My 1984 Skylane 182R

wiljoh1952

I purchased my 1984 Skylane 182R last October. One of the great selling points for me is that this airplane was a Civil Air Patrol maintained aircraft with low engine hours SMOH. I have been looking for a 182 for three years and I waited long enough so that I ended up paying double the price. I’m a retired Fire Chief so I don’t have a lot of money but I want to upgrade my interior a little at a time. I started with trying to replace my console cover and found only a new one at Cessna for $1500? That’s not a good first impression of the cost of keeping my airplane looking like new. $850 for a new map compartment door? Does anyone have experience with a good, reasonable interior shop? I’m based in Rifle, Colorado so the west would be best.

Scott Sherer

Hi and thanks for writing. I've owned 8 planes over fifty years and have reupholstered five of them with Airtex Kits. If you use a custom shop you're looking at $20k+ depending on what you're doing for an interior. Don't forget shop rates are at around $100/hour now. With a DIY interior kit you're talking $6k to $8k. Windows $2k. Panel $20k to $50k. Don't forget a new 182 is $600k and parts are priced for a new plane, not an old one. So go slow and buy what you can and learn to do it yourself with a little help from your mechanic when you need it. We're here to help too, so rely on us! Good luck.

skyguy

I had a complete new interior done on my T210L nineteen months ago by Great Planes Interiors in Clinton, Oklahoma. I have new leather seats with new foam, new leather headliner, custom woven wool carpet, all new interior plastics. Im very pleased. Around $12,000.

skyguy

Also new sound deadening insulation.

Nice people to work with, too.

Scott Sherer

Looks fabulous! :) Great pics

wiljoh1952

I appreciate your comments and I will look at the interior kit. Skyguy’s interior looks great.