Cheap paint job

Chris Kennedy wrote:

Surprisingly heavy stuff, paint...

During WWII, they put a standard Navy paint job on a captured Japanese Zero and
couldn't get it off the ground.

George Patterson
This marriage is off to a shaky start. The groom just asked the band to
play "Your cheatin' heart", and the bride just requested "Don't come home
a'drinkin' with lovin' on your mind".

EDR wrote:

Nothing better than shiny aluminum!

Except keeping it shiny!

Thanks for all the replies. What I did have in mind was doing some of
the work myself but it seems that there's a lot of effort & equipment
involved in that. Well, not the stripping. I may do that. I am going
to ask the local shop (Waterdown) how much $$ back that would get me.
Either on my own or in their shop.

The thing is, the paint isn't *that* bad. It was done in '89 and seems
to have been a decent job. But, there are a lot of scratches, and dings
(deeper than the paint), and stains. I'm quite aware that a $7K paint
job isn't going to add nearly $7K to the plane's value.

Paul Folbrecht wrote:
The paint shop nearest me wants $7K to do a 152 (2 colors). I can't
justify that for a $20K bird; the current paint isn't that bad. Is
there any way at all to get a real paint job done for, say, closer to
half that??

When was that? Today they quoted me $5000 for a 152.

Dan Luke wrote:

Is there any way at all to get a real paint job done for, say,
closer to half that??


http://www.menaaircraftpainting.com/ painted the local club's Cessnas
for about $3,800 each. The results were acceptable, though they took
longer than promised.

"Paul Folbrecht" wrote:
When was that? Today they quoted me $5000 for a 152.

Two years ago, a 3-plane deal. Two 172s and a 152.

Paul,

If cost is the driving factor - shop the job around. Try Woodlake
Aircraft Refinishing in Sandwich, IL (private field). Ask for Russ
Ellis. 815.786.2538 He quoted me about 33% less than RYV for touchup
work on my Cherokee. He is quite busy however.

-Nathan


On Wed, 07 Apr 2004 01:17:05 GMT, Paul Folbrecht
wrote:

Thanks for all the replies. What I did have in mind was doing some of
the work myself but it seems that there's a lot of effort & equipment
involved in that. Well, not the stripping. I may do that. I am going
to ask the local shop (Waterdown) how much $$ back that would get me.
Either on my own or in their shop.

The thing is, the paint isn't *that* bad. It was done in '89 and seems
to have been a decent job. But, there are a lot of scratches, and dings
(deeper than the paint), and stains. I'm quite aware that a $7K paint
job isn't going to add nearly $7K to the plane's value.

Paul Folbrecht wrote:
The paint shop nearest me wants $7K to do a 152 (2 colors). I can't
justify that for a $20K bird; the current paint isn't that bad. Is
there any way at all to get a real paint job done for, say, closer to
half that??

Stripping an airplane is more work than you think. I did mine, and it
took
the best part of a year to get everything done (including etching and
alodining)- working on weekends. Saved me about $1000 on the paint
job. Would I do it again? No way. Of course, no doubt the second time
would go much quicker.

I looked into using the facilities of the Aircraft Paint & Prep Booth
in
Corona, CA. They rent them out to those who want to do it themselves.
After thinking it over, I concluded that all the time and expense of
staying there to do the job wasn't worth it. It may have been
different if I had lived nearby.

In the end I paid a shop to do the painting. IIRC it was about $4500
for
a ready-to-paint Cessna 182. They did a good job, and the paint has
held up well (this was about 6 years ago).

David Johnson