Upgrade Wish List?

[Bubbles Galore]

What's everyone looking into doing for 2010?

My list:

• Automatic - New Washworld or PDQ (waiting for some operator reviews)
• Combo Vacs - Going to pick up a couple and move a few of my regular vacs to some of my detailing islands on the rear of the property
• Air Shammee - I plan on placing this in our cc bay to see the response from our customers

A lot of it will be indicative of what the winter holds, but so far 2009 has been a great year for us. What are you guys thinking?

 

[Waxman]

Installing a Shurvend 51 combo vendor. Will post pictures when done.

Thinking of drilling a well.

Installing an 'a' frame out of metal to have mat hangers on for my vac island so customers can brush the mats out instead of beating them on stuff.

Installing plastic parking blocks for auto bay instead of guiderails.

running an underground air line into new detail shop or buying a small compressor for detail shop.

buying a small carpet extractor to upgrade my old one.

 

[captain cw]

new signage, new lights and a paint job at my old wash. maybe some air shamees. put them in a my new wash. still not sure if they are a big hit or not.

 

[MEP001]

I'm hoping we can replace the Vector with a Freestyler. A new tunnel opened nearby and took about half our automatic business. We'd be the only friction wash open 24 hours in the area, not to mention chemical and water usage would drop greatly.

 

[Turbo]

Installing a Shurvend 51 combo vendor. Will post pictures when done.

Thinking of drilling a well.

Installing an 'a' frame out of metal to have mat hangers on for my vac island so customers can brush the mats out instead of beating them on stuff.

Installing plastic parking blocks for auto bay instead of guiderails.

running an underground air line into new detail shop or buying a small compressor for detail shop.

buying a small carpet extractor to upgrade my old one.

Waxman:

Where do I find plastic parking blocks?

Thanks

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Go to the Coleman user's group and find the subject about scrapping the aluminum rails. You'll find the info you need there, including pictures.

 

[Red Baron]

New vac island is in and 2 new D&S 3-in-1 vacs will be installed tomorrow. Next week we start converting my outside/open bay to a 2nd automatic (yeah I know Pat, you tried to tell me lol) with D&S i5000. At the same time we will replace my existing D&S 5000 with an i5000 and raise my top wash to $9 on both IBA's.

Scary, but exciting too.

 

[coincarwash.ca]

I will be Installing a Shurvend visi combo vendor in the spring.
Always looking for new equipment or vending ideas.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Sounds good to me! I don't want to jack my own thread, but I'm going to paint my bay walls also! I know I know. Bad idea....whatcha gonna do? You've all seen the pictures, I have to try something. I'm thinking that I'm going to use drylok to paint the walls. I just need it to last a year or so until I refinance and do some more upgrades.

On a different note: Has anyone had any luck with using RF at an in-bay auto? I'm looking into this option so that I can pick up a few different fleet accounts that have expressed interest.

 

[bigleo48]

On a different note: Has anyone had any luck with using RF at an in-bay auto? I'm looking into this option so that I can pick up a few different fleet accounts that have expressed interest.

Bubbles,

I looked into this and what I discovered is that the RFID option is more suited to a conveyor or multi-IBA sites as you need volume and availability to make it work.

I do my fleet with cards and codes and that works well.

Big

 

[Eric H]

Bubbles, You might consider using concrete stain to color your walls. I stained the rear of my equipment room mid-summer to cover up some graffiti. It still looks good... except for the spot with the new gaffiti As long as it still looks good (no peeling) in the spring I plan on doing the whole wash.
BTW: I have been purposefully hosing the wall down every morning in an attempt to make it peel prematurely.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Eric - Can you give me some more information or possibly a link to the product? I'm definitely interested.

Big - Thanks, I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts about it. Did you see my post about the floor heat boiler? Waxman mentioned you might have some input that would be useful for me.

 

[Eric H]

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/bmpswe...ages/paint/prd_072&_pageLabel=fh_findproducts
It is just a regular concrete stain available at any hardware store/home center. I used Ben Moore because that is what my favorite hardware store carries. The Ben Moore line comes in 7 or 8 standard colors but can be color matched to anything you want.

 

[Ric]

Check into vertical vinyl (home) siding for your bays. I did my wash with it 4 years ago. Still looks great. A better alternative to paint and not much more $ in my opinion.

 

[MEP001]

I would think it would look tacky.