Material cost increase

[Tom-D]

Yesterday I ordered enough material to repair 6' of fabric on a wing and was astounded at the cost increase of the fabric re-covering materials

fabric glue, was $7.95 per qt, now $55
Reducer for the glue, was $18. now 87.50
Ceconite 102 was $5.45 per yd, now $12.
fabric primer was $13 per qt, now $56.
primer catalyst was $14 qt, now $25
plus hazmat shipping on each.

I now have 8 Man Hours in the preparation and will have another 12 in repair and finishing, @ 50 per 20X$50=$1000 labor, plus 250 in materials, just for a simply fabric repair.

And we wonder why the little guy is disappearing from aviation.

 

[Jim Logajan]

1975!!!!!!

In that case - check my math:

R^(2011-1975) = 55/7.95
R^36 = 6.90
ln(R^36) = ln(6.90)
36*ln(R) = 1.9316
ln(R) = 0.0537
e^ln(R) = e^0.0537
R = 1.0551

So annualized price increase per year for fabric glue: ~5.5%
For primary catalyst I get: ~1.6%

One is above the US long term average (1913 to 2011; 3.24%) the other below.[1]
Most of those price increases probably occurred prior to 1990. So the OP is 20 years late in posting his complaint.

[1]

 

[Jim Logajan]

It's Airtech system, my last order was 3 years ago.

Ah, well, 3 years versus 36 in the exponent does tend to make for a different rate of inflation ... more like 90% a year for the last 3 years for the fabric glue.