Business Spotlight:
Gray’s Aircraft Painting

By Ralph McCormick

Pushing a broom for your dad may turn into a future aircraft painting business.  Don Gray of Gray’s Aircraft Painting in Ozark, Arkansas started in his dad’s aviation repair shop as a kid pushing a broom.  Not exactly the ideal high-paying job, but one that eventually lead Don into other aircraft related businesses and then to open his aircraft painting shop in 1995.  He has been painting airplanes for twenty-five years at several different locations.

Ozark Franklin County (7M5) is an airport in western Arkansas.  Don’s father who has been an aircraft mechanic for over fifty years has a maintenance shop at the airport, also.  Combined you can get a complete paint job and an engine overhaul at the same time at the same airport.

Gray, who is a pilot, worked for the 188 Fighter Group in Fort Smith painting jets, prior to opening his own business.  Gray’s Aircraft Refinishing customers fly in from all over the USA for a paint job.  They can paint anything from the smallest aircraft to a King Air 90.  “If we can fit it into our paint booth, we can paint it,” says Gray.   The paint booth (a million dollar cost to the government) came from Homestead AFB after a tornado did damage to the base.  Having disassembled the booth and then moving it to Ozark and reassembling it, provided Grays paint shop with one of the most up to date and environmental friendly paint shops available.  The task of moving the booth was certainly “a challenge,” states Gray.

“We specialize in ‘Clear Coat’ Emron paint jobs,” states Gray.  “This will give the plane a ‘wet look’, with longer lasting hardened finished.  This process gives the customer a longer lasting paint job.  Our main objective is to provide the customer with the best paint job for the least amount of money.”  Gray continued, “After we spray the base coat we perfect the whole job.  We go through the complete airplane, touching up the rivets to correct the normal bleed through around the rivets.  All imperfections are touched up.  After this is finished, we scuff sand the entire plane and put on the long lasting clear coat.  This will give you as perfect of a paint job as you can get in the industry, today.”

Satisfied customers leave 7M5 with a very shiny paint job and fly back to Tennessee, Arizona, Kansas, and other points with a paint job that will last for years.  They know that the value of their plane has just increased by thousands of dollars along with the fact that the plane is more smoothing the owner’s eyes.  Gray believes in what he advertises, “Perfection is our Goal.” 

For more information about Gray’s Aircraft Refinishing you may call 800-322-4729 or check his ad in the hard-copy edition of FLY-LOW.