KSMooniac

It depends on what type, where it is, and how much... please share details and quality pics when you get them. And yes, definitely consult with Maxwell before choosing a path.

I remember seeing at least one Acclaim fully-loaded on Controller back when they were fairly new. AC, TKS, Monroy tanks...there likely was nothing else that could be added, except for higher gross weight. I distinctly remember calculating the entire payload with full tanks was 77 lbs! It should be criminal to deliver a certified airplane like that IMO.

For that price you can buy a used garage-sized lathe and make your own, and still have a lathe leftover!

I believe Maxwell has picked up the orphaned carbon fiber STC that Bill Wheat developed many years ago. I don't know if it is in production or buyable right now, but it is certainly worth a phone call. I suspect they could sell some metal skin panels too.

If belly skins are the only thing holding you up from returning your E to the air, then you should just fabricate new ones. They are quite possibly the easiest owner-produced parts on the airframe! OPP are completely legal, and the regulation/provision was created for situations just like this. Those skins are non-structural and cut from simple sheet aluminum. The spec and thicknesses are given in the maintenance manual. Use your old ones as patterns for the boundary and fastener holes. The holes are oversized compared to the screws, so getting them located within a few thousands is not required.

If you bought a turn-key airplane that needs nothing aside from inspections, oil, and tires for 10 years and gives you LOTS of enjoyment, then perhaps you did not overpay. Only time will tell! Alternatively, if you bought an 80k C and tried to add all of those improvements you would likely spend a lot more, and deal with the downtime and squawks. I doubt you are a sucker.

The biggest risk going forward in terms of difficult factory-only parts IMO would be control surface skins to fix hangar rash and hail. They are stamped out using the factory dies and presses. Less often would be wing or fuselage skins. Fiberglass (or carbon) cowls can be fixed in the field with a skilled technician, although I believe the factory missed a tremendous opportunity to sell upgraded composite cowls to J & K owners, and perhaps M/R/S owners as well using their molds. Beyond that are the unobtanium ducts and landing gear bits that they don't make themselves anyway. Eventually I would expect a new vendor to reverse-engineer critical parts and sell them to us without the legacy burden of the Mooney company. It will be sad, but the market will react. (See the recent V-tail skin saga in the Beech world) I have said before that the current value in the Kerrville operation/factory space is the Production Certificate that enables serial production of airworthy parts, which includes the policies & procedures and Quality system. Doubly-so in a low-cost & biz-friendly area of the US! If I were running Mooney, I would have been aggressively pursuing 3rd party fabrication contracts for aerospace production and even adding capability that hasn't been used for Mooney production if it made sense to make money. It is far easier to add capability under an existing PC than it is to start from scratch. UAVs have been in production for long enough that I wish Mooney would've approached those major manufacturers to get on board, and the upcoming eVTOL/UAM/etc markets are going nuts with all kinds of ridiculous investments and Mooney seems to have missed that wave as well. IMO, manufacturing parts & assemblies for either or both of those markets could have kept the factory humming and the lights on, and that would in turn have allowed the occasional run of Mooney parts now and then when needed. If I were really dreaming, perhaps some of those 3rd party lines could justify the expense of automated production machines that could eventually be ported over to Mooney production, but that is a very, very long shot. It will never make sense to automate any of the M20 line just on the demand of that (mostly obsolete) airframe, nor will it make sense to off-shore production either. I don't see how a very under-capitalized LASAR can effectively do anything with the factory in Kerrville when they cannot even get their own STC/PMA parts back in production after moving to Oregon. Collecting a little bit of money from the fleet in advance is unlikely to move the needle much on that front, I'm afraid.

When I re-did my seats a few years ago (with a local upholstery shop) I sourced and ordered 3 densities of confor/memory foam as I felt that was the best available for comfort and crashworthiness. IIRC it was ~$1500 just for enough foam for 4 seats without any labor cutting and assembling. Buy the best you can for comfort and safety and cry once. Enjoy the renewed seats for many more years.

Not correct... there is the Lycoming anti-scuff additive and that is different than the anti-corrosion package of Camguard. I run Phillips 20W-50 year-round with Camguard. I added Camguard after ~25 hours post-overhaul with my second oil change.

Me too! Even this century for a short spell. And <$2 100LL

The inflation is astounding... I think I paid Hector ~$500 to do my pair of yokes in 2009 or 2010 time frame. And I sold J yokes previously for <$1000 a pair. My yokes still look and feel fantastic, BTW.

SOLD

BAS put an 880050-501 from an M20M on ebay this morning.

What seats do you have now? There might be headrest provisions hidden under the covering. They're just simple aluminum vertical tubes welded to the top of the frame that are a couple of inches long. You might have to remove the back panel and take a look.

I wouldn't even replace the cylinders unless inspection shows something terrible. Clean, measure, hone. Address any valves if needed and use new rings.