Recovering Service Needed

[crispy critter]

Re: Recovering Service Needed

Very true that $5000 to recover 2 elevators. 2 horizontal stabs, and a rudder seems high. Let me share a different side of the story with you. I own a shop at a local airport. We do fabric work almost every day and I feel that we do a pretty good job. We have worked very hard to establish a solid reputation.This is the cost breakout of what we think is too high. . . . . . .
Materials- $1500
Labor Hours in covering/surface prep/ epoxy priming/ ready for spray coats - 60 hours (5 control surfaces)
Labor hours in Paint booth - 24 hours (all spray coats, sanding, masking, and color scheme layout)
Equals an Hourly rate of - $41.67

Not sure about you guys but this starts to look a lot less over the top when you break it out like this. In my shop we have a bill rate of about 2 to 1 meaning we bill about 1 hour for every 2 worked. My insurance is over $10k per year, technical data, taxes, airport lease, equipment costs, tooling, EPA compliant spray booth, utilities, hangar payments, etc. That $40/ hour gets consumed really quickly.

Kevin should charge more- I have seen his work. This is an art and we have invested much in our craft. The percentage of what work costs compared to aircraft value is something that we always keep in mind but at the end of the day- we do not adjust because of that. We focus on doing the absolute best restorations that we can do. We strive for art. We want our work to look far better than anything done by Aviat, American Champion, WACO etc.

My shop would not be far from the $5000 quote for 5 tail surfaces and I am not embarrassed by that at all. The truth is- the $5000 quote was not robbery at all if done to very high standards. True, you can do it yourself for much less. The majority of times that happens it is very apparent by the workmanship. My first couple times covering were far from perfect. I guess it just all depends on what you have. Money or time. You almost never have both.

Eric,
Thanks for the compliments, your craftsmanship is also worth what your paid or more. And I must agree with Eric's price figures especially for someone doing his type of specialty work full time.
Some of the reasons I don't charge more is because I don't have that much overhead, I own my hanger on a very small rural airport where my grounds fees for the hanger consist of keeping the grass cut a couple times a month. My utilities avereage $50-75 per month, insurance is high no matter where your at but since I dont do annual inspections it's not too bad. I'm a one man operation so I have no payroll, payroll taxes, workers comp insurance, unemployment insurance, etc,etc. to pay out. When work slows for me I simply take a break and go fishing, if it slows for Eric you still have to pay your guys, keep the lights on and all the other above mentioned stuff. This is the reason I'm able to do it for soo much less and some of the more financially challenged aircraft owners can still afford to have it done. I love doing fabric work, I no longer attempt to do it full time but still love doing it. I always pride myself on quality over quanity and I never rush anything. Also, if Im not happy with how it looks I don't expect anyone else to be.

Eric does a lot of high end work for some very high end customers(and some good ol boys with extremely good credit,lol. Sorry eric, couldnt resist). I've known Eric for a long time and he is always nothing short of excellent at everything he does. Anyone who wants a top notch professional job in a reasonable time frame should go see him. He's almost as good as me in half the time and at twice the price, lmao. However I have to say that his work is worth every penny of it. Remember the ol saying, ya get what ya pay for..... I have a sign in my hanger that tells it like it is.....

We do three types of work here...
Cheap, good, and fast, You my choose any two.

If its good and fast, it ain't gonna be cheap...

If its good and cheap, it ain't gonna be fast...

And if it's fast and cheap, it ain't gonna go good!

This is a very accurate evaluation of how things work.