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Pirep on paint shop in Florida?

Ivan Kristensen

Well Known Member
I am looking for a good paint shop in Florida to paint my newly completed RV-14A. Anyone with recent experience who would care to make a recommendation would be greatly appreciated .
One company I am looking at is Hawk Aircraft Services in Zephyrhills Fl.

Please post you comments and recommendations here or PM me. Thanks
 
Hawk is probably the best. I haven’t seen consistent good work from anyone else, Central-ish Florida at least.
 
310 pilot on youtube, if i recall correctly had his plane painted somewhere in Florida a couple years ago. Don't recall where, but I'll bet the videos are still posted
 
Hova Flight Services Winter Haven, Fl.
https://hovapaint.com/

I happened by pure chance to get the grand tour with the owner while departing from Sun N Fun this year.

He is a purely a paint shop and it shows in the work I was able to see. They do have A&Ps to do the mechanic work but have talented prep and painters on the team. All flight controls are removed for painting. This allows for the paint scheme to reach viewable areas when the controls are moved.

He does use as environmentaly friendly products as possible. We are talking paint here.

He can take a solid aircraft disassemble, strip prep and paint in around 10 working days once at the facility. This does mean it is an airworthy plane with no hidden damage found when the vail of paint is removed. He has refused service to planes that show up and will likely be a hanger queen if he starts work.

I'm considering my C170 paint removal to polished with them. They have a great system for paint removal. It will leave me an entire winter to polish it at home.

My friend is on his list for his Bonanza next spring. A decent price for the time it takes to turn it back out.

Again if you start with an airworthy plane with no other issues you get the plane back quickly. As of last spring he is about 8 months out for scheduling.
 
A friend just had his -10 painted at Hawk. With the exception of an N number mix up, it went well and looks great.
 
Review of painters

Find 2 or 3 that they have done and review first hand there work. A lot of nice builds have been messed up with the paint process. PM me if you want. Evoke is the gold standard and it shows.
 
I have read mixed reviews about Hawk. Some negative (many more positive) about the quality of work, many negative comments regarding delays in finishing work. When I visited the shop, lots of partially done aircraft on the ramp, some that had been stripped and alodyned sitting out in the weather - not sure that's good for long-term paint adhesion.

I used Ormond Aircraft in Ormond Beach. The paint job was much more basic than the typical Evoke work, but the cost was MUCH less. They communicated well and the work was done on time. I wanted to remove/reinstall my own control surfaces and they were happy to accommodate that. One local flight school has used them repeatedly and the work is consistent and they are holding up well. On N14VB, the work was very good and has held up well AFAIK (I sold it 2 1/2 years ago and it was just sold again - looks good in photos for the ad).

IMG_1111.jpg
 
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Aircraft Refinishers at X26 (Sebastian) has done a few things on my Rocket. Workmanship was good. Pricing seemed a bit expensive but I guess that’s to be expected these days.
 
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