Nice Paint buy it.

brien23

brien23

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Brien
People buy planes with nice paint, could be a money pit but nice paint sells. Fresh paint with automotive paint over the top of old paint looks good for a few years. Local overhaul on the engine or top end overhaul after 500hr since major over haul no problem. Prebuy inspection list all the problems and people only see the nice paint job and buy it?
 
I learned this a long time ago. An ugly airplane with all new mechanical bits will be harder to sell than a pretty one with mid time bits. Had a heck of a time selling my Grumman Yankee because of how bad the paint was. Practically brand new every thing else but people often commented they wanted something that looked better.
 
Doing paint and interior isn't cheap on an older plane. It costs almost as much as an engine (maybe half or a little more, I guess). All things being equal (mechanically), I would choose the better paint and even pay up for it a bit. Passengers don't have confidence in run down looking airplanes.
 
Doing it all over again I would probably go for the better looking airplane too. Mechanical parts are a lot easier to fix and have a pretty known cost. When it's done you know it's done right and will last. Who knows how the last owner treated the engine..
 
The first thing I tell people when they ask what to look for in buying a vehicle (doesn't matter car, airplane, bike, whatever) is it clean? If it isn't in good shape when the guy is going to sell it how well do you think he took car of it while he owned it? And yes, paint fits into that. In an airplane its a reasonable consideration, since a new paint job can run many thousands of dollars.

As far as our airplanes go, they all have mid time bits. The only airplanes that have all new bits have undergone extensive restoration that will raise the price and value considerably. And airplanes with all new bits usually have really nice paint jobs to go with them. Sorry, eyesores just don't command premium prices no matter how nice you think your airplane is.
 
Well if it’s just new paint but yet the interior is in poor shape and the panel is dated, I think it can be a deal breaker for most. At least a red flag. In my experience though, if they’ve spent the $$$ on a quality paint job, they’ve taken care of the rest of it also.
 
The paint on My 182 was decent overall but Wes peeling off of the cowling and the struts were looking bad. I had those areas painted at my first annual. I think it went from looking like it needed painted to a 7 out of 10 paint wise. I think it helped it sell and I would have not recouped the cost of a complete paint job.
 
Velocity173 said:
Well if it’s just new paint but yet the interior is in poor shape and the panel is dated, I think it can be a deal breaker for most. At least a red flag. In my experience though, if they’ve spent the $$$ on a quality paint job, they’ve taken care of the rest of it also.
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I flew out to see a 'newly' painted plane. The interior was a shambles except for the seats. Everything else pretty much was grimy (headliner), broken (plastic), or malfunctioning (pax lighting, flaps!). Guy thought he had a great plane but I walked. Turns out it had been hail damaged and the insurance co paid for the paint and his new paint didn't seem near the quality as my much older paint.
 
iflyvfr said:
I flew out to see a 'newly' painted plane. The interior was a shambles except for the seats. Everything else pretty much was grimy (headliner), broken (plastic), or malfunctioning (pax lighting, flaps!). Guy thought he had a great plane but I walked. Turns out it had been hail damaged and the insurance co paid for the paint and his new paint didn't seem near the quality as my much older paint.
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Talk to paint shops, most will tell you stories about planes they stripped and found bondo over damaged area that should have been fixed or hail damage filled with bondo. New paint and bondo hide a lot of things, hard to hide interior old plastic overhead headliner and seat cover worn out. For the most part money spent on upgrade of new avionics to sell a plane is a loss to the seller. Amazing to me is so many of you place mechanical condition less than good paint and interior.
 
It is strange. When pricing a plane, paint valuation is pretty subjective. I have seen sellers with pretty ratty paint call it a 6 or 7. I would think 6 or 7 should be above average (not bad at all). They don’t want to discount their plane for paint, but paint and interior can easily set you back $15k or more.
 
My view has always been that "paint don't make the airplane fly." Both of my Grummans--one an AA-1A with incredibly ugly yellow paint, and and AA-5 with serviceable but definitely oxidized paint on the upper surfaces--were in excellent mechanical condition and bought for a song because of "paint." I may eventually get around to painting my AA-5, but it is LGFT (looks good from terminal) and is in great mechanical condition. It's actually not that bad, but it's not exactly spiffy and shiny, either.
 
ircphoenix said:
Nothing a can of rustoleum clear gloss can't fix!
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The guy in the hangar next to me rattle canned his whole plane. Not sure about that whole balancing control surfaces thing... I do have a few spots and patches that have been repainted on my plane, though.
 
You should see some "new" 10yr old paint jobs. I've stopped looking for a plane. The prices over the past 2 years have gone batty. Doesn't even take paint anymore, people with a full set of Narcos are asking prices well north of 100k and getting it.
 
There’s always the “IA/A&P Owned and maintained”.

As if this means anything. I’ve seen some using this in the ad, and the planes are pencil whipped through and through.
 
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When I had my twin ,we called it freckles because of the paint. Got it at a good price. Put my money into avionics. The airplane doesn’t know it’s ugly.
 
brien23 said:
Amazing to me is so many of you place mechanical condition less than good paint and interior.
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What is even more amazing to me is that there are a lot of pilots who own airplanes who will knowingly fly unairworthy airplanes that are unsafe, just to save a buck. It’s as if personal safety and that of their passengers never even enters their mind.
 
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