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Corona Air Paint pirep


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I have not, but my mechanic at KFUL speaks highly of them. I know when I was based at Corona for a couple of years they were always busy with what seemed like a never ending stream of business. 

If you are looking around the Southern California area there is also Art Craft Paint at Santa Maria that some here have had paint their Mooneys. 

http://artcraftpaint.com/

@Bennett, @MooneyMitch, @mooneygirl

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Yes.  I had a good experience with them stripping, prepping, painting, and rebalancing a replacement elevator last fall.  Paint match was perfect.  Great price and quick turn-around. I would definitely use them again.  Ask for Ilio (e-lee- o); he's the general manager.

Please don't ask why I needed one elevator replaced...I'm still trying to get over it!

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No first hand experience, but know one owner that wasn’t happy and regretted not going with Artcraft - said it wasn’t near Artcraft quality. Should be able to find mention of it here in MS.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

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They painted my C back in 2016, they did a Fantastic job. I'm a very happy customer, here's some pics.  You're welcome to contact me and I can show you the plane up close.  I'm at the same airport you are in the green hangers.  They have different hangers for each step in the process instead of just one. 

IMG_20160826_122715389 (2).jpg

IMG_20161008_122413773.jpg

IMG_20161231_123031039.jpg

IMG_20161231_123151300_HDR.jpg

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I’ve seen amazing work from both shops. I’ve seen marginal work from both shops. Most paint shops will turn out a nice product. It’s up to the owner to squawk the paint on their inspection. I’d recommend an outside person to inspect the paint work. Most owners don’t have the eye due to the fact they are now looking at an airplane that’s most likely way better than what it was before.

 “Wow!! it looks great”...a week later a buddy points out runs and trash...

-Matt

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7 minutes ago, Don Heene said:

They painted my C back in 2016, they did a Fantastic job. I'm a very happy customer, here's some pics.  You're welcome to contact me and I can show you the plane up close.  I'm at the same airport you are in the green hangers.  They have different hangers for each step in the process instead of just one. 

IMG_20160826_122715389 (2).jpg

IMG_20161008_122413773.jpg

IMG_20161231_123031039.jpg

IMG_20161231_123151300_HDR.jpg

Too funny! I met you once at the fuel pump and you told me about your paint job and who did it. I turned a friend on to them

and he had a good experience. I would like to take a closer look if you don't mind.

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I was not totally pleased with the paint shop.  Stainless screws were promised and missed.  When I caught it, it was too bad.   

Whoever paints your plane, be ready to detail inspection at least once a week.  Hail dents, detail, color match, etc.   look at the plane in the hanger and outside.  Try not to have the omg attitude and overlook details. 

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44 minutes ago, Joe Larussa said:

Too funny! I met you once at the fuel pump and you told me about your paint job and who did it. I turned a friend on to them

and he had a good experience. I would like to take a closer look if you don't mind.

I will be at my hanger this Saturday from 9 to 11 if you want to come by to look at the plane.  Green hangers, hanger 3 facing the runway.

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Quality paint job needs to be judged after years of flying and not soon after leaving paint shop. Most of the planes look great after completed job. Try to see their work done few years ago.

When I painted my plane (2007) Corona was considered premium place to go and get a quality job. I remember  their proposal was vey detailed and came by mail. :)

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  • 1 month later...
21 hours ago, Joe Larussa said:

How’s your Corona experience so far?

I’m picking it up Friday.  Dropping it off was fine, and they’ve been sending regular updates and pics.  I’ll let you know!

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I’ve had two mooney’s painted, now.  My first by ArtCraft, second by Arizona Aircraft Painting at Falcon Field.  

Both were quality paint jobs.  Both took longer than the estimate by a couple weeks.  Both use impressive paint booths (I recommend you ask to tour their facilities and look at their work “on the line” prior to committing- it’s a pretty big monetary outlay).  

I went with a pretty generic Mooney scheme on my first (the tail swoosh, 3 swooshes around the wings, etc), but a non standard color (green and gold instead of red, black, gold, silver).  The second paint scheme i went with is the m20V type paint scheme- but with blue, gold and black instead of red and silver.

the main difference I’ve seen between those two shops is that ArtCraft was more keen on small “niceties.”  While both shops did great work, replaced all the fasteners with stainless, kept the data plate paint free (per request)... ArtCraft gave me a T-shirt afterwards, and (more importantly) a couple small cans of paint in each color for touch ups if necessary (never used the paint- but it was a pretty nice gesture which I appreciated).  Their log book stickers were neater/nicer as well.  I guess they say it’s the little things, right?

ive read a lot of great things about Hawk in Tampa on this board- I think if I was going to paint a third Mooney- I’d try them out.  @jetdriven has an absolutely stunning example of what they can do.

Edited by M016576
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17 hours ago, M016576 said:

I’ve had two mooney’s painted, now.  My first by ArtCraft, second by Arizona Aircraft Painting at Falcon Field.  

Both were quality paint jobs.  Both took longer than the estimate by a couple weeks.  Both use impressive paint booths (I recommend you ask to tour their facilities and look at their work “on the line” prior to committing- it’s a pretty big monetary outlay).  

I went with a pretty generic Mooney scheme on my first (the tail swoosh, 3 swooshes around the wings, etc), but a non standard color (green and gold instead of red, black, gold, silver).  The second paint scheme i went with is the m20V type paint scheme- but with blue, gold and black instead of red and silver.

the main difference I’ve seen between those two shops is that ArtCraft was more keen on small “niceties.”  While both shops did great work, replaced all the fasteners with stainless, kept the data plate paint free (per request)... ArtCraft gave me a T-shirt afterwards, and (more importantly) a couple small cans of paint in each color for touch ups if necessary (never used the paint- but it was a pretty nice gesture which I appreciated).  Their log book stickers were neater/nicer as well.  I guess they say it’s the little things, right?

ive read a lot of great things about Hawk in Mena on this board- I think if I was going to paint a third Mooney- I’d try them out.  @jetdriven has an absolutely stunning example of what they can do.

Hawk is in Tampa at Kvdf if we are talking the same Hawk.

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I'm still a ways away from painting my J but I want to start touring local paint shops in SoCal and take a look at their work.  I got a quote from ArtCraft for about $18k for what I want.  My design involves all metallic paint including a pearl white base.  I basically want something similar to this Cirrus paint design on my J.  Corona Air Paint quoted about $14k for the same thing.  I visited Corona last week and while they do good work upon much closer inspection I could see some minor orange peel and paint bleed on the stripping when looking up close at the paint.  It was minor enough that I could possibly consider living with it if it saved me $4,000.  

I plan to visit ArtCraft in a month or so and take a look at their work.  I'm not sure if minor orange peel is normal on aircraft that are repainted but every original paint job I've seen on an aircraft has no signs of it.  I will also visit Century in Chino and maybe a couple in San Diego as time goes on.  

N213CL---1.jpg

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Hi! Do yourself a favor, Don’t do the pearl white. Absolutely impossible to blend. Make sure they paint the airplane together in one piece with most of the panels on. The metallics don’t lay well otherwise, even the same paint mix. Just the way the flakes lays with gravity will be slightly off. Corona did a TP Marchetti 260 That was absolutely flawless. It was Black metallic with a candy orange stripes. The airplane is in the Bay Area now.

Hope things are well!

-Matt

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As promised...I picked up my plane from Corona today!  When I was looking for paint shops, I requested quotes from across the country (AZ, CA, TX, MO, FL...no paint shops in NM!). Some places didn’t respond, one place was more than twice the lowest cost quote, one had a multi-page legal document as their proposal, most were one page.  I was also torn between ArtCraft and Corona.  Also, Pia Bergqvidt wrote about having her Mooney painted at ArtCraft (and having seen her plane personally, I know it looks great).

https://www.flyingmag.com/inside-much-needed-paint-job-mooney-m20c/

I liked the Corona quote; which was white with two accent colors.  Also, since I recently had some avionics work done and replacing the interior, I was a bit price conscious about having paint done as well (Corona was about 20% less).  I decided in early February to go with Corona and scheduled for early May.  I wasn’t sure how long it would take to drop it off, so I scheduled a late flight back to ABQ from LAX...it only took less than an hour.  I wanted a paint scheme “different” than other Mooneys.  The manager at Corona did show me a recently painted Mooney with a more typical scheme when I dropped mine off, and it did look nice.  Anyway, my son and I put together a scheme, I showed it to the manager at Corona, he asked a bunch of questions, and said it wouldn’t be a problem.  The quoted down time was 7 weeks.  Corona sent me pictures at several points to let me know the progress.  Nothing like seeing your airplane without paint!  When it got closer, I asked about when I should schedule to come pick it up.  They told me that they were behind schedule and to plan on coming out the next week (considering the experience I had with avionics, not so bad),  picking it up actually went one day past what I planned (Saturday instead of Friday); but they let me know, so I was able to amuse myself in LA.  

I picked it up today (about 8 hours ago, but that included flying home).  I did a detailed inspection.  I only found one piece of tape that was left on (in the nose wheel well).  I didn’t find any connections that weren’t attached.   No major issues with overspray or orange peel.  Initial impressions are that I’m happy with the result.  There were a few “while your at its”...mostly design work for the paint scheme, new cam locks and repair to a dent in one wingtip.  

Of course, I’ll be keeping a close eye on it; I’ll let you know if anything changes.  I’ll be at. Oshkosh with the Caravan if you want to look in person.  Oh, I almost forgot...when I was leaving, I stopped for gas at the gas island.  While there, I got my first compliment on the paint!

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