
7. Total (out the door) = $8500
8. Profit 350 x $10 = $3500
JJ Sinclair

So that's how you made your million's ;-)

Pete

"JJ Sinclair" wrote in message
...
How to Refinish a sailplane for $8500 (US)

1. Hire high school kids (part time)
2. Pay them $10 per hour.
3. provide them with:
A. Walk-Man, CD player (large headset)
B. Dust mask.
C. Gloves.
D. Air-board or DA with ample 36 paper.
E. Give them 10 min break every hour.
F. Free lunch.
4. Supervise your employees.
5. Charge customer $20 per hour.
6. Average refinish should be around 350 hours:
A. 350 x $20 = $7000
B. Materials, sandpaper, fillers, paint, etc = $1500
7. Total (out the door) = $8500
8. Profit 350 x $10 = $3500
JJ Sinclair

JJ Sinclair wrote:
How to Refinish a sailplane for $8500 (US)

1. Hire high school kids (part time)
2. Pay them $10 per hour.
3. provide them with:
A. Walk-Man, CD player (large headset)
B. Dust mask.
C. Gloves.
D. Air-board or DA with ample 36 paper.
E. Give them 10 min break every hour.
F. Free lunch.
4. Supervise your employees.
5. Charge customer $20 per hour.
6. Average refinish should be around 350 hours:
A. 350 x $20 = $7000
B. Materials, sandpaper, fillers, paint, etc = $1500
7. Total (out the door) = $8500
8. Profit 350 x $10 = $3500

Can you find kids that will do that for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week,
for the 8 weeks it'd take? How much training does it take to get them to
do it right, and is that included in the 350 hours?

Regardless of who does the work, is there "best time" to have the
refinish done? It seems it would be lot cheaper to do it at the first
sign of crazing, when not so much sanding has to be done. So, do it as
soon as crazing appears, wait until the it starts to flake off, or when?

--
-----
Replace "SPAM" with "charter" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

"Eric Greenwell" wrote in message
...
Regardless of who does the work, is there "best time" to have the
refinish done? It seems it would be lot cheaper to do it at the first
sign of crazing, when not so much sanding has to be done. So, do it as
soon as crazing appears, wait until the it starts to flake off, or when?

The only way to do the job properly is to remove all of the Gel. Surface
sanding cracked Gelcoat and refinishing over that is bound to get a job that
lasts less than 5 years.

Ian

Eric wrote.
Can you find kids that will do that for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week,
for the 8 weeks it'd take?

A couple of hours in the afternoon and weekends, these kids are still in
school. 10 bucks an hour is good money to them.

How much training does it take to get them to
do it right, and is that included in the 350 hours?

On-the-job training. Removing gelcoat is hard, boring and monotonous work. The
supervisor (JJ) must be constantly looking over the shoulder.


Regardless of who does the work, is there "best time" to have the
refinish done?

It's cost less to refinish before the cracks go all the way down to the glass.
My point in posting is there are literally hundreds of 20 year old ships out
there that are in need of refinishing. Some of their owners would pop for a
refinish that cost less than 10K. I would think some enterprising repair shop
would go after this market. I have done refinish jobs for under 10K, when JJ
Glider Repair was in business, but my workers (2 sons) graduated from high
school and pursued more lucrative careers.

Three, part-time high school kids or one good *undocumented* worker would keep
a refinish job in the shop all the time. The owner would have to do the more
technical things, like mixing, spraying and inspecting. After that, it's just a
*gel-coat removing party*, followed by a *contouring party*, followed by a *wet
sanding party*, and then finish up with a *Buffing party*.


JJ Sinclair

"JJ Sinclair" wrote in message
...
Three, part-time high school kids or one good *undocumented* worker would
keep
a refinish job in the shop all the time. The owner would have to do the
more
technical things, like mixing, spraying and inspecting. After that, it's
just a
*gel-coat removing party*, followed by a *contouring party*, followed by a
*wet
sanding party*, and then finish up with a *Buffing party*.


JJ Sinclair



Remind me to ignore any *party* invitations coming from JJ!

Liability is a problem when hiring high school kids. This keeps many
established businesses from providing the summer jobs that were available in
my youth. My company would happily provide summer jobs if there were some
reasonable way to do so. One has to either do it right with payroll taxes,
workers comp, etc or run an unacceptable financial risk in our sue-happy
society.

--
bumper ZZ (reverse all after @)
"Dare to be different . . . circle in sink."

In article , JJ Sinclair
writes
How to Refinish a sailplane for $8500 (US)

1. Hire high school kids (part time)
2. Pay them $10 per hour.
3. provide them with:
A. Walk-Man, CD player (large headset)
B. Dust mask.
C. Gloves.
D. Air-board or DA with ample 36 paper.
E. Give them 10 min break every hour.
F. Free lunch.
4. Supervise your employees.
5. Charge customer $20 per hour.
6. Average refinish should be around 350 hours:
A. 350 x $20 = $7000
B. Materials, sandpaper, fillers, paint, etc = $1500
7. Total (out the door) = $8500
8. Profit 350 x $10 = $3500
JJ Sinclair

The words 'Peanuts' and 'Monkeys' come to mind.
--
Mike Lindsay