Paint shops recommendations?

[wombat]

Going to repaint my plane this year.  I'm currently planning on using artcraft paint, but thought I'd solicit other ideas in the meantime.

I've considered going down to Puerto Rico since they can use a lot of chemicals we can't use in the US but have decided it's too far.

Generally I am going to shy away from "I know this guy that does paint out of his personal hangar" recommendations.

I'm aware of what strip & paint jobs cost and am willing to pay for quality.

 

Planning on keeping basically the same paint scheme and colors as original, but swapping out the "Mooney 321 Special Edition" logo for "Mooney 305 Rocket Special Edition" and probably adding brown stripes on the top of each wing from the fuel fillers back to mitigate any potential G100UL staining that I might encounter.

[Pinecone]

The problem is, if it was a recent paint job, you don't know how it will hold up over time.  And if it was done a while ago, you don't know if the shop it still going that good work.

That said, my plane was painted in 2014 (same time as @jetdriven plane) by Hawk in FL.  Many people in the last couple of years ago thought it had recently painted.  It looks that good.

Yes, that is about as far away as you can get and stay in the continental US, but you did say you thought about going to PR.

 

[Marc_B]

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

@wombat I'd use this as a starting point, reach out to a few and ask for recent referrals.  Then you can discuss value, what went well, what not so well, and how accurate the time estimate was.  All prices have continued to climb for a strip and paint, and some of the amazing values of 15 years ago are now right in line with other shops.  If you search MooneySpace about the most mentioned shop is Hawk.  It's always funny that with respect to paint shops it seems you'll often hear the "stock market" disclaimer...past performance is no guarantee of future results.  But I think that it's at least a solid place to start looking.

[Gee Bee Aeroproducts]

Hawk is a customer as we do custom colors on seals .

Iam using Duncan Aviation or Don Copland in Eloy Az 

Don did a Pc9 and the finish work was stunning.

There is a waiting list.

 

[201Mooniac]

Artcraft painted mine 16 years ago and I'm told it still looks as good as new (except for a few small chips and a scratch I caused).  Teresa is very easy to deal with and recent paint jobs I've seen look as good or better than mine.

[wombat]

Thanks for the info, everyone!  I really appreciate the info and pointers!!

[Skates97]

On 2/4/2025 at 8:42 AM, 201Mooniac said:

Artcraft painted mine 16 years ago and I'm told it still looks as good as new (except for a few small chips and a scratch I caused).  Teresa is very easy to deal with and recent paint jobs I've seen look as good or better than mine.

I can second Art Craft. They were amazing to work with and did a great job. If you want someone to design a scheme they work closely with Flight Lines Design https://www.flightlinesdesign.com/ who helped me come up with the paint scheme for my plane. It gets compliments everywhere we go and won an award at Osh in 2023.

Full Art Craft Review: https://intothesky.com/2023/01/17/art-craft-paint-review/

[MooneyMitch]

My Mooneys painted by Artcraft.............beautiful!!!