Av8

Your plane was the "Model" for my project just finished. 2nd the vote of confidence for Airtex - they sent me materials and I did work myself, very pleased with the price/quality.

I'm at kint - Winston Salem, my 78 201 is in avionics shop - should finish late this week - message me, happy to go flying together, share purchase and ownership experience

A note of update that fits many threads of late - purchase, status/quality of the older airframes etc. I posted photos of the interior work did over the holidays - link to Dropbox anyways. Found fuel leak into cabin, lots of oxidized aluminum and evidence of owner work over the years - all good and I know my plane much better for the effort. My post above about circuit breaker pop etc has now come full circle. Plane is in avionics shop for upgrades and root cause makes sense. The g430w install on my plane was poor. Poor groundings questionable placement of gps antenna, questionable routing of wires etc. A lesson to future buyers - read the logbook for context. My airframe had a hard landing with nose gear repair, followed shortly by G430 install and up for sale. Took a couple years to sell - annuals are remarkably close to 100 hrs and no entries between annuals. Look for the lipstick on the pig - buyer beware always, but in my case it's working out to be a good thing. I am not disappointed. I negotiated and. Bought "ok". But initial asking price was well above what I paid. I will soon have about $130k into a 78 J. It will have less than 500 hrs on a factory new engine, same hrs on scimitar prop, new leather, carpet fresh paint/repairs on interior plastic, gtn650, g430w, jpi 900, g33ES xponder and gma350. Exterior paint is original but serviceable. I could not find a plane for sale with this configuration - so bought a project around an engine and airframe. For my mission it's perfect. Look forward to getting her out of the shop, purchase gremlins behind me and good flying ahead.

Airtex does not do plastic - I did repairs on cracks and reinforce some places throughout. The SEM paint went on well and refreshed the look Were you able to see picks from link to Dropbox?

I'm about 80% through repariing/painting plastic, new carpet & seat coverings, replacing insulation. This is 3rd interior in this bird, I've uncovered some "sins of the past" and other things that it's good to know, and clean up. The project has been a great way to get to know the airframe and have confidence in it. $4k all in from Airtex Interiors for leather seating surfaces, carpet, carpet side panels, carpet piece for hat rack space and insulation. The folks there have been really helpful - I've e-mailed pictures before buying, and when encountering problems to great assistance. I would suggest it's not so much "handy" as patient to do the work. Lots of time spent using citrus based stripper to get the old glue/material off of the surface, use an alcohol prep to ensure clean surface before painting, and be very careful - I cracked one piece (curved piece top of hat rack) re-installing it. The polyfix Cyanoacrylate repair kit works really well - again patience is key. read the directions many times & when I worked patiently it welded cracks, and could be sanded to be nearly unrecognizable... for more than a few spots I got "good enough" and moved on. Also installed shoulder harnesses as my 78 J did not have them at purchase I purchased a plastics repair kit from 'Spruce and the chemical bond to repair plastic cracks has worked quite well - though I've definitely done an amateur job. Cost to replace the plastic looked prohibitive so doing best to reinforce with fiberglass mat, duct tape etc. on the back, and SEM paint to refresh the look. Below is a link to photos and a few videos of the work - sorted by timestamp - feel free to PM me with any questions. Will continue to add pics as I finish the project. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/n25s3u62ztkvy81/AADflO4Zh6jYScdclZfKWHoXa?dl=0 Just received the seat coverings today - also need "insert" pieces, those have not shipped yet. Plane going into the avionics shop tomorrow to add GTN 650 (GI-106), JPI 900, GMA 350, GTX 33 ES transponder. Expecting 2-3 weeks in avionics shop. Existing 430W will become Nav/Com2.

Manassas and Leesburg (jyo) are both convenient. Leesburg is my favorite as it's easy access to DC via Dulles access road66 If you don't want to rent a car you can can to metro (I think Reston is still closest to Leesburg, pretty sure there is commuter rail close to manassas Very friend.y folks at FBO and flight school. They gave good suggestion first time I flew there - fly west VFR under Dulles airspace and pick up IFR in the air otherwise can sit long time waiting for release. Same applies going in - you can cancel IFR and avoid vectors depending on Dulles traffic. Either way I'd take the sfra class before flying there - worth the time to be familiar. Print out the knee board cheat sheet for easy reference.

About 125 this year. Bought a J this year and have over 70 hrs so far of mooney time

Stack of random comments: Lots of risk and unknown in a plane not flown regularly. Corrosion in the engine, turbo. Gyros and soft parts don't do well sitting still. Check serial num and last O/H of all accessories and steam gauges. As example if attitude indicator has low SN could cost 5k to replace Has she been hanga red or outdoors, where? Would Definatley want to talk to seller, mech who did last annual and see it with own eyes. This one is a project - you want to restore a plane or fly one lots of better shape 252s listed around 175 that are likely lower risk/better value.

Bennett makes good comments. A better than new plane can be built from an older airframe - but it can't get the price/value - makes biz model you talk about hard. When I was looking 197x j models ranged from sub 50 essentially airframe, but never topped 200 for new everything so to speak. I have a 78 J @ 6 months (see my post abt purchase) and am doing some work on it. Talking to bank that advertises in MAPA, knows the market, feedback was bank wouldn't want to loan much over 100k on a 197x J model. Piloto comment is on point - vref/values are limited. So you would be limited to cash buyers. Check out recent posts on panel upgrades - they are passion, hobby and toy driven not ROI. Stand by for my DIY interior upgrade and panel upgrade coming in Q1. While your logic is sound, market forces prob. Prohibit it Working.