What $18k for paint looks like

And time runs on....
 

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18k and you did it yourself? Not knowing that just seems like a lot of money.
 
I did it myself. The $18k price tag is if I did it for someone else, and got paid to do it. IOW that's what it would cost to hire it done.
But it still cost me several many AMUs. ;) And I still have ACF-50 and putting it together, and rigging to go. Plus a few touch ups here and there.
 
Looks great. The cream color and the red work very well. Excellent work!
 
What brand(s) of paint did you use and what type gun? Also, what were the paint quantities involved? Just curious...
 
Nice looking paint. The ol' bird shines up nicely.

I'm with the above poster. At one time, I thought I knew a little about paint/painting, but once I got into aviation, what I thought I knew went out the window. You commented on one of my posts yesterday about the price of aircraft painting (specifically, that my 16K quote was quite reasonable), but this type of number just blows me away. Perhaps if I had a better idea of what it takes (materials wise), I would be less disgruntled by a 16K quote. As someone who has a bit of knowledge in the automotive side of painting, a number like this seems, well, pretty ridiculous if I'm honest. Please don't think I'm implying that you or others would gouge or anything like that. I simply was surprised and disappointed when I found out that I won't be able to afford to pretty up my bird, at least not for a long time. I'm obviously more ignorant that I originally thought. I could use a little learnin'.
 
OkieFlyer said:
Perhaps if I had a better idea of what it takes (materials wise), I would be less disgruntled by a 16K quote. As someone who has a bit of knowledge in the automotive side of painting, a number like this seems, well, pretty ridiculous if I'm honest. Please don't think I'm implying that you or others would gouge or anything like that. I simply was surprised and disappointed when I found out that I won't be able to afford to pretty up my bird, at least not for a long time. I'm obviously more ignorant that I originally thought. I could use a little learnin'.
Click to expand...

High end paint is close to $500/sprayable gallon these days. It takes 3-5 gallons to do an airplane. Add in primer at $100+/gallon, then all of the stripper, etch, alodine, etc., and you're $3-5k in materials. But the labor is the killer. You have to partially disassemble an airplane. Strip it. Fill/fix any dents, cracked fiberglass, etc., etch, alodine, prime, paint, mask, stripe, mask, stripe, etc. times 25-50 parts, depending on the airplane and how far you disassemble it.

Then you reassemble it, balance the controls, get an IA or A&P involved as necessary to balance the controls and sign off on the re-assembly. Perhaps you do a W/B too...

And all of that labor and shop time is expensive.
 
kyleb said:
High end paint is close to $500/sprayable gallon these days. It takes 3-5 gallons to do an airplane. Add in primer at $100+/gallon, then all of the stripper, etch, alodine, etc., and you're $3-5k in materials. But the labor is the killer. You have to partially disassemble an airplane. Strip it. Fill/fix any dents, cracked fiberglass, etc., etch, alodine, prime, paint, mask, stripe, mask, stripe, etc. times 25-50 parts, depending on the airplane and how far you disassemble it.

Then you reassemble it, balance the controls, get an IA or A&P involved as necessary to balance the controls and sign off on the re-assembly. Perhaps you do a W/B too...

And all of that labor and shop time is expensive.
Click to expand...

Sounds like it adds up. I appreciate the rundown and education.
 
I appreciate the info of what goes into it as well. I just figured it was going to Sherwin Williams for paint stripper and masking tape and just a little more. But prep is important as well.
 
Looks great!

BTW, after our paint job we were advised not to put corrosion treatment on for a period of time afterward (I think ~2 months), so you may want to hold off on the ACF-50 treatment.

Jeff
 
Jeff Oslick said:
Looks great!

BTW, after our paint job we were advised not to put corrosion treatment on for a period of time afterward (I think ~2 months), so you may want to hold off on the ACF-50 treatment.

Jeff
Click to expand...
If ACF-50 hurts the paint, I'll be contacting the mfr, and asking them why.
 
kyleb hit it pretty close as far as cost of a paint job.
Just think about it this way; A chevy tahoe costs about $3-4k to paint properly, if it doesn't require a lot of repair. That's for a single, solid color.
Now add to that 3 more colors for custom stripes, 1 metalic, and 2 pearl. Now, remember, that a Tahoe is about 1/3 the painted area of a PA28.
So now the price is up to $9-12k for a base paintjob, plus the 3 colors of stripes.
I've gotten as much as $30k to paint a single car, and as little as $800 to paint a dumptruck cab.
 
You never know just how good a paint job is till a year later, then time will tell just how good it was.
 
Thanx for the props guys. Spent the weekend, shimming torque links on the main gear, installing wing root seals, dosing it up with ACF-50,
installing door rubber, inspection plates, checking tension on the cables, lubricating pulleys, heim joints, bearings, etc. Bled the brakes one more time, and fabricating a couple of patches for 2 cracks in wing skins.
 
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