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Flying Colors Paint and Interior shop in FL.

D

david grantham

I'm New Here
Hello Everyone,

I spoke with Johnny at Flying colors paint and interiors in Leesburg FL regarding painting our RV-10. Has anyone used him or have any comments?

Thanks.
 
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Last year I visited four Florida aircraft paint shops with a friend in his RV-12, including Flying Colors. Ultimately he decided, and I concurred, that Hawk Aircraft Painting at Tampa Executive Airport (KVDF) was the clear first choice. Aviation Consumer magazine always ranks Hawk highly. The shop did an excellent job on his -12 and the owner, Joe, was easy to deal with. We will use Hawk to paint my wife's -12 after Phase I.
 
Flying Colors...?👎

I always hate to speak negatively about people or their companies, but sometimes situations dictate sharing experiences....

I had our plane painted there. Was told it would take 4 weeks. Ended up taking 3 months. As we progressed, naturally I would call and get an update on the progress. IF I could get anyone on the phone, the answer was alway the same - "We're a couple of days from hanging the control surfaces. It should be ready at the end of the week". Most of the time, I'd leave a voicemail. IF the message was returned it was never any sooner than 3-4 days AFTER I left the message. And no, having Johnny's cell phone number didn't help. Oh, and emails were pointless.

Once we reached 3 weeks passed the original delivery date, I stopped by the shop. Found the airplane in pieces. Controll surfaces that were "ready to hang" still needed to be painted. Cowlings still needed paint, overspray on all the windows, overspray INSIDE the cabin, overspray on the props, spinners, and engine accessories. And I lost count of the overspray of one color onto another and all the paint runs. Johnny did his best to try to reassure me that the plane would be ready to fly in 4 days and he was sorry the schedule kept slipping. 2 weeks later with NO communication from the shop, I finally got him in the phone-on a Monday. I told him I was flying the plane out Wednesday (2 days time) finished or not. I rented a one way car and drove down the shop. When I arrived the next day (Tuesday), absolutely nothing had been done to the plane since I had seen it 2 weeks prior, other than painting the tail number on - and it was wrong. Last I checked, US registration doesn't start with 3 letters and end with 3 numbers. I ended up standing in the shop for 2 straight days (6am to 11pm) in order to get the thing done. Johnny had ordered new placards for turn limits and fuel tanks. Too bad he ordered JET FUEL placards for my AVGAS plane.

It's been 6 months since he finished. I already have paint pealing on the cowlings and around the windshield. I've had to fix areas where he burned the paint trying to buff it before delivery. He was supposed to send new placards. Still haven't seen those. Supposed to send touch up paint. Haven't seen a drop of that either.

Nice enough guy, but I'll never go back.
 
Hawk Aircraft Painting

I will second Bruce's comment. Joe at Hawk is the place to go. Been doing business with him for years. First class all the way.

Jeremy
MilSpec Products, Inc.
 
DONT USE THEM! I painted my bonanza last year. Same thing of the guy above. Many weeks of delay and never got any realistic information. The only thing that made them finish the plane was that I took a plane from Brazil and stayed there for 10 days watching them to make sure they would finish it. They also changed the registration number and painted over the data plate. I only discovered the data plate mess during the export certificate inspection and we almost failed the inspection because of that. Even worst, the inspector told me that I would not be able to fly the plane. What saved the day was a paint remover that we found and I could find a way to clear the plate so he could see the informations. Ahhhh, almost forgot. After everything, they charged me more than 30% over the initial estimate for extras like 4 colors scheme and pearl paint... They had all the information from day one and never sad a word about that during the whole process. If I lived in US I would have suited them for sure!
 
Hawk at KVDF

Had a two week business trip scheduled in the middle of my Phase 1 at about 25 hours. Thought I'd see if I could squeeze my paint job into that time period so as not to lose too much time.
Checked with Joe at Hawk at Tampa Executive (KVDF). Promised he'd have it done when I got back.
Hard to believe but he did:

frontrightqtrsmall.jpg


Except for some wheel pant rash, it still looks like the day I brought it back to the hanger.

Highly Recommend! Admittedly, the time was short because there was no one ahead of me. I was there a few months ago he was VERY busy. Regardless, you can count on a great job and a fair price.
 
Thank you all for your input!
I have contacted Joe at Hawks'.
What about John at Fosters' in Lakeland?
 
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Paint Manufacturers?

What is the Most Popular Brand Name of paint used to finish RV's?
I have used AWL Grip, Emron an Jet Glo, all the nasty stuff that will make you very sick (You can die if you inhale enough) if you inhale the fumes. They are referred as "ISOCYANIDE Polyurethane. Seems like every paint shop always wants to use a certain Brand paint that they seem to like more than the others? These paints are also really pricey as 1 Gallon 0f Topcoat, Catalyst and Thinner will cost retail $500.
 
Paints

Paint chemistry today is uniformly good. The quality of the finish is more in the application. Most paint shops learn one manufacturer's system and stay with it through varying conditions such temperature and humidity.

If painting yourself, high quality automotive paints are more easily obtainable and a bit cheaper. I am using the Nason line, originally developed by DuPont and now produced by Axalta. As noted above, any of the two-part polyurethanes or acrylic urethane coatings must be used with a fresh air breathing mask system.
 
Nason Paint

Bruce
I just came from auto body store and they are recommending Nason for my RV7. I wanted to use JetGlo but it is difficult to buy, not local and no single stage metallics for stripes. So how is it going with Nason? Have you seen any reviews that indicate it is fine paint for RV's? I've sprayed other auto urethane and found it forgiving.

And by the way, with airflow in the paint booth I'm using only a mask and haven't seen a need for breathable air. Fumes go up the booth ventilation system.
 
Nason is not JetGlo

Nason's Ful-Thane topcoat is an acrylic urethane, not a polyurethane like JetGlo and Imron. As such it is slightly less durable and does not have that deep wet look than some favor (at the price of weight), but it is cheaper, easier to spray, less toxic and reportedly easier to repair. Also, with some wet sanding followed by buffing, the Ful-Thane starts looking like a polyurethane although that is too much work for me. I want to fly, not build a show plane.

To the best of my knowledge, acrylic urethanes do not have the deadly isocyanates found in polyurethanes, but I still use a fresh air system. Buying one adds little to the total cost of the airplane and can be readily resold when a project is finished.

Lately I have experimented with Nason's base coat Ful-Base and clear coat SelectCoat two-stage process, which is almost universally used in the auto world today. So far, this process is more trouble-free for me. Yes, it involves two extra coats, but since almost all the painting time is prep, not spraying, the total time is little more.

BTW YouTube has dozens of videos on painting, mostly from the car world, which can be very helpful.
 
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