What it costs
How much does aircraft ceramic coating cost?
A coating quote is settled before a bottle is opened. Nearly all of it is preparation: pulling off whatever is sitting on the paint now, correcting what the scheme can safely give up, and masking every port, probe, drain, boot and placard on the airframe. Two identical models on the same ramp quote very differently, because one has been washed properly for years and the other has not. Read the preparation line on a quote and you are reading the number.
Why there is no number on this page
We quote coatings against a written scope, and the scope is settled by looking at the aircraft under light. The work is preparation, and preparation is set by the paint in front of us. The same model, same scheme, same home field, can need one light refinement pass or staged correction across the whole airframe with a full decontamination first. A published figure would be wrong for most aircraft, and for the rest it would stop being a price and become a ceiling. Ceilings get met by cutting preparation, and preparation is the coating. Anyone who commits to a firm figure over the phone, before inspection lighting has been on the paint, is either revising it on arrival or protecting it by doing less.
What actually moves the number
Paint condition, not aircraft value
This moves the number more than anything else. Oxidation, wash-induced swirl and exhaust tracking left long enough to etch all have to be corrected out before anything goes on top, because a coating locks in whatever is underneath it for years. A well-kept scheme may need one light refinement stage. A scheme that has been brushed and left outside needs staged correction across the whole airframe, and that is where the hours go.
Coated area, not cabin size
You are not coating a cabin. You are coating wing upper and lower surfaces, flaps, spoilers, ailerons, empennage, nacelles, pylons, gear doors and belly. A turboprop with a large wing can carry more coated area than a light jet with a roomier interior. Every control surface is edged and finished by hand, separately, and that work does not scale with the aircraft's size on paper.
Which paint system, and how much of its history you know
A modern base-and-clear scheme, a single-stage finish, a satin or matte panel and a repaint of unknown origin are four different jobs with four different chemistries. A matte or satin area cannot be corrected the way gloss can and takes its own product. Registration vinyl and livery decals are treated separately again. Sometimes the honest answer is that a chalking scheme near the end of its life should not be coated at all, and the money belongs in a paint shop instead.
Everything that must not be coated
Pneumatic de-ice boots take a compatible dressing approved for boots, never a coating. Static ports, pitot probes, static wicks, drains, antennas, seals and placards get masked. Acrylic transparencies, polished brightwork and unpainted alloy are separate disciplines with separate products. A radome carries its own erosion coating and has to stay transparent to the radar behind it, so nothing goes on it that the manufacturer's manual does not call for. Masking and hand work around all of that is real, billable time, and a quote priced on the aircraft as one surface has not counted it.
What is actually being applied, and what stands behind it
A coating is a family of products, not one thing. A professional system with documented inspection and maintenance behind it is quoted differently from a single wipe-on layer, and the gap shows in preparation as much as in the bottle. Ask what is going on, how many layers, whether a sacrificial topper goes over it, and what the vendor returns to inspect. Any commitment attached to the coating depends on the wash program that follows it, so read what voids it before you weigh two quotes against each other.
Where the work happens: hangar, heat, light and pollen
Coatings level and cure inside a temperature and humidity band, and a Georgia ramp is outside it for much of the year. On a hot ramp the film flashes faster than a crew can level it, and high spots cure into the finish. Metro Atlanta tree pollen — pine, oak, birch, sweetgum — runs from late February into May with the heaviest counts in late March and early April, and it settles into any wet film left exposed. Inside, the variables are light and room: proper inspection lighting finds defects a sunlit ramp hides, while a T-tail or an aircraft parked nose-to-tail with two others means constantly repositioning stands, and repositioning is hours. Hangar time at PDK, the second-busiest general aviation airport in the United States, is scarce in exactly the window you want it.
How much downtime you can give it
A coating needs undisturbed time in a controlled space before the aircraft flies, gets rained on or gets washed. If it has to depart the next morning, either the scope shrinks or the crew grows: a compressed window buys more people on stands and night shifts, not fewer hours of work. A vendor who does not ask your departure date is planning to cut the cure short, and the cure is the one part of the job you cannot inspect afterwards.
What the last vendor left behind
Filler-heavy glaze or wax hiding swirl has to come off before anything will bond. Silicone contamination causes adhesion failure and does not wash off. A failing coating already on the paint has to be machine-removed before a new one goes down. Correction taken too far in the past leaves less film for this one, which narrows what can be promised. Tell us who last touched it and what they used — it changes the plan, the hours and the number.
What the work actually consists of
Work runs in a fixed order. Decontamination first: a wash, then chemical and mechanical decontamination to pull embedded fallout and exhaust residue out of the paint rather than seal it in. Then assessment panel by panel under inspection lighting, film readings where the substrate takes a gauge, and a correction plan you see before it starts. Correction is the long part: staged machine work matched to what the scheme can spare, a crew working opposite sides of the airframe across days rather than hours. Then masking of ports, probes, drains, boots, seals and brightwork. Then the coating, section by section, levelled inside its flash window and checked under light before the next panel is started. Then undisturbed hangar cure, and a written wash plan for the people who look after it afterwards.
Questions to put to any vendor
Including us. If a vendor cannot answer these plainly, that tells you more than the number at the bottom of their quote.
- Walk me through everything that happens before the coating goes on, and how long each stage takes. Preparation is most of the labour. A vendor who cannot describe decontamination and correction as distinct stages with hours attached is quoting application only, and the coating will be no better than the paint under it.
- Which surfaces are you not coating, and what goes on those instead? De-ice boots, brightwork, acrylic transparencies, unpainted alloy and the radome each need their own treatment or none at all. An answer of 'the whole aircraft' means nobody has walked the airframe yet.
- Do you take paint film readings, where can you take them, and will you show me before correcting? There is a finite amount of film on a scheme and no second correction to fix an over-corrected panel. Aluminium takes a gauge; composite panels do not read the same way, so a vendor who knows the airframe will tell you which areas are measured and which are judgement.
- Where is the work happening, and what is the plan if the hangar falls through? Coatings cure inside a temperature and humidity band, and pollen or ramp dust in a wet film is permanent. A vendor with no answer will coat outside in March anyway, and you will be looking at that result for years.
- How long does the aircraft need to sit before it flies or gets wet, and does your quote assume my departure date? Cure time is downtime, and downtime is part of the real cost of the job. A quote that ignores your schedule gets met by shortening the cure rather than the scope.
- What maintenance does the coating need, who performs it, and what voids anything you are promising? A coating is a maintenance product, not armour. If a guarantee depends on their own wash program, the commitment you are agreeing to is larger than the one on the page in front of you.
- Who carries the insurance, at what limits, and can you produce a certificate my FBO will accept? This is work on stands around winglets, probes and painted surfaces. If a certificate cannot be produced for your field, the vendor may not get ramp access at all, and the risk sits with you.
Questions we get
- Why will you not quote over the phone?
- Because the paint sets the number and we have not seen it. Condition, scheme, access and your deadline change the work substantially. Send photographs and the details below and you will have a real figure quickly, quoted against a written scope with the exclusions stated plainly.
- Is a ceramic coating worth it on an aircraft?
- It depends on how you fly and where it sleeps. Outdoor-stored, high-cycle and coastal aircraft gain the most: contamination releases with far less mechanical effort, which means gentler washes and less marring accumulating over the years. A hangared aircraft that flies rarely gains less, and we will tell you so.
- How long does an aircraft ceramic coating last?
- Years rather than months, and well short of the decade some marketing claims. Where it lands depends on utilisation, storage and how it is washed afterwards — and the washing decides more than the product does. A coated aircraft is not a self-cleaning one. It still needs correct maintenance washes, and the wrong ones will take the finish down early.
- Does the paint have to be corrected first?
- Not technically, but a coating seals in what is underneath it. Coat uncorrected paint and you are paying to preserve the swirl and exhaust etching for the life of the coating, then paying again to machine it out. If correction is not itemised in a quote, ask why it is missing.
- Do you coat de-ice boots, windows and brightwork?
- No. Boots take a dressing approved for boots, acrylic transparencies are polished and treated with products made for acrylic, and brightwork is polished and protected on its own cycle. They are masked off during the coating and handled as separate work in the same visit.
- Can you coat during pollen season?
- In a hangar, yes. On an open ramp in Metro Atlanta between late February and May, no — pine and oak pollen settles into wet film and stays there. The heaviest counts run from late March into early April. We schedule around it rather than hand back a compromised finish.
- How much downtime should I plan for?
- It is driven by correction, not by the coating itself. A well-kept scheme needs far less time on stands than a neglected one, and the coating then needs undisturbed hangar time before flight or weather. Give us the date it next has to fly and we will scope the work to fit it honestly.
Send the tail number, the type, the home field and the date it next has to fly. Add whether you have hangar access, when it was last corrected or coated, and daylight photographs of the wing upper surface and the paint aft of the exhaust. That is enough for a real number, usually the same day. PDK, RYY, FTY, LZU and fields across Georgia, seven days a week.
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Get a number against your actual aircraft
Tail, airport, aircraft type and your deadline. That is enough for a written quote against a written scope.
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