Call me crazy

[Soakem0434]

It's bad, I know it's bad but.....Closing this week on a 6 bay/ 3 Vac SS in Central Va. ADT of 12k vehicles. Corner lot on Main Steet small town American. Room on the lot for expansion later down the road. Orginal A OK equipment.(late 90's?) 2 bays operational at the moment. Place needs a fair amount of TLC both the wash and the lot. Coins only currently, I plan to be fully CC in the next 3-6 months. I've slowly been acquiring equipment / supplies and educating myself thanks to you guys. My plans are to spiff the place up and sort out the most obvious issues 1st. and to be present at the wash a fair ammount of time. The place need a good cleaning of the bays, new lighting, new signage, possible new meter boxes, sort the wreck of a pump room, etc. Basically get what's not working operational or replaced and going from there. I can't wait to turn this place around.
I know it's going to be a challenge but it's a challenge I'm willing to accept. Not much historical data of the wash from the current owners in recent years. I feel I got a fair buy on the place. Anyone got any good contacts for local suppliers / vendors in the area? You are now free to laugh as much as you wish, I know I'm crazy. Hit me with your "if it was mine" ideas.

 

[Greg_T]

Fortune favours the brave. Best of luck to you.

 

[soapy]

My best advise is to keep the wash consistent. Establish your level and maintain your standards within a small frame work . People will come to know what to expect and want to get that every time. WHen your standards deviate is when people become unhappy.

 

[OurTown]

It doesn't look terrible to me if you got a good price on it. Is this your first wash? If so, the learning curve will be steep without some outside help. We will help you though.

 

[OurTown]

Also, I wouldn't wait 3-6 months for credit card acceptance. I would do it it 3-6 days.

 

[cbchevy4x4]

It's bad, I know it's bad but.....Closing this week on a 6 bay/ 3 Vac SS in Central Va. ADT of 12k vehicles. Corner lot on Main Steet small town American. Room on the lot for expansion later down the road. Orginal A OK equipment.(late 90's?) 2 bays operational at the moment. Place needs a fair amount of TLC both the wash and the lot. Coins only currently, I plan to be fully CC in the next 3-6 months. I've slowly been acquiring equipment / supplies and educating myself thanks to you guys. My plans are to spiff the place up and sort out the most obvious issues 1st. and to be present at the wash a fair ammount of time. The place need a good cleaning of the bays, new lighting, new signage, possible new meter boxes, sort the wreck of a pump room, etc. Basically get what's not working operational or replaced and going from there. I can't wait to turn this place around.
I know it's going to be a challenge but it's a challenge I'm willing to accept. Not much historical data of the wash from the current owners in recent years. I feel I got a fair buy on the place. Anyone got any good contacts for local suppliers / vendors in the area? You are now free to laugh as much as you wish, I know I'm crazy. Hit me with your "if it was mine" ideas.

Not sure where in "Central VA" you are, but im in Roanoke. Ive got 2 myself feel free to reach out and we can connect. I always try to keep several contacts myself of other local wash owners, you never know if/when you may need a favor.

 

[Soakem0434]

My best advise is to keep the wash consistent. Establish your level and maintain your standards within a small frame work . People will come to know what to expect and want to get that every time. WHen your standards deviate is when people become unhappy.

Thanks for the encouragement and advice.

 

[Soakem0434]

Not sure where in "Central VA" you are, but im in Roanoke. Ive got 2 myself feel free to reach out and we can connect. I always try to keep several contacts myself of other local wash owners, you never know if/when you may need a favor.

We're not to far away. Maybe an hour or so. I'll shoot you a PM so we can connect. Thanks!

 

[Soakem0434]

It doesn't look terrible to me if you got a good price on it. Is this your first wash? If so, the learning curve will be steep without some outside help. We will help you though.

You guessed it, First timer. I know the curve will be steep, Luckily I've got a background in industrial maintenance and various other construction/ problem solving skills to boot that I feel will come in handy with a little guidance. Thanks for the support, I'm sure I'll be here often!

 

[Randy]

We have AOK equipment and it's easy to work once you learn how it all works. Your equipment room is a typical equipment room, a mess. My suggestion would be to get everything working, pumping equipment, low pressure systems, bill changer. Then add Crytopay Tap plus to the coin boxes. We did away with all of our card swipers and only have the Tap plus now, they get used a lot.

 

[Dan kamsickas]

Couple of observations:

1) If you're going to upgrade your meterbox to modern technology(credit cards ASAP), get them out of the middle of the bay. You're asking for problems with them there
2) I hope those pump stand frames are just out of alignment and not corroded beyond repair. It's not just a pain to repair but an indication of how poorly the site had been run and that can be tough to change customers impressions of the site. The upside is there is a ton of room for growth.
3) A-OK was solid equipment for it's time but they've been gone for 20+ years. You may get lucky but you may have a pile of scrap.
4) Assume everything is junk. That way you're pleasantly surprised.

 

[Soakem0434]

Couple of observations:

1) If you're going to upgrade your meterbox to modern technology(credit cards ASAP), get them out of the middle of the bay. You're asking for problems with them there
2) I hope those pump stand frames are just out of alignment and not corroded beyond repair. It's not just a pain to repair but an indication of how poorly the site had been run and that can be tough to change customers impressions of the site. The upside is there is a ton of room for growth.
3) A-OK was solid equipment for it's time but they've been gone for 20+ years. You may get lucky but you may have a pile of scrap.
4) Assume everything is junk. That way you're pleasantly surprised.

Thanks Dan,
Couple of the frame legs indeed are corroded and you hit the nail on the head of how the place HAD been ran. I agree with you on the equipment, I haven't put one ounce of faith in the existing equipment but I recall a time not to many months ago when all bays were up and running, hopefully I can sort them out and get working on new meter boxes.

 

[Cwajciec]

It's like you took a picture of my motor room! I'm also in central VA (Richmond) and also inherited A-OK equipment in a run-down 6 bay SS wash a couple years ago. The original equipment was solid, but the previous owner rigged everything instead of doing things right. My journey....
1. Understand how everything worked and unwind the poor quality "repairs" (Month 1)
2. Repair the pumps (CAT 310) to get all bays operational with HP water and foam brush. Painted inside of bays white, which looks great. Fixed the change machines (Month 2)
3. Bring back functions one by one. Tire cleaner and foam brush had well pumps and tanks. Replaced with flojet pumps. All of the original solenoid valves and hydrominder tanks worked well with new rubber seals and I'm still using them. (Months 2-3)
4. Installed Dixmor LED6, Cryptopay TAP+ on 3 bays and swipe on 3 bays on existing meter boxes (Month 4) Best thing I did for sure, count up!
5. Get the spot free rinse running with new membrane, filter, and carbon. 4ppm now! (Month 4)
6. Time to upgrade! installed foam guns on all 6 bays for tire cleaner and pre-soak. Replaced every LP and HP hose and tube with Nylon and KR blue hose. I took out over 1 gallon of extra fittings, hose and tube splices, push connect tubes, swivels, check valves from the previous "repairs". Took 1 day with 5 people! Raised prices and installed all new signs and decals. (Month 8)
7. Went to tokens to get rid of quarter hoarders

Business is now 4x what it was when I started, and average $ per customer has doubled and still growing (month 12) I did it on the cheap so I have around $12k invested in the repairs and upgrades. I also only had 2 working vacs and are bringing them back now.

If you are handy, you can get by with the quality equipment you have, and invest to make it reliable and better show for customers. (more foam, better chemicals, signs and paint). Good luck!

 

[Soakem0434]

It's like you took a picture of my motor room! I'm also in central VA (Richmond) and also inherited A-OK equipment in a run-down 6 bay SS wash a couple years ago. The original equipment was solid, but the previous owner rigged everything instead of doing things right. My journey....
1. Understand how everything worked and unwind the poor quality "repairs" (Month 1)
2. Repair the pumps (CAT 310) to get all bays operational with HP water and foam brush. Painted inside of bays white, which looks great. Fixed the change machines (Month 2)
3. Bring back functions one by one. Tire cleaner and foam brush had well pumps and tanks. Replaced with flojet pumps. All of the original solenoid valves and hydrominder tanks worked well with new rubber seals and I'm still using them. (Months 2-3)
4. Installed Dixmor LED6, Cryptopay TAP+ on 3 bays and swipe on 3 bays on existing meter boxes (Month 4) Best thing I did for sure, count up!
5. Get the spot free rinse running with new membrane, filter, and carbon. 4ppm now! (Month 4)
6. Time to upgrade! installed foam guns on all 6 bays for tire cleaner and pre-soak. Replaced every LP and HP hose and tube with Nylon and KR blue hose. I took out over 1 gallon of extra fittings, hose and tube splices, push connect tubes, swivels, check valves from the previous "repairs". Took 1 day with 5 people! Raised prices and installed all new signs and decals. (Month 8)
7. Went to tokens to get rid of quarter hoarders

Business is now 4x what it was when I started, and average $ per customer has doubled and still growing (month 12) I did it on the cheap so I have around $12k invested in the repairs and upgrades. I also only had 2 working vacs and are bringing them back now.

If you are handy, you can get by with the quality equipment you have, and invest to make it reliable and better show for customers. (more foam, better chemicals, signs and paint). Good luck!

View attachment 13452

HA, It sounds like the same guy owned yours and mine (doubtful tho), I'm 2hrs from Richmond, but it definitely looks like the same supplier did the original install for sure. I like your playbook and it's kind of what I had in mind. I'll shoot you a PM to connect.

 

[Soakem0434]

Spent the weekend cleaning out the PR ( 3 truck loads) of trash, old soap barrels and the non working room heater and compressor. Got the bill changer working. (pinched wires and a good cleaning) new trash bins at the entire site, grass mowed, weeds sprayed, 1 single column vender unjammed, re-stickered and stocked up. Replaced hose and claw on the 1 working VAC. 1 VAC left to replace and 1 left to rewire. With the PR finally manageable my next plan is to start troubleshooting the high pressure soap to the 2 working bays and jump over to the other pump stands from there. Got a call into KR to quote a 3 bay pro junior and new meter boxes with crypto tap. All in all I feel like we've achieved more progress in 4 days of ownership than the previous owner put into the place in the past 4 years.