Beat up / worn out Arrow valuation

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd throw this out for discussion and see what comes from
some of the experienced people on the list.

I'm helping out some at a local school. The owner of the school is a
REAL penny pincher. He scrimps and saves anywhere he can. He'd reuse
oil if he could (he already fights with the A&Ps about reusing old
spark plugs). But in the process, he's let his fleet go to hell --
and I mean REALLY to hell.

He's got what used to be a nice '78 Arrow PA28R-201. The plane is set
up nicely with ADF, DNE, Garmin 430, second Nav/COM, Autopilot, and
power trim. But he's let the interior go a bit -- I'd say a 7/10.
And the outside is crap -- at most a 5/10. Some TLC might bring that
up to 6 or 7/10 - - but it needs paint touch up to get that rating.

But the worst part is the engine. 100 hour time came up on the past
TBO engine and the A&P found one clyinder completely dead -- no
compression. He pulled the jug and found the side of the piston eaten
away, the rings torn loose, and a ton of scrap metal pieces in the
capture screen. WOOPS -- time for a rebuild. Problem is, Mr Stingy
not only hasn't taken care of his planes -- he hasn't been putting
away a nest egg (I guess he just thought that engine would go on
forever). So, he doesn't have the money to rebuild.

He's trying to sell the Arrow. But its kinda hard to sell a plane
with a dead engine. And there is a long list of little to medium
things that need to be fixed (like replacing a good deal of the front
gear which has a bunch of slop in it).

So, he obviously can't get what he'd like for the plane. The big
discussion in the shop area has been what the plane might be worth.
And whether it might be worth trying to pick up cheap and fix up.

Anybody out there like to hazard a guess on what it might be worth?
And would it be worth our time to pick it up, do the maint ourselves
(yes, we have A&Ps in the group), and keep or sell it??? I think
AOPA's VRef shows it worth about $60 or so, but we all feel that is
very high for this plane's condition.



Chuck