Help Pricing Body Work

C. Kelley

C. Kelley

Pre-Flight
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Apr 13, 2009
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Georgia, USA
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C. Kelley
I'm trying to price body repairs on a BE35 in the SE, USA. The scope included removal and replacement of the left side fuselage panel between the empennage and wings. The new panel was fitted, installed, and painted along with the belly to match the rest of the three color paint scheme. The three color tail number was stenciled and painted to match the other side.

What would be fair market price for this work?
 
That depends on whether an insurance claim is involved or not. When the former, labor quotes seem to skyrocket for some reason. Seen it, don't condone it, don't shoot the messenger. See my flyin' toolbox saga thread back in the day, and attached bill to the offender's insurance company.
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We have a thumb size shallow dent in a wing panel. First quote came in at $23,000.
 
C. Kelley said:
I'm trying to price body repairs on a BE35 in the SE, USA. The scope included removal and replacement of the left side fuselage panel between the empennage and wings. The new panel was fitted, installed, and painted along with the belly to match the rest of the three color paint scheme. The three color tail number was stenciled and painted to match the other side.

What would be fair market price for this work?
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Someone I know just priced the replacement of one skin on the stabilator of a C-177. The repair quote came back at $6k or thereabouts to remove the stabilator, replace the skin, repaint to match, and reinstall.
 
weilke said:
We have a thumb size shallow dent in a wing panel. First quote came in at $23,000.
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Wow LOL. Guess you got me beat. And here I thought my old AP was straight up grafty with that "17 equivalent days" labor bill for skin work on a cherokee LOL.
 
Can't even begin to guess without knowing what panel was replaced, how large etc. How much work needs to be done on the interior to get to it and did they buy a replacement part from Beech or did they fabricate? Was it just a straight piece of aluminum or did it have some forming required? That said, I would think start at around $15K and go up from there...
 
Structures takes lots of labor, and sourcing parts for aircraft that been out of production for decades can be a real headache.

Replacing a fuselage skin on just about any little airplane will be a minimum of 100 man hours IMHO. Might be easier to cut out the bad areas and repair it.

Skins are typically designed to be as large as possible, making replacement more labor and repair the only economic path.
 
5QK said:
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That must be an invoice from the 80's. nowadays a pint of paint alone would be north of $200, plus reducer, hardener, conversion coat, primer, other supplies needed. Total for "paint and supplies" today would ballpark about $1k for that job.
 
bluerooster said:
That must be an invoice from the 80's. nowadays a pint of paint alone would be north of $200, plus reducer, hardener, conversion coat, primer, other supplies needed. Total for "paint and supplies" today would ballpark about $1k for that job.
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That's funny. Nah, the invoice is from December 2016. The only thing that got painted was the aileron. The damaged wing panel portion was unpainted in the first place, and I'm a dispatch-or-go-home kinda guy anyways so I told them eff it, rivet that wing skin and get my airplane the hell out the door so I can go fly it already.

60ish days grounded because of a miscommunication on the sourcing of the rear spar and no kidding labor dispute in the port in back in Brasil which froze the shipments at the shipping side. The whole thing is comical... in hindsight ;). We ended up going back to Piper who originally had said a 4 month backlog, turns out they could procure it in 2 weeks. So I ended up waiting for a part that was actually available CONUS the whole time LOL.

At any rate, the whole situation was a reinforcement of why I chose the airplane in the first place. I would have had a serious AOG situation with the more popular but lesser supported airplanes out there in certi-land. One of the implicit benefits of these "commoner" airplanes is that if they get totaled I can get another one without losing a ton of "curating investment". To each their own.
 
bluerooster said:
That must be an invoice from the 80's. nowadays a pint of paint alone would be north of $200, plus reducer, hardener, conversion coat, primer, other supplies needed. Total for "paint and supplies" today would ballpark about $1k for that job.
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Nah. I think we pay under $80 for a QUART of Nason Ful-Thane.
 
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