M20F Price

[Shadrach]

Tex, I'll bite. Where are you getting this number?  The reason I ask is because I pulled the bone headed maneuver of just barely catching the outer right wing tip on my then girlfriend's Mini Cooper S. It just caught enough of the "A" pillar on the windshield and the tip slid right up the pillar.  I had the outer skin replaces as well as the flat panel that forms the tip. It was an insurance job and it was under $3K including paint. This was 6 yeas ago. Unless I missed something, we've not had 245% inflation in the aviation economy since then.

 

[Alan Fox]

 

Tex, I'll bite. Where are you getting this number?  The reason I ask is because I pulled the bone headed maneuver of just barely catching the outer right wing tip on my then girlfriend's Mini Cooper S. It just caught enough of the "A" pillar on the windshield and the tip slid right up the pillar.  I had the outer skin replaces as well as the flat panel that form the tip. It was an insurance job and it was under $3K including paint. This was 6 yeas ago. Unless I missed something, we've not had 245% inflation in the aviation economy since then.

 

 

I would guess to replace the skin would be about 40 Hours at 70 an hour ,(2800.00) and about 300.00 for the sheet metal and rivets , and about 4 to 500.00 to paint , if it is the outermost skin , but that in no way warrants replacement , The next skin down the wing would be a lot more as the wing would have to be removed and jigged to replace , Most owners would not bother to repair that until it is paint time , or if it has really good paint......I had one like that on my tip about 4 inches in on the leading edge , My paint is really nice so I paid to have it repaired , I am not sure how much I paid because I had the cowl center section painted (did a swta cowl mod) and the tip repaired and painted with three colors in Imron , I paid 840.00 and that included 270.00 worth of paint..... 

[Shadrach]

I think I was only quoted ~30hrs. but they ordered the sheet metal preformed from Mooney (my preference).  I had them cut additional access plates so that they could flush rivet the outer seam.  Cherry max would've been fine, but I thought it would look like $hit... 

[M016576]

Here's a larger image of the dent if it helps. The owner says it flies just fine and has no issues with it. Based on this what would an estimated repair cost be? Ballpark figure works, just looking to see how much something like this costs.

~3500 from LASAR with paint. After they are done with it- you won't be able to tell it ever happened. You'll need a ferry permit to fly it there though- but you won't notice the difference once it's airborne. It will fly just like it always does, just with an unsightly ding.

[LevelWing]

~3500 from LASAR with paint. After they are done with it- you won't be able to tell it ever happened. You'll need a ferry permit to fly it there though- but you won't notice the difference once it's airborne. It will fly just like it always does, just with an unsightly ding.

Everyone seems to have a different opinion on this. I told the owner that he needs to fix it prior to purchase. That way I'm not stuck with however much it ends up costing. If he agrees to the price and agrees to fix the dent, I'll put it through a pre-buy. Of course I'll make sure to get this in writing first.

[DonMuncy]

You might consider getting an estimate from someone with a good reputation (calculating in travel costs), and then see what the owner would pay for the repair. Then deduct the repair cost of the purchase price.

My fear would be that the person/shop doing the repair was not up to par. Backing out after the repair might be problematical.

[LevelWing]

You might consider getting an estimate from someone with a good reputation (calculating in travel costs), and then see what the owner would pay for the repair. Then deduct the repair cost of the purchase price.

My fear would be that the person/shop doing the repair was not up to par. Backing out after the repair might be problematical.

The owner already got a quote of about $800 but I don't know from who or where. He said he could either have it fixed or he could take that off the price. I suppose the way around that is to get my own quote and then go from there. Either way I don't want to pay for it regardless of how much it costs and I want it fixed right.

[Shadrach]

~3500 from LASAR with paint. After they are done with it- you won't be able to tell it ever happened. You'll need a ferry permit to fly it there though- but you won't notice the difference once it's airborne. It will fly just like it always does, just with an unsightly ding.

I believe the airworthiness of that "ding" is subject to interpritation... I believe that a majority of FSDOs would not blink an eye at that blemish (unless there is some hidden damage under the wing that I'm not seeing. If that's an unairworthy condition, then they'd have to ground 85% of the crop dusters in service (90% of statistics are made up on the spot, but you get the point). I'd not bother with a ferry permit.

[DaV8or]

I haven't ruled the plane out because of that, it's just not what I wanted to see when I looked at it. Plus the interior is pretty old. I just didn't want to buy a plane and start spending a ton of money on repairing it. If it's that easy to fix and doesn't have an impact on anything then I'm ok with it. It's a C model but it's a good entry plane and will give me something to grow into.

 

Ask yourself, If it's that easy and cheap to fix, why hasn't he? Any way you answer this, it's not favorable.

[BigTex]

 

Tex, I'll bite. Where are you getting this number?  The reason I ask is because I pulled the bone headed maneuver of just barely catching the outer right wing tip on my then girlfriend's Mini Cooper S. It just caught enough of the "A" pillar on the windshield and the tip slid right up the pillar.  I had the outer skin replaces as well as the flat panel that forms the tip. It was an insurance job and it was under $3K including paint. This was 6 yeas ago. Unless I missed something, we've not had 245% inflation in the aviation economy since then.

 

 

 

 

Tex, I'll bite. Where are you getting this number?  The reason I ask is because I pulled the bone headed maneuver of just barely catching the outer right wing tip on my then girlfriend's Mini Cooper S. It just caught enough of the "A" pillar on the windshield and the tip slid right up the pillar.  I had the outer skin replaces as well as the flat panel that forms the tip. It was an insurance job and it was under $3K including paint. This was 6 yeas ago. Unless I missed something, we've not had 245% inflation in the aviation economy since then.

 

 

Actually, I did something very similar with a temp fence along a taxi way.  My scratch went right along the seam between the two outer panels.  It also put a pretty good scratch down the underside of the right aileron.  So the quotes ranged from $10k - $12k to replace the two panels and re-skin the bottom of the aileron including paint.

 

I can itemize out what each panel cost and labor associated but my larger point really is don't assume that the repairs will be just a few hundred dollars especially is there's any re-skinning required.

[Shadrach]

Gary, most of us have an incident like this in our past. Now I understand where you're coming from. However what you've describe is a much more involved repair.

[Alan Fox]

I think that the seller is being very reasonable , and fair....Take a look around your airport and see what the norm is , you will see most planes have some sort of hanger rash.......... Talk it over with whoever does your prepurchase....Keep in mind that at prepurchase they will come up with every concievable squawk known to man , You will have to interpolate the "real" stuff from the "Get real , its a 50 year old plane" stuff.....There is a happy and safe area between the two , and then you have to assess a value to the aircraft........  If you are looking for that perfect airplane , they really only exist in the pics and ads ...... When you open the logs and take a closer look , they all pretty much get similar (the decent ones that is) ... If its a piece of crap you will know 2 hours into the prebuy...... Good luck....