Resale value of wings with Rainbow spars?

Bartman

Bartman

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Second hand Decathlon wings are worth somewhere around $1500 to $3000 depending on condition, hrs., what's included, etc. New wings are over $40,000 depending on what you get, how they're finished, who installs them, etc.

But what's a low time set of wood spar wings worth if they were rebuilt, well maintained, and well documented using new Rainbow spars?

I heard from Ron today that he's got spruce so I'm once again thinking about using my parts stash to build new wings from scratch. I would need new tanks, probably new wingtips, and spars.....I should have everything else although I'll probably buy new attach brackets and will need new lift struts.

What I'm curious to know is what all y'all think a good set of used wings would be worth if I decided at a later time to upgrade to new factory ACA wings. Would they be worth about what old wood spar wings are going for or would the Rainbow spars raise the value?

Opinions? Thanks in advance.
 
Are the spars different? If not, then one solid, well varnished spar is as good as another. Wood has no fatigue life.
 
Rainbow spars are different. Ron has an STC for spars with doubler plates at the strut attach points that extend on the top and bottom beyond where the stock rectangular plates end. The extensions arguably eliminate the stress riser at the top outer corner of the doubler plates where the compression cracks are known to happen.

here's the video Ron made demonstrating the difference between stock spars and his STC'd spars.

Rainbow Spar Load Testing Video

Ron posted this video a little over a year ago. Ron owns Rainbow Flying Services, he holds STC's for a series of wood spar products that are widely viewed as an improvement over the factory design. His website is here https://rainbowflying.com/
champcitabriadecathlonforums.com champcitabriadecathlonforums.com
 
Hard to say. Somewhere between the market value of second hand wings and the price of new metal wings, obviously. Probably closer to the second hand wing price, since that's what they are, just nicer. Who is the target customer? Maybe someone whose wood spars failed inspection and doesn't want to bite the bullet for metal wings or rebuild their own?

Ballpark: somewhere between 10K and 20K. Just a WAG.
 
Ron told me some years ago that Decathlon wood spars are practically bulletproof. It is the Scout that kept hitting fenceposts . . .

When you are ready to dump $40 grand into metal spars, contact me - maybe I can get you a flying metal spar Decathlon for $ in that neighborhood.
 
If I spent the $6000 or so on the spars, $3200 or so on new tanks, a few dollars here for leading edge materials, a few dollars there for new wing tips, and then wrapped it all up in new fabric and paint, I'm guessing they'd have to be worth more than an old set of Bellanca wings. The AD would still apply and there would still need to be a slew of inspection plates but would a low-time set of wings with new Rainbow spars even break even in a resale scenario? If I had to guess I'd say they would but not much more than that and you'd have to be able to document the freshness and lack of damage history.
 
If I were in the market for another Citabria I would jump at a plane with Rainbow spars over any other option.
 
A whole lot of homebuilders have discovered their labor was free when they sold components and projects for the cost of materials. You might get lucky and clear a few K, but I wouldn't make the decision based on that.
 
If it were me, I wouldn't start buying parts or assembling until I already had a buyer for them.

If you get new wing tips, I had fiber ones made from my old ones. shaved over 3 lbs from the pair, helping to offset the milman spars.

Carbon Concepts in Wasilla.

For that matter, I have a set of 69 vintage wing tips that could use a new home
 

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So many variables here when it comes to used wings - not to mention how far away the buyer is - I imagine that they'd be worth twice as much to right person if they had a documented history and low time/fresh fabric. I'd love new (to me) used wings with dual tanks and they'd be tempting with Rainbows if I knew who built them. It only takes one buyer but sometimes it takes longer to find them.
 
Excellent video from Rainbow showing spar testing. One thing though ........ when testing the Raindow spars, I noticed that the spar separated from the doubler plate on both Rainbow spars tested. Would a better glue type be advantages to the strength of the spar ???
 
I'd be super tempted to buy a used set like that @Bartman - I want to lose my nose tank and my wings need recovering next. Now if I could just get you to paint them in Nevada Silver with Air Force stars and bars? ;)
 
Ahhh... I missed the glaringly obvious part where you said "Second hand Decathlon wings" @Bartman - I should probably buy a Decathlon just in case your yet to be built wings ever hit the market don't you think? That and this is currently the screen saver on my monitor:

Super Decathalon Vert.webp
 
I agree with the fact the Scout Wings seem to have an affinity for fence posts, telephone poles. trees, etc. Different application, especially with 29 or 31 Bushwheels. It seems to go with the territory and your level of adventure.

Rainbow just received a supply of Sitka Spruce recently after a serious wait from his main supplier for wood - 6 to 8 months i believe. The Millman STC doesn't apply to the Scout. So replacing the wood spars is the only option. Otherwise buying a new set of metal spar wings from the factory or finding (needle in a hay stack) a set of used metal wings are the more expensive options.

After looking at a left wing that took a pretty good knock, it confirms my faith in Wooden Spars. Especially with the doubler Rainbow applies and STC Screw Kit. It would be interesting to know if a metal spar wing took the same hit, would there be more or less damage repair?

Bartman, would I be correct in thinking if you dropped the your wings off at Rainbow. Without any other necessary parts per wing it would be $5K for both spars to be replaced and $5K for Fabric x 2 ?

Then the question, if you were going to do the fabric work, Conventional or Oratex? Interesting dilemma. Let us know what you decide.

On our Scout Project -

Surplus:

Left Wing is cleaned up and ready for spar replacement. It's a good effort just to get to that point.
Right Wing is 2 years old with New Spars from Rainbow, STC Screw Kit and New Fabric. Less than 25 hrs flying time.

Open to offers...
 
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So if you were impressed with the left wing spars, why are you replacing them? Just in case? I can appreciate that -
Ten grand for spar replacement through cover sounds about right. Ten years ago you could get metal spar wings covered from the factory for that.

There is a guy on the J3 forum who has used Oratex. That’s all I know about it.
 
Bob,

You are correct $10K each for metal wings 11 years ago, complete and covered. That situation has doubled or more in today's market.

"So if you were impressed with the left wing spars, why are you replacing them? Just in case? I can appreciate that"

The left wing aft spar has a 3/4"compression crack inboard of the doubler from the previous owner and needs the aft spar changed out. I found a set of lightly used wings but they need recovering. So I chose that route because I couldn't get spars from Rainbow at the time because he couldn't access any sitka spruce blanks.

I wanted to use Oratex but they don't have an STC for the 8 Series Aircraft. It was a hiccup in the STC approval process. The work around with the FAA is field approval. Transport Canada doesn't support that convenience on Certified Aircraft. So the solution is a process that is approved. We are going with Stits in PolyTone as you've suggested in the past.

Speaking of things getting expensive. Oratex was around $67 Sq Meter 10 years ago, today upwards of $185. The benefits imo, non toxic and a huge labour cost saving. Easy to repair apparently. I sense since they are the only one's in the marketplace, they have reversed engineered the cost somewhat to be slightly less expensive than Stits overall. If a person was capable of doing his own fabric work and labour cost wasn't an issue and dealing with MEK with the necessary precautions. It seems Stits is still a very reliable method.

Cheers!
 
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If you are worried about toxicity, look at Stewarts. I met some folks from the factory at SnF and was quite impressed with their willingness to help.
 
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