RV-7 N159SB Brian Chesteen (Brantel) - Page 3

pilotjt · #21 08-08-2011, 08:03 AM

Congrats Brian! That's one amazing looking airplane...

Brantel · #22 08-08-2011, 09:11 AM

Several people have contacted me for more details on the paint and cost.

Bobby Potts of Tuscaloosa Interiors and Paint did the paint.
Work (205)333-3116
Cell (205)361-1588

He is an airplane painting veteran who has done this for many many years. He is a stand up, do business with a handshake, down to earth Southern Gentleman. He seems to be honest as can be.

As far as cost:

I paid $9K...

The paint/supplies cost alone were almost 4 grand. The Red paint colors are out of this world expensive. I don't know why but they are.

The paint was PPG base/clear Deltron 2000. Bobby alodined the plane before priming.
Redfire Metalic 5938
Arizona Beige Metalic 5584
Cloud White 4943

I also had completely raw fiberglass except for the cowl when I took it to Bobby. He had to do a ton of work to finish the fiberglass. Bobby also wetsands the entire airplane after the clear goes on and then polishes it out. This really adds to the quality of the paint.

He also used his A&P to remove/reinstall the flight controls and to remove and install the canopy which had a bunch of wires to disconnect/reconnect.

I could have saved money by finishing the glass myself and disassembly/reassembly of the airplane as well as chosing a different color than Red.

Hope this helps..

I have looked in the archives and it seems I paid a similar price to what others have paid when using Bobby. When you factor in the time and materials, he is not getting rich doing it for that price.

Thanks for all the comments on the plane. I feel totally blessed to be allowed to take part in this. I am a married working man with a mortgage, 3 young kids that will all need braces, cars, college, and weddings (retirement? not sure that will ever happen). The airplane is paid for free and clear and I thank God for that!

Radomir · #23 08-08-2011, 09:26 AM

Looks great from here

Bobby is first class so I know you're very happy with it. I had mine painted by Bobby and I was super pleased. I'd use him again in a heartbeat. He's not the cheapest, but I saw where my money went

Phyrcooler · #24 08-08-2011, 09:28 AM

Beautiful! I've also always like color coordinated painted panels. Adding that area of color really makes the interior look great!

DJ

DFlyer · #25 08-08-2011, 09:49 AM

Brian, congratulations! A truly beautiful aircraft. I think you need an excuse to fly across the country... fly to Seattle so I can see it first hand.

-Robert
Dynon Marketing

panhandler1956 · #26 08-08-2011, 09:50 AM

It really turned out nice - you should be proud!

krjcolo · #27 08-08-2011, 10:10 AM

Brian, it looks great!
Kim

KirkGrovesRV8 · #28 08-08-2011, 10:27 AM

Really looks great Brian Congrats!
Kirk

N8RV · #29 08-08-2011, 11:13 AM

Looks SUPER, Brian! What will be funny for us all to read now is all of the things that you will discover that you would do differently if you were to build another RV.

We all do it. Even though Smokey's only got 160 hours on the Hobbs, I'm already looking wistfully at my trusty ol' Dynons and imagining a Skyview in there, along with a new TruTrak Gemini AP ...

Well done, Brian. Enjoy!!

wjnmd · #30 08-08-2011, 12:07 PM

I was glad to see that you had Bobby Potts do your painting. He did my paint job and I couldn't be happier. I was concerned that he might have been hit by by the tornado so I was glad to see he's okay. He had to do a lot of fiberglass work on my -7A attesting to my ineptitude in that regard. As I recall, he gained experience in painting boats and so he is very good at fiberglass as well as paint. Beautiful work you did on your bird.