Going Rate for Interior?

dans2992

dans2992

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Dans2992
All,

We have a Comanche we are getting interior quotes on. The scope of the job includes all seats, carpet, window frames, headliner, side panels, etc. mostly leather, but cloth would only be a $2k savings.

We are getting quotes around the $16-$17k mark including tax, shipping, etc. out the door.

Is that about the going rate these days? It is about 2x the number I had in my head, but perhaps that number is just outdated.... :)

Thanks,
Dan
 
Jesus! 17k for a 4 place?!

Get on some of the hot rod sites, over in TJ there are a few good places.

I would pull the interior and buy your own material, have the work done down south, probably under 5k for a nice leather job with new foam etc.
 
The hanger next to mine houses a Commander 114 and he just got his interior done for 7K. I dont think he did the windows though.
 
James331 said:
Jesus! 17k for a 4 place?!

Get on some of the hot rod sites, over in TJ there are a few good places.

I would pull the interior and buy your own material, have the work done down south, probably under 5k for a nice leather job with new foam etc.
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I don't think you can do that with a certified plane? The materials have to be FAA approved I think.
 
I think your quote is high,for a single four place.
 
Suggestions for shops in the PHX area?

Also forgot - $1k is for the new O2 jacks we need (current ones leak)
 
Where are you located Dan? Never mind, missed that detail in your last post.

I know a guy in Utah but that may be too far for you.
 
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you might want to look into doing an airtex interior.
 
We got a quote for $9k from an automotive place. We'd have to remove and reinstall everything ourselves. With side panels, trim pieces, window frames, etc. we're estimating that would take 100 man hours.

We are not sure we want to try to take on that much work.
 
Looks like i'll be redoing the interior of my 235 soon enough. I imagine you can get the material and find a great auto shop to do this for less then 2 grand. Thats awesome.
 
Modify the interior without having to use all that bureaucratic crap. The material is automotive, so it's already flame retardant, but you can go test it yourself. We redo the metal and plastic panel parts all the time, but the fabric stuff falls in the same category.

Having said that, if they do the FAR 23 testing for you, it's not worth another several thousand dollars, maybe a few hundred with mark up.
 
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dans2992 said:
We got a quote for $9k from an automotive place. We'd have to remove and reinstall everything ourselves. With side panels, trim pieces, window frames, etc. we're estimating that would take 100 man hours.

We are not sure we want to try to take on that much work.
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And they wonder why these shops are going BK :dunno:


Look south the the US boarder, Tijuana my friends, where the booze is cheap, the labor is the same and the price is WAY better
 
dans2992 said:
I will google it, but what's an airtex interior?
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This is an Airtex interior. https://www.flickr.com/photos/greghopp/sets/72157626567537382/

Putting your own interior in is a sh** ton of work. I don't know how home builders do it. :rolleyes:

But we went all in. Everything came out. Cleaned up corrosion, alodined, new interior paint, SEM on the plastic, the firewall, touched up the rudder pedals. The deeper you get into it the more you find to fix.

So on some level I CAN see 17k on a 4 seater as that's what I was quoted too. I personally could not have done it without my engineering buddy putting in the headliner and telling me how to do things. He is a bit of a perfectionist. I provided the manual labor (lots of it) and the cash (quite a bit of that too), he made it all work.

The satisfaction of knowing "I did this" made it worth it.
 
frfly172 said:
you might want to look into doing an airtex interior.
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I just put an all new interior in my Cherokee for around $6,500. It included;

All new plexiglass all the way around from Great Lakes Aero
New Airtex headliner
New Airtex carpet
New Airtex walls
New Airtex seat foam with leather seats
New seat belts
Labor (I didn't touch anything)
New plastic overhead console
New plastic air vent cups
New sun visors
Instrument panel covers refurbished and repainted
Various interior metal parts refurbished and repainted
Various interior plastic parts painted to match interior
Plastic turtledeck removed, painted and reinstalled
All new interior hardware
Passenger door removed and interior side painted prior to upholstery install
New door seal
Dashboard recovered along with a removable carpet overlay to match floor carpet
 
I'm a bit hesitant to take the plane south of the border for work like this. Does anyone know a reputable shop in Mexico we could talk to?

I'd only be willing to take it somewhere that someone could recommend. I don't need them disconnecting the Hobbs and making a few "border runs" with "cargo" while it's down there.
 
dans2992 said:
I'm a bit hesitant to take the plane south of the border for work like this. Does anyone know a reputable shop in Mexico we could talk to?

I'd only be willing to take it somewhere that someone could recommend. I don't need them disconnecting the Hobbs and making a few "border runs" with "cargo" while it's down there.
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I dont think i'd take the plane there. I'd take the peices I wanted done. Just my .02$
 
MickYoumans said:
I just put an all new interior in my Cherokee for around $6,500. It included;



All new plexiglass all the way around from Great Lakes Aero

New Airtex headliner

New Airtex carpet

New Airtex walls

New Airtex seat foam with leather seats

New seat belts

Labor (I didn't touch anything)

New plastic overhead console

New plastic air vent cups

New sun visors

Instrument panel covers refurbished and repainted

Various interior metal parts refurbished and repainted

Various interior plastic parts painted to match interior

Plastic turtledeck removed, painted and reinstalled

All new interior hardware

Passenger door removed and interior side painted prior to upholstery install

New door seal

Dashboard recovered along with a removable carpet overlay to match floor carpet
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So you're happy with the Airtex quality? It seems some other posters were not....
 
I replaced the interior in my Cherokee. The only mistake I made was using Airtex carpet. I made the patterns, ordered the material and had the local hot rod shop sew it all up. The Airtex stuff was junk. I should have called shelby at tnwings.com first. He made my floor mats for me. I put several hours ( I claim 40hrs but it was closer to 80) into doing it myself. Used Kydex for the backing material, and ordered my fabric from marion aircraft and got the foam from scandia. Skimped on the carpet and ordered Airtex pre-cut stuff, very low quality. It looks good enough though. I'd buy it if I were trying to sell a plane.
 
My plane doesn't get a lot of use in terms of pax but so far I've been happy with the quality of the Airtex stuff. Granted it's a third to half the price of the higher end stuff. But its a darn sight better than what I had in there. 3 years in and the carpet and leather is holding up just fine.

I live in a good sized town and tried to find some automotive places to work with me but as soon as I mentioned airplane they either got spooked or dollar signs in their eyes. I guess you have to know who to talk to.
 
I gutted my interior and put < $1500 into it, seats, side panels, carpet. It doesn't have to cost a lot of money to have something that might not be a lexus but is certainly very presentable.
 

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"we're estimating that would take 100 man hours.
We are not sure we want to try to take on that much work."
And if you pay them at $90 an hour shop rate, that's how much?

Installing an interior is work, pure and simple. If you are not willing to actually work best you pay to have it done.
And the way homebuilders do it is by doing it instead of sitting on the dead butt in front of the idiot box.
I was in the shop at 6AM this morning lifting the weights off a laminated bulkhead for a boat that I finished fabricating at 8PM last night and left for the epoxy to cure. I would have vacuum bagged it except the vacuum pump (brand new) overheated yesterday after it ran for 4 hours (arrrggghhhh)
It is now 7Am and in about 15 minutes I am going to go
fill the tractors with diesel (after I replace the nozzle on the fuel hose) and go pull a chisel plow and a disc with a 4 ton land roller behind it, for the rest of the day. Might even get some spraying of weed killers done on another field. And then after supper I will begin laminating another pair of bulkheads and then it is off to bed.
One thing I won't do is sit in front of the idiot box - cuz I am a homebuilder.

cheers
 
We just put airtex interior in a Debonair we are rehabing. I was really happy with it. Looks great but it took dang near 100hrs to complet the interior. That is if everything goes well.
 
I'm slowly working on replacing my interior. By slowly I mean replacing one piece at a time. I found a local upholstery shop that would do both seats in the 150 for $500. And when he found out it was an airplane, he said he was familiar with the FAA requirements for fabric. I'm probably going to get replacement panels and paint them or get them vinyl wrapped with some cool graphics and get new carpet from tnwings. My current panels were so old and the plastic was very brittle and cracked, it wasn't worth the time and effort to paint them and put them back in. One shop quoted me $7500 for the interior. No thanks for a 150.
 
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dans2992 said:
So you're happy with the Airtex quality? It seems some other posters were not....
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So far I'm happy with it. We'll see what it's like a year from now after some wear and tear. The carpet does not seem to be poor quality, just light weight. I figured that was as much to hold down weight in the plane as anything.
 
I'd want an aviation shop to do mine. These airplanes are old as can be, you start removing things and you will find problems. I'd want an experienced mechanic around to deal with that stuff. By the way, the interior of my aircraft was done by Airmod, and even though its cloth and not leather it has owen extremely well for the last decade. You get what you pay for. One fellow on this board, Yellowbird, did the interior of his Cardinal. It turned out nice from the photos I saw, but by Odin it looked like a LOT of work.
 
Dr. O said:
"we're estimating that would take 100 man hours.
We are not sure we want to try to take on that much work."
And if you pay them at $90 an hour shop rate, that's how much?

Installing an interior is work, pure and simple. If you are not willing to actually work best you pay to have it done.
And the way homebuilders do it is by doing it instead of sitting on the dead butt in front of the idiot box.
I was in the shop at 6AM this morning lifting the weights off a laminated bulkhead for a boat that I finished fabricating at 8PM last night and left for the epoxy to cure. I would have vacuum bagged it except the vacuum pump (brand new) overheated yesterday after it ran for 4 hours (arrrggghhhh)
It is now 7Am and in about 15 minutes I am going to go
fill the tractors with diesel (after I replace the nozzle on the fuel hose) and go pull a chisel plow and a disc with a 4 ton land roller behind it, for the rest of the day. Might even get some spraying of weed killers done on another field. And then after supper I will begin laminating another pair of bulkheads and then it is off to bed.
One thing I won't do is sit in front of the idiot box - cuz I am a homebuilder.

cheers
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And we very well might just pay to have it done. I just wanted a sanity check from others' experiences.

I have an office job, a commute, a wife, and a 4-year old that needs attention. Just because I don't have the time to do the work, doesn't mean I'm an inferior person!

And if the "idiot box" you refer to is the TV, no I really don't do that either. Don't have time.

Jeez.
 
There is a guy in California, he's on the AOPA board and used to be on here I think. He goes by Stich and I've seen pictures of his work and it's great, guys on the red board swear by him. He's on the opposite side of the country from me, or I would have had him do my 182 interior. :D
Found his webpage. :D www.recovery-shop.com
 
Our club just had a complete interior refurb done on our 1971 Cardinal RG. We got it back a few days ago.

Here is the shop's estimate:

Leather Seats each $975.00 times 4 = $3,900.00
Leather side panels both sides leather to match the seats $1,400.00
Ultra Leather Headliner $1,000.00
Carpet $900.00
Glare Shield $350.00
Windlace around doors $300.00
Plastic repair and painted $500.00 (depending on the shape of your plastic this price could be more if we need to replace any pieces)
New sound proofing insulation $1,200.00 (we will remove all the old insulation and replace it with new and improved aviation grade sound proofing insulation)
Shop Consumables $250.00
A&P Sign off $150.00

Repeat Customer Discount: $-950.00

Total $9,000.00
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I haven't seen the final bill, but since most of our interior plastic was total crap I suspect we've spent just shy of $10K.

The work was done by Air West Interiors at the West Houston Texas airport. This is the second interior they've done for us, we were real happy with the Archer interior they did a couple of years ago.

Pictures on our web page.

Edited to add: Like most airplane owners, we just sat around in front of a box while manly men and womenly women did the work.
 
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