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RV-10 Pro Painting

jahoosafat

Active Member
I'm going to have a pro repaint my RV-10. I've worked with a good paint/design shop to create the design, and they've given me $28k for the price of the paint job. Based on reading some other VAF posts, this seems high, but I want the job done right. Most Vans folk do their own painting, but that's not the route I'm going so I'm interested in recs regarding good paint shops around the country (if possible, close to the mid-atlantic region) and price estimate ranges for a full exterior paint job with 3 colors and a moderately complex design. Any info is appreciated.

Cheers,
Jeff
 
$28K is a lot.

I think you will find most "green" RV-10's come in the low/mid teens. After that, there's the expense of stripping the old paint scheme, which is a rotten job and might add a couple of thousand bucks.
 
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Give "Three in the Green" a call. They are located just west of the Philadelphia Class B airspace. Several aircraft from our area have had pleasant results.
 
My -10 was painted at Griggs Aircraft Refinishing, Skyhaven Airport, Tuckhannock PA. The work was good quality and a good value.

 
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If Plane Schemers did your design and the quote was from Evoke Aviation - then I think the $28k is money well spent.

You can get cheaper but I?m convinced you get what you pay for and I doubt you?ll find a better quality paint job anywhere.

They did my award winning RV-7A and will do my RV-10 as well.
 
Too Much

$28K is about $10k too much for a nice pro job in my opinion. Mine was about $16k at a local shop in Illinois. Another Oshkosh award winner paid about the same for his -10 at a shop in Duluth and has one of the nicest paint jobs I've seen on a -10. The only ones that cost a lot more that I know of required a lot of bodywork to get the fiberglass up to acceptable standard.
 
Get a quote from Lancaster Aero at smoketown airport. They paint a lot of RV?s in the area. They are doing the AOPA RV10.
 
prep work

A painted airplane requires different prep than an unpainted one. Not certain if the other prices quoted are comparable due to that.
 
$28K seems a bit absurd, even if it required stripping and a good bit of float work.

I went with GLO Aircraft Painting who is located north of Dallas. They did my 3 color paint job in the low teens. They did a phenomenal job! They've done several hundred RV's so I was at ease of them taking off and more importantly putting back on all control services and cowling. Their base price includes about 5 hours of fiberglass work, replacing hardware with SS and adding flap protection tape under the wing hinge.

Obviously not in the mid-Atlantic region but for a few hundred dollars in gas and a plane ticket from Dallas you can cost that cost almost in half and know that it's being done right.
 
Evoke Aviation Gadeson Alabama. Excellent work. Jonathan and his crew are top shelf. He worked with Lori on the design and did much of the finish fiberglass work along with the two stage paint job, (paint then clear coat.) FYI a two stage paint job will cost more then the single stage. Prior to going with a Evoke, I had obtained a quote from GLO and their price was comparable to Evoke. I think he has a picture of our -10 on his Facebook page.
 
As someone already said... there is a significant difference in doing a repaint than doing a fresh job. Man hours and chemicals required to properly strip and prep the plane.
The crew over at Evoke turns out show winners on the regular and there is a reason people are in line for paint jobs there. Just remember when making your decision, that you get what you pay for and sometimes its the smallest details and pride in the workmanship that makes a huge difference.
 
Exactly!

The crew over at Evoke turns out show winners on the regular and there is a reason people are in line for paint jobs there. Just remember when making your decision, that you get what you pay for and sometimes its the smallest details and pride in the workmanship that makes a huge difference.

Look at the past few years of award winners at SNF and OSH and I suspect no one has more than Plane Schemers/Evoke Aviation.

When we saw how many man hours of work they put into our plane, we were amazed and recognized the great value received. We get very positive comments about our plane everywhere we go. We didn?t build the plane to receive accolades but it?s really nice when it happens.
 
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