Fixed pitch prop dress and paint.

Cruzinchris

Cruzinchris

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Jul 18, 2017
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Cruzinchris
What would be ballpark cost to dress, paint, balance a Sensenich fixed pitch at a prop shop?

I got a bid of $1250 from a local shop. Seems high?
 
A little less than $800 to re-pitch, clean up, balance and paint a couple of years ago.
Edit: plus a few prop bolts
 
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I pulled mine off and stripped it down to mare metal with chemical stripper. I made a little rack to hang it on and repainted it with Krylon satin black. It turned out really nice. It cost me about $25 and a days worth of work.
I don't understand overhauling a fixed pitch prop unless it is all banged up. mine was always smooth so I didn't want a prop shop to screw it up..
 
Timbeck2 said:
I guess I chose wisely then. Mine is gray with blue and white tips. But what is wrong with black?
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Black looks good when its new. The first flight I got in some heavy rain and it took a little paint off the leading edge of the prop. On grey you really don't see it. On black it stands out.
 
pigpenracing said:
Black looks good when its new. The first flight I got in some heavy rain and it took a little paint off the leading edge of the prop. On grey you really don't see it. On black it stands out.
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I was going to ask how the paint held up after some use, especially in the rain.

I was thinking that if went that route I would do for a high end polyurethane for durability. My thinking being, “What gets more high speed impact than the prop”?

As an aside, I came away from my plane painting project believing that the highest end ‘jet paint’ is mucho $$$$ and most durable because of jet speeds and H2O.


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Local prop shop quoted me $300 to re-pitch and that included dressing and painting...
 
I filed mine on the Grumman and used krylon as well. Day well spent to really dress the plane up.
 
That Krylon is good stuff. I did the backside of my composite prop last annual, after filling in the little chips with dry micro.
 
I didn’t think we could paint our own props? Did I just pick up bad info?
 
Huckster79 said:
I didn’t think we could paint our own props? Did I just pick up bad info?
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From Far 43, appendix A, Preventative Maintenance:

(10) Applying preservative or protective material to components where no disassembly of any primary structure or operating system is involved and where such coating is not prohibited or is not contrary to good practices.

With the prop installed, an owner can only "touch-up" the paint. Best to get checked out on it by a mechanic first. Dressing and paint and dynamic balance can be done in 2 or 3 hours. There are mechanics and shops who specialize in this work.
 
Cruzinchris said:
What would be ballpark cost to dress, paint, balance a Sensenich fixed pitch at a prop shop?

I got a bid of $1250 from a local shop. Seems high?
Click to expand...
About $250 from Sensenich in Gainsville. That's what I paid a couple years ago anyway.
 
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