Club Homepage Forums Classified Ads Buy & Sell - Everything But Airplanes Opinion on a plane?

It's a little early to bring this to the forum, but I'm getting "that" feeling about the airplane.

Below is a copy of an ad in the Canadian Owners and Pilots Assoc [COPA]. It looks like an opportuntiy to get a re-conditioned plane and have a say in cosmetics, and perhaps do some mods. His price of 30 000 is about $26400 USD, and it costs a minimum of 5k to import a plane from the USA. The plane is at least 14 hour drive from my place. I haven't gone farther than establishing contact.

I forgot to ask if the 1260 SMOH is a typo. Will do next time, but I'm assuming it is and 450 is the SMOH.
a. If I decide to buy, what mods should I do while the plane is in the shop?

Here is the VREF. I did it with fresh paint and interior plus the short time SMOH.

1967 - CESSNA 150 A-M
$26,976.63 (as configured)
Trade-in value will be considerably less
due to dealer marketing costs, margins and inventory expenses.
Price assumes complete logs, no damage, and all inspections complied.
Model
Base Retail $14,400.00

Serial No.150G 64533-67198

THE ADVERTISEMENT

1967 C-150G, 1260 TTSN, 1260 SMOH, 0 STOH, prop 1260 TTSN, 450 SMOH. Complete aircraft disassembled and inspected, paint and interior colours to be completed to customer’s specs. Full panel. Long range fuel. COM, spin on oil filter, xpdr, encoder and panel mount intercom. Optional Garmin panel GPS. Shoulder harnesses, tinted visors, floatplane/ski-plane capable. Delivery fall 2008. Additional options installed at cost. $29,995 firm

Got this email from the guy.

I'm in the Philippines right now and will be back in a week and can answer your questions better.

I am an AME and so the plane will be certified with fresh annual , it has the original 100 hp motor , it has all logs back to 74 when it was imported and engine logs since new , 1 damage history around -74 but properly repaired and documented . The panel has a full 6 pack IFR panel with 720 com transponder and encoder and built in intercom but no ils or nav/ ADF etc

The way I read it, the engine and prop are both original, the engine had a major overhaul 450 hrs ago, and it just had a top overhaul. Why did it need a top overhaul after just 450 hrs of a major overhaul?

Murray, do you have pics of the 150?

It seems to have low TT and if the engine has 450 SMOH, that's fairly decent. As well, if it's been topped, shows 0 since STOH, probably not a bad thing, it means you shouldn't have cyl problems,, or valve issues to start with.

Why is he doing this,, not that it's a bad thing, but something that sort of peaks my ears a bit,, "Complete aircraft disassembled and inspected, paint and interior colours to be completed to customer’s specs"?

What mods to do? If you do end up buying, my suggestion would be not to do anything to it, until you learn what you've got. After a bit or so, you can then decide if or what mods you'd like. Unless he's giving you a heck of a great deal on the mods,, why go there for now? There are many shops that can do these things

Working the price backwards comparing purchasing one from the US,, or this one, you'd have to be at $19,000 US, or less for the same Canadian costs. That would indicate it's a bit over priced compared to the VRef you've done,,

Only flown an average of 30hrs a year.
How long ago was the major overhaule done (years) ?
could have needed a top just from sitting around.

The way I read it:
Airframe: 1260 TTSN
Engine: 1260 TT or 1260 SMOH (never been overhauled)
Top overhaul: 0 hrs
Prop: 1260 SNEW, 450 hrs since overhaul

I read it the same as Frederic - engine has not had a major orverhaul, zero since top. Propeller was overhauled 450 hours ago.

Could have been original cylinders that met specifications at the overhaul. Then the owner decided to install new jugs, either to remedy cylinder issues, or make the plane more sellable.

I haven't heard from the seller since the last emails. Thanks for the imput, you've given me lots of questions.

Sounds to me like an AME found a hangar queen and is restoring to service.

For the price he wants it would have to be lovingly restored!