In Need of a new Lower and possibly upper cowling for 2008 acclaim

[NewMoon]

On 6/29/2023 at 3:20 PM, M20TN_Driver said:

For anyone wondering what new will cost--Mooney can actually make the carbon fiber cowls new.  

Price is crazy high:  "Looks like the factory can make the cowlings for your airplane.  Looks like upper cowling is $14,824 and lower cowling is $19,719.  Waiting to get a lead time for you"

That is utterly ridiculous. Beyond egregious pricing

[M20TN_Driver]

Update to this thread:  Universal Composites will NOT be making any more cowls after mine.  The mold is basically shot after baking my cowl and they will be retiring it.  In fact, once we fully uncrated the cowl they sent, it had a number of defects from the old mold that just can't be fully worked out.  

Mooney quotes $18k for a new lower cowl...with no timeframe for delivery.  No clue where they would source that now.  

 

 

[KSMooniac]

That is most unfortunate.  I'm surprised the tooling is already worn-out after relatively-low production volume IMO.  Hopefully they (or Mooney) have preserved a plug/master so that new tools could be produced in the future.

The only other option is to find an expert composite repair technician... they exist.  I've seen some incredible composite repairs executed in my professional life.

[Rick Junkin]

On 2/26/2024 at 5:10 PM, KSMooniac said:

The only other option is to find an expert composite repair technician... they exist.

@AGL Aviation Lynn Mace, former owner of AGL Aviation and now working for Don Maxwell, is one such expert.

Cheers,
Junkman

[jetdriven]

We’ve done a good bit of composite work, it’s just it takes literally forever and we have a ton of hours in it and it usually is not worth it. But if you gonna have to pay $18,000 to get another one, there may be something there.