As I was the guy who quoted $20K for the paint job at Sun N Fun this year, I felt it was necessary to chime in and give everyone the facts on Factory Strip and Repaints.
The price was in fact $20K and higher (metallic paint option is an additional $2,000) for quite sometime. The reasoning behind this was that during production, the shop was at it's maximum capacity and we would farm out full strip and repaints. Due to this, we have had no historical data to properly assess the costing and pricing for a full strip and repaint.
Now that we have quite a few of these under our belt (and please keep in mind, the aircraft that helped us build this data were quoted $20K but charged the actual cost) we have been able to sharpen the pencil and have substantially reduced the price of this upgrade. The most recently completed full strip and repaint for a customer that post on this page frequently, left the factory with an invoice for the paint totalling $16,500 out the door.
Hopefully this post will clear the air a bit on the topic and I will be answering a few other post soon. Please feel free to ask any questions you might have, good or bad, about the factory and I will be more than happy to provide you with some answers.
On a side note: N207LS - Your aircraft is in some of the most capable hands in the industry. Mike is a true professional and I know that you will be extremely happy with the work that his team does on your aircraft. Just be sure you're sitting down when they unveil it for you!
Cheers and keep 'em fast!
