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Wayne, you are so right. The only problem
is so many say they have a nice or show aircraft and when you get there, after
traveling many hundres miles, what you get is a project. Very difficult to find
real honest sellers today. Hell you spend $2500 bucks just fixing the exhaust
and heating system. And boy can those $$$ add up quick.
I would love to have another Ercoupe, but
I have been looking at other brands for subtantial less money.
Lee
----- Original Message -----From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Sent: Monday, December 19, 2005 6:49 PMSubject: [COUPERS-TECH] Re: [COUPERS-FLYIN] Coupe prices and values----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]----In a message dated 12/19/2005 2:57:51 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:You are far better off to pay a premium for a real cream puff, than you ever
will by trying to pinch a penny, buying some marginal example, and then
spend endless sums of money, forever, trying to get it in good shape.Boy, ain't that the truth!!!Of course, if I had done that I would have missed out on:all of the winter nights freezing out in the hangar when the temperature was 36 degrees and I had so many layers of clothes on that I got "immobilized" under the instrument panel more times than I care to admit,and all of the summer days sweating out in that hangar when the temperature was 102 degrees ( You just haven't lived until you've been covered with sweat, mosquito bites, and aluminum filings.),and calling 23 aircraft hardware distributors looking for "one each" a certain close tolerance bolt that was last produced in 1952,and spending three months sparring with the local FSDO office about what is required to legally install an analog voltmeter in the instrument panel (FAA: "It has to be a TSO'd instrument." Me: "There was never a TSO written for an analog voltmeter. Nobody has ever made a TSO'd analog voltmeter. Go look it up.", FAA: "Really??? I didn't know that. Well it still has to be TSO'd.")and returning a shipment of four sheets of 4 x 12 foot 0.025 aluminum to the supplier because they were dented by their shipping department - TWICE,and spending $1500 on various and sundry aircraft riveting tools, drills, drill bits, bucking bars, rivet squeezers, etc, etc, and oh yeah, about $500 worth of clecos (did I mention the new air compressor?),and spending the better part of a week and $200 in materials building a table long enough and strong enough to bend leading edge skins on (Neighbor: "You're kidding me, right? You're really building a new deck, right?"),and spending about $450 for shipping a canopy back and forth across the country,and learning the hard way that ink marks on the back side of the brand new upholstery material will migrate right through to the front side of the brand new upholstery material after about 3 months (Upholstery guy: "I coulda told you that." Me: "Well, why didn't you tell me???" Upholstery guy: "Well, you didn't ask."")and spending more on paint stripper, chemicals and primer than some people claim to have in a complete paint job,and building a garage full of special jigs, holders and fixtures to hold and support the plane and various pieces of the plane in various stages of disassembly (I even have an FAA/PMA/TSO 100 lb bucket of concrete that sits on the special engine mount fixture that I made to hold the nose down when the engine is off the plane. (Lowe's loves me! Just kidding about the approvals, .... even if they are written in the concrete.)I could go on and on. Let's just say that if you are worried about economics, "buying an old plane and fixing it up" is a BAD economic decision. Unless of course you just want to fix up an old plane for the fun of it. Money-wise, it would be a better deal to pay someone $40,000 for a show quality Coupe and just go flying.Hey, anybody have an old Alon that they want to get rid of? I need a new project.... It's a balmy 42 degrees out in the hangar, and time's a wasting.....Best Regards,Wayne DelRossi
Alon N5618F
Hours logged since restoration: 65.2============================================================================== To leave this forum go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm Search the archives on http://escribe.com/aviation/coupers-tech/
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