Old Monorail Self Service Station

[cthulhu4change]

Howdy, my partner and I are pretty deep into buying a 4 bay self service carwash. I figured I would post a documented journey as what I'm doing and thinking and getting advise from people that know what they are doing.

We will be viewing the equipment room tomorrow and testing everything but I imagine based on the coin collectors and monorail signage, everything in there is pretty old.

4 vacuums all ran when I went out today and worked well but ran for quite a long time.

I imagine that I'll need to replace the in bay selectors but with the vintage aesthetic, I wish I could retrofit them to take cards.

 

[Randy]

Monorail car wash systems went out of business about 2001. Parts for there equipment is just about non existent. Those vacuums are the G-2 Trade wind vacuums. They have a short drop european mechanical coin acceptor, you can tell by the slanted coin slot on the top. The bill changer, I've never seen anything that before, I've worked on a lot of bill changers, it must be pretty old. From the outside I think you'd better figure on a total remodel. Post some pictures of the inside.

 

[cthulhu4change]

Monorail car wash systems went out of business about 2001. Parts for there equipment is just about non existent. Those vacuums are the G-2 Trade wind vacuums. They have a short drop european mechanical coin acceptor, you can tell by the slanted coin slot on the top. The bill changer, I've never seen anything that before, I've worked on a lot of bill changers, it must be pretty old. From the outside I think you'd better figure on a total remodel. Post some pictures of the inside.

Thank you for the info! I'm very grateful. I will take pictures while we walk the property in the morning

 

[Eric H]

I have Monorail equipment from about 1984. Nothing on the pump stand that isn’t fairly standard SS stuff.
You may be able to start up using the existing meter box and timers but IMO that should be replaced immediately.
I have Etowah Valley Equipment meter boxes with Dixmir timers, multi coin acceptors, bill validators and Cryptopay credit card.
The cost of a new SS pump stand will likely exceed the cost of repairing the stand you have. I would replace all of the hoses and solenoids and try to replace anything else as needed

 

[cthulhu4change]

Dude told me 2 different stories so I guess it's not currently in operation despite earlier saying it was. They had some pipes freeze in "February". I was hoping for a newer pump stand setup,the did get the pumps to turn on and get the bays up but I wasn't able to test anything I wanted to. The drains in the bays are like 12 inch drains so not a grate like I expected. I'm assuming I'm going to need to replace most of this room if I move forward. What do you guys think?

 

[Eric H]

That stuff is much older than my equipment.
The unguarded belts don’t sit well with me even though I’m a “safety third” type of guy.
I’d expect to pay land value for this project. You’ll need to sink a lot of money into this. Be sure to dig deep into your proforma. Nothing like buying yourself a low paying job to spend all of your spare time working for pennies

 

[Keno]

You're going to need a good amount of business volume to get any decent ROI on the capital expense this project would probably require.

 

[cthulhu4change]

You're going to need a good amount of business volume to get any decent ROI on the capital expense this project would probably require.

The property is just north of 100k so part that is just holding the land value, I'm getting comps now to try and see if the commercial land is worth holding or what to do next. I was hopeful to be able to operate this for a while until I found some used better gear but now I'm not really sure how I'll go about it. Dude said he was making about a 3rd what the other guys mentioned making in town so, I figured cleaning this up and scaring away the locals might help make a decent ROI. Needing to put another 50-70k into though would make that a harder sell.

 

[Cwajciec]

The property is just north of 100k so part that is just holding the land value, I'm getting comps now to try and see if the commercial land is worth holding or what to do next. I was hopeful to be able to operate this for a while until I found some used better gear but now I'm not really sure how I'll go about it. Dude said he was making about a 3rd what the other guys mentioned making in town so, I figured cleaning this up and scaring away the locals might help make a decent ROI. Needing to put another 50-70k into though would make that a harder sell.

I was in a similar boat inheriting a 6 bay self serve along with another business. Equipment was from 1994 and mostly original. Still had shallow well pumps for foam brush and tire cleaner. Most of the “upgrades” were poorly done from the previous owner. Gut jobs were looking like $50-75k and not worth it with little revenue coming in. But I started fixing things and upgrading, and added credit cards and foam cannons. Replaced every hose and LP pumps with flojet. Paint. Signs. Current revenue is up 4x the pre-upgrade amount and climbing. Total cost for parts was around $12k. And a lot of free labor. Good luck!

 

[cthulhu4change]

I was in a similar boat inheriting a 6 bay self serve along with another business. Equipment was from 1994 and mostly original. Still had shallow well pumps for foam brush and tire cleaner. Most of the “upgrades” were poorly done from the previous owner. Gut jobs were looking like $50-75k and not worth it with little revenue coming in. But I started fixing things and upgrading, and added credit cards and foam cannons. Replaced every hose and LP pumps with flojet. Paint. Signs. Current revenue is up 4x the pre-upgrade amount and climbing. Total cost for parts was around $12k. And a lot of free labor. Good luck!

That's the current game plan for the most part. Get it operational, clean up everything, new paint decals and signage. I'm going to lighten the place up with paint and lighting, See if there is a way to add credit card readers, if not I'll upgrade the selectors. Then just simple stuff like new hoses, brushes, maybe some vending machines. I imagine just seeing that someone's putting effort into it would get some attention, we aren't that large of a town.

 

[cthulhu4change]

Well, I guess the update is we are having a rep go out and inspect and quote a water softener and RO system in the next couple of days, we are getting quotes on moving some used gear from out of state that would give us a big boost. Supposedly our agent knows a carwash guru who will come with us and tell us how dumb we are lol all is good.

 

[cthulhu4change]

We have decided to move forward with it, I was able to make friends with the owner of a much larger self service wash in our town so he said I can spend a few days working with him to get a overview of how his equipment works and how he runs things.

We are going to close for the foreseeable future and focus on getting things cleaned up and functional, if I'm able to get some used equipment that will propel this project forward quite a bit.

I realize most people make money by offering as many services on the dial as possible, I will probably need to just make sure the ones we do offer are perfect before expanding functions.

Please let me know if you have any advice or ideas for this project. I'd love to hear from people actually doing this and what they would have done differently if they were starting from my position.

 

[PEI]

If you can get the pumps to run then I would focus as much money as possible on the meter boxes and getting something like GinSan's Quad foam system. The meter box is your face to the public. The better that face the better the chance for success. The Quad foam system will allow you to add functions to your bays as you can. Also, if you use a rotary with your meter box then use the dial to keep customers turning from one function to the next with out jumping around. You can have multiple rinse positions.

 

[Roz]

I have done three total renovations. Two worked out terrific and one we had to pivot to a another business for the place. Really comes down to the location, the competition, and the demographics. At $100K the commercial land probably is worth more. If you are getting the place for land value then the risk is fairly low. Do the above research and that will tell you if the project is worth your time and resources. If the answer is not good then it does not matter if you spend little and repair the existing equipment to its glory as you will be cleaning out bays for peanuts especially with those tiny pits. The place we pivoted on has tiny pits too. We were always cleaning them out.

 

[cthulhu4change]

If you can get the pumps to run then I would focus as much money as possible on the meter boxes and getting something like GinSan's Quad foam system. The meter box is your face to the public. The better that face the better the chance for success. The Quad foam system will allow you to add functions to your bays as you can. Also, if you use a rotary with your meter box then use the dial to keep customers turning from one function to the next with out jumping around. You can have multiple rinse positions.

Thank you,

Current plan of attack/ priorities.

1. Bare minimum functionality, we need to close the business and get the cracked pipes out and replace whatever's not working.

2. Basic remodel, we are going with a brighter paint, new signage, bright lighting, patch a few pot holes.

3. Credit card readers, new meter boxes.

4. Equipment upgrades, we are hopeful on a deal going through on a used setup that has most of what we need but we will hold out for another deal if we can get everything running.

5. Ancillary income, vending, maybe work with a local detail guy, add a dog wash, food truck, get in with local car clubs, not really sure yet. I don't want to invest a terrible amount of money into this until everything else is finished.

6. Cosmetic upgrades, some of this stuff will probably get moved higher on the list depending. I would like to put up a rim of LEDs, maybe some speakers, try to maybe theme the carwash somehow. Anyone playing music at their wash, I could see that going either way.

 

[cthulhu4change]

I have done three total renovations. Two worked out terrific and one we had to pivot to a another business for the place. Really comes down to the location, the competition, and the demographics. At $100K the commercial land probably is worth more. If you are getting the place for land value then the risk is fairly low. Do the above research and that will tell you if the project is worth your time and resources. If the answer is not good then it does not matter if you spend little and repair the existing equipment to its glory as you will be cleaning out bays for peanuts especially with those tiny pits. The place we pivoted on has tiny pits too. We were always cleaning them out.

Thank you,

The business is pretty close to land value, it's a bit higher but within reason. It's situated by 2 gas stations, a dollar general, and a popular BBQ shop. The road gets about 18k cars, it's not one of the 2 major roads but it is close to quite a bit of housing. One of the challenges will be visability going one direction it's pretty overgrown and blocks view until your right on top of it, if I can work with someone to get that cut back it would make a big difference, I also think I need to reverse the flow the other owner had it going. He had it vacuums first, then exit to the gas stations, hopefully I can drive people from the gas station to us, otherwise they need to get on the main road and flip a U to get into the gas carwash.

The drains I already know are going to be a pain point, I was told they were cleaned and inspected, but it might be worth just biting that bullet on the front end since we have a connection that could probably get that closer to cost. Hopefully.