Here's what it takes to earn $70,000 per year painting roller coasters in Kentucky—and around the world🎢 (via CNBCMakeIt)
Jason Prather, 32, grew up in Edgewood, Kentucky. He played every sport possible for his small high school: football, baseball, basketball. He helped do repairs on boats and cars for extra cash.
Today, Prather travels the country and around the world as a project foreman for a roller coaster painting company called Baynum Painting and he earns roughly $70,000 per year.Prather was at a family barbeque when he first learned about painting roller coasters. His cousin worked at Baynum and told him to apply for a painting position.
He also earned several construction-related certificates from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, known as OSHA. "I'm in charge of getting the crew on-site and getting them up and rolling, as well as sourcing lifts as well as sourcing material paint sundries," says Prather. "I've been in this position officially for about six months."
"The way we begin these jobs, it all really depends on the difficulty of the project. Sometimes we have coasters that we have to walk to, sometimes we have to use ladders, but we mainly start with one process and that's cleaning," says Prather. "We pressure wash with 5,000 psi pressure washers, sometimes heated units. The heated units remove grease and build-up. Sometimes we do sandblasting as well, sometimes we grind rust.