So after much agonizing, I finally dropped off my RV-8 at the Corona Air Paint shop in Corona, CA (KAJO). The aircraft already had a beautiful paint job from the builder that I bought it from. But unfortunately it suffered some "hangar rash" and we ended up rebuilding the tail empennage from scratch. Although it already had a beautiful paint job, I was never a huge fan of the yellow - I finally decided to use the excuse to strip and get it painted in my "dream" livery and make it my own.
Dealing with Corona has been great so far! Illio, the owner has been super responsive and patient throughout my 6+ months of going back and forth with him on what the final plan will be. I even flew down once a few months ago to his shop (its only a 1+10 Hr flight for me) to look around and have an initial consultation. The finished or about to be finished products there were all stunning! So that gave me lots of confidence to have him do what I planned. And his prices were very competitive or quite a bit better than some of the more well known shops like Evoke, etc. And their work is just as good, imho.
Anyway - I arrived yesterday late morning and they got me right into a T-hanger to start disassembling the main parts like flight control removal, cowling, wheel pants, etc. They'll do all that for you, but you can save some decent $$ if you do it yourself. It took about half a day, so wasn't a big deal. And his staff was great and helped out if needed. I guess the next step is they will start stripping down to bare metal and then prepping it for the base coat. I'm bummed I'm going to be down for most of the summer not flying. But its pretty miserable here with temps in the 105-115F all summer unless you get up at 5am to go fly.
I'll try to post some progress pics if I can along the way. But overall, I can't say enough good things about Corona Air Paint. I can't wait to see the final product!!
Before Pics:
Dealing with Corona has been great so far! Illio, the owner has been super responsive and patient throughout my 6+ months of going back and forth with him on what the final plan will be. I even flew down once a few months ago to his shop (its only a 1+10 Hr flight for me) to look around and have an initial consultation. The finished or about to be finished products there were all stunning! So that gave me lots of confidence to have him do what I planned. And his prices were very competitive or quite a bit better than some of the more well known shops like Evoke, etc. And their work is just as good, imho.
Anyway - I arrived yesterday late morning and they got me right into a T-hanger to start disassembling the main parts like flight control removal, cowling, wheel pants, etc. They'll do all that for you, but you can save some decent $$ if you do it yourself. It took about half a day, so wasn't a big deal. And his staff was great and helped out if needed. I guess the next step is they will start stripping down to bare metal and then prepping it for the base coat. I'm bummed I'm going to be down for most of the summer not flying. But its pretty miserable here with temps in the 105-115F all summer unless you get up at 5am to go fly.
I'll try to post some progress pics if I can along the way. But overall, I can't say enough good things about Corona Air Paint. I can't wait to see the final product!!
Before Pics:
