Paint Shop Recommendation near Daytona Beach

[mooneyflyer]

Any paint shop recommendation for near Daytona Beach? Thanks in Advance

[LANCECASPER]

25 minutes ago, mooneyflyer said:

Any paint shop recommendation for near Daytona Beach? Thanks in Advance

Hawk over at Zephyr Hills has a good reputation on here. At 81nm it's not exactly next door to Daytona Beach, but people bring their airplanes there from much further to have them painted.  https://hawkaircraft.com/

[bigmo]

Prepare for sticker shock. I got a quote on a short body I was looking at from Hawk at $28k. That price allowed just 8 hours of body work.

It was honestly a pivotal time that steered me towards “good paint” as a must-have vice something I could factor into the purchase.

[ArtVandelay]

A little further south at Fort Pierce, Chips Custom Painting. I’d expect them to much less than $28k….wow, that’s like a 100% increase in less than 10 years.

[MikeOH]

I'm not sure these enormous price hikes are just limited to paint shops.  I just got a quote from a big-name engine shop for an overhaul of my IO-360-A1A with overhauled, NOT new, cylinders and, of course, assuming nothing is found wrong with any internals and that the cylinders can be OHed.  With shipping, NOT counting R&R, it was well north of what I paid for my ENTIRE PLANE seven years ago!

[Schllc]

Okachobee is pretty close and has a decent shop. 
they painted about half of my plane a few years ago to change one of the colors. 
I would describe the work as an excellent value for the price I paid. 
They were pretty close to the time frame, responsive and pleasant to deal with. 
I will probably bring my Aerostar there soon for an interior and some paint touch up. 
bruno was my contact. 
They have a different jet or two in there almost every time I go.  

[hoot777]

I’ve been shopping too.  Sticker shock is not the word. About 10k increase from before Covid. I’ve talked with Hawk ,Boss and both 26-27k.  There is a shop I’m talking to up in Fountain Inn ,SC called Royalty Aerospace. I have also heard about good shops in Mena, AR.  Any info would be appreciated. Also how about interior work. Hawk and Boss provide it. 

[buddy]

East Coast aircraft paint and interior in Deland, I had them do some interior work for me.

[Grant_Waite]

As someone who lives in the Tampa area and stops in Zephyrhills, for fuel after every flight, I can’t see why anyone would choose hawk. I use to be in a flying club that had one of their planes painted by them in 2019 and it looked like shit. You would have thought the plane was painted in the early 2000s. The cowl paint was a metallic blue and it looked like the clear and color were just fading and flaking off. Plane wasn't outside either. My current plane was painted by them for the previous owner over a decade ago and looks okay for how long ago it was. If I’m paying 30k for paint, I expect no runs, no overspray behind panels, and no sanding marks. Not sure that’s even possible as I’ve never seen it. Even Cessna factory paint on the new citations and caravans look like shit. There’s got to be some shop in the US that can give a paint job the justification of being 30k. 

[Fritz1]

tough call, $30k is the medium range for Mooney, if you want an excellent job it will be more and may take 3 months, ask the painter if they vaporize the stripper, you may have to travel a bit, get 3 recent references from each shop that you are considering, talk to the owners, if you have never had an airplane painted hire somebody as a consultant who had lots of airplanes painted, visit the shop every week or have the consultant visit every week, when in doubt pay more for stuff that has not been discussed in the initial quote. The biggest problem with aircraft painting is that most shops do not have any environmental controls, this means a paint booth with precisely controlled airflow, temp and humidity, they paint in some garden variety hangar instead. The few shops that do prefer to do jets where a paint job can run a couple of hundred k. Bottom line, look around, talk to people, and then choose wisely, big commitment, once a job is started it is virtually impossible to extract a semi finished plane, ask me how I know

[Pinecone]

Paint shops are hard to recommend.  If you plane was just painted, you have no idea of how it will hold up long term.

If you had your plane painted a while ago, you have no idea is the shop is still as good.

Mine was painted by Hawk in 2014 and looks great.  @jetdriven had his plane painted there at the same time and is happy.

[Marc_B]

I think that @thomas1142 may be the most recent Hawk paint job on MS.  @Parker_Woodruff also had an aircraft with a Hawk paint job I believe.  Seems like Hawk has the most feedback on here, and by and large good reviews.    Although they went from 18,500 in 2021 when I first reached out, up to 27,500 this year.  I gather that they were an amazing value back when they were well under-priced for the work they do.  Fast forward to post covid pricing and some price normalization, and they seem about on par with other shops I got estimates from.

But my thought with paint is that the primary goal is protection and preservation; do they prep the surface in a way to protect your surfaces from corrosion and do they use a material that is durable?  As corrosion is one of the main killers of Mooneys, it seems like cosmetics should be good for the money you spend, but are the secondary goal.

I think that AOPA or Aviation Consumer had a list of recommended paint shops, but can't seem to find it...but I think it mirrored the list from Scheme Designers below:

https://schemedesigners.com/paint-shop-referral-list/

[thomas1142]

The final product from Hawk. I am satisfied with the results, extremely pleased that Joe worked me in almost at the last minute. Stoped by his shop in Feb, dropped of the airplane in May and picked it up end of August. It helped we were out of the country during that time.

I received pictures of the stripping, masking and some towards the finishing. Much appreciated. During the inspection I did see a small run or two that were worked on, mostly gone. When I got it home a did a much more detailed inspection I have notice some spots of not enough paint as explained by previous posts. Joe stated that he stands by his work and any issue that I have he will take care of. I’m planning on having him “touch up” a few places when I return the airplane next summer for a windshield replacement that was forgotten this year, which he said he would do at cost.

 

[tony]

Joey painted my airplane too.  I dropped it off just before COVID hit.  It took a little longer than it was supposed to but that was understandable.  He texted me pictures with very major step.  He was always accessible when I wanted to call.  I'm very happy with the quality of his work.  I had him change all the windows out, and he did some body work but so far everything has held up well.  All the inspection panels were removed and painted separately.  All the camlocks were changed, and he even put  nylon washers under brand new stainless screws so the paint wouldn't be damaged during removal..  I appreciated his attention to detail.  He took care of my airplane like it was his own.  I have no reservations in recommending him.  Remember, you get what you pay for.  If you want it cheap, you’re going to get cheap.  

Edited October 9, 2024 by tony

[devyn6seven]

Got mine painted at Hawk, too! Took a while, and it's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but Joe was very patient with my timeline, which went a bit sideways, and I am happier with how my plane looks today than when I dropped it off. 

[bigmo]

6 hours ago, bluehighwayflyer said:

Joe @ Hawk did mine in 2017 for $11,500. I had to replace a couple antennas that had stripper damage and it took three or four months, but none of that matters now and it still looks like new.  

That’s a great baseline for pricing. Adjusted for inflation, it should be around $14k now. $28k honestly makes no sense…besides the fact that many aircraft owners have a ‘cost does not matter’ approach to ownership.

 

[Pinecone]

I am sure the materials costs have gone sky high.

[LANCECASPER]

10 hours ago, bigmo said:

That’s a great baseline for pricing. Adjusted for inflation, it should be around $14k now. $28k honestly makes no sense…besides the fact that many aircraft owners have a ‘cost does not matter’ approach to ownership.

Aviation parts and supplies have risen far more than what inflation has. Add to that the labor shortage in this industry. Hawk and all other shops with labor constraints can only paint so many airplanes a year. They still have to cover their overhead.

Personally I think that during many downturns over the years in the economy, since people stop spending on recreational vehicles first, aviation suffered in times past from over-supply and under-demand, so pricing was little lower than people would have paid 7 years ago.   Especially when you consider that automotive service shops charge more per hour than many aviation service shops. Work on motorhomes is considerably more expensive than on airplanes.

The demand on paint, avionics, new engines has gone up a lot during the past 7 years. Yet some shops have still gone out of business. The owners of some shops have retired. Supply, the availability of shops to go to, has gone down. I believe a lot of the remaining shops have used everything that's happened to examine their pricing and adjust it to where they feel it needs to be and what the market will bear. If they are backed up many months at that pricing, the market is saying it's not too high. I'm guessing when demand comes down, which it eventually will, then pricing will follow, since it's a relatively small market. Do I like the high prices? No, but I'm not surprised, since the law of supply and demand has always applied, even though it may lag a little. 

One other note, since the price of airplanes has gone up, the value people see in their airplanes, and their willingness to put money into them has gone up also. If someone owned a $100,000 airplane a few years ago they may cringe at a $15,000 paint job but if they really wanted it, they did it. Fast Forward a few years and a subsequent owner who paid $200,000 for that same airplane might not cringe to think of paying $25,000 for the same paint job. ( Same thing applies to panels, interiors, etc.)