Just when you thought detailing and ceramic coating premium supercars and superbikes was the peak CarzSpa can reach, one of our franchise car detailing studios in India hit the ball out of the park by providing ceramic coating service for a private jet aircraft.
Yes, you read that right, an aircraft. And not just any aircraft, an Embraer Phenom 100E, owned by Gujarat based Zest Aviation. Read on to know everything that we did with this mind blowing project and how it opened up the floodgates to bigger, more challenging and exciting projects for us.
Who did it?
One of the most successful car detailing studios in India, H20 CarzSpa Ahmedabad on Drive In Road in Ahmedabad had got this rare and interesting opportunity. Launched in 2009, H20 CarzSpa has detailed over 25,000 cars of all shapes and sizes. They are considered to be the pioneers of the industry in Ahmedabad, having introduced the concept of car detailing. Basically, they taught Amdavadis how to care for their car a little better.
How did it happen?
Mr. Harsh Tanna, a Club CarzSpa member and the owner of H20 CarzSpa is an active entrepreneur in Ahmedabad and a part of various business networking communities. Already known for the phenomenal detailing job and car interior cleaning services in India he provides through his franchise, Harsh was approached by the CEO of Zest Aviation in 2017 during one of the business networking meetings they were attending together. The original project was to provide some intense interior cleaning job and stain removal from the seats inside the aircraft. But upon close inspection of the aircraft, Harsh, an expert detailer himself, noticed that the aircraft needed much more than just interior cleaning.
The Phenom 100E is a 6 seater aircraft that cruises at the top speed of 750 kms/hour. Which means the exterior of the aircraft undergoes some serious wear and tear during its lifespan. In the case of this particular aircraft, Harsh pointed out how the paint had dulled down to a great extent and there were parts of the exterior where there was visible paint damage. If ignored, this problem could snowball into a bigger maintenance challenge in the future and could ground the aircraft for longer duration under maintenance. He suggested that the aircraft should undergo a detailed paint correction and ceramic coating process, which will add a great layer of protection over the body paint and give it a stunning gloss too. Zest Aviation gave their green light to this suggestion, as they understood that it’s smarter to be prepared in advance and in the maintenance period of the aircraft than wait for it to undergo any damage in future.
A job well done!
The confidence to take up a project of this magnitude comes only when you know YOU ARE THE BEST in the market. And being a part of the Club CarzSpa, operating a CarzSpa car detailing studio in India, gives our franchisees the confidence of achieving excellence through their skills and attention to “detail”. The team at H20 CarzSpa were equally pumped to pull off a rabbit out of the hat with this project.
Harsh picked his A-Team of 8 detailers who have done some of the finest jobs in ceramic car coating services in India and set a timeline to get this project done in a week’s time. The product chosen to coat the aircraft was CrystalShield X1 Y2, the most premium ceramic coat by CarzSpa then which offered 9H hardness and protection to exterior body paint of any vehicle.
The team followed its standard operating procedure of ceramic coating, which involved exhaustive and intensive decontamination of the surface, starting from an Alkaline wash, acidic treatment, ferrous removal, steam wash, neutral foam wash and clay decontamination. As this brought out and identified the various defects on the surface paint, an intensive paint correction job was then performed by sanding, compounding and polishing the body.
This was followed by the main part of the project, the application of ceramic coating on the surface. The team used 13 kits of CrystalShield X1 Y2. The aircraft engineers on ground provided great guidance to the team, to understand the various parts of the aircraft fuselage and parts where a little extra caution needs to be maintained during the process.
The challenges faced
All projects at CarzSpa come with its own unique set of challenges. And this was something we were doing out of the ordinary and for the first time ever in India. One of the major challenges faced by the H20 CarzSpa team were in obtaining the requisite permits and clearances for all the equipment that needed to be used.
An airport is one of the most protected spaces with the CISF ensuring nothing enters the premises without their approval. Every member of the detailing team had to be cleared for entry into the hangar where aircraft was to be parked. Every detailing equipment, right from the paint thickness gauge, washers, steamers, polishers and even the products had to undergo security checks and cleared by the airport security team.
Another tricky challenge we faced was reaching every corner of the aircraft and identifying the parts that need to be handled with care. The engineers and aircraft maintenance teams had to arrange for special ladders for the team to inspect and coat the aircraft in areas like the underbody, fins, wings, etc. The aircraft maintenance teams were to be appraised of parts where the surface paint thickness was harder, and only with their go-ahead the detailers would proceed to do the compounding and paint correction activity.
The post-project success
CarzSpa H20 Ahmedabad was already one of the leading car detailers in the country. The success of this project took CarzSpa and this franchise into the stratosphere, with clients approaching us for paint protection jobs for their premium cars, motorcycles and even yachts!
Harsh remembers how on the back of the success of this project, he got a supercar project in 2018, where he traveled with his team to Kolkata to provide car ceramic coating services to India’s first McLaren GT.
Interesting story, isn’t it? This clearly means that our expert detailers can provide surface protection for any and every vehicle that runs on land, water and even air! Stay tuned with this space as we will be sharing many more detailing tales from all over the country where CarzSpa has been to.
Visit your nearest CarzSpa Detailing studio to know more about our detailing services and give your beloved car the TLC it deserves.
