The avionics shops are definitely affected by the (now gone) lockdown. But people deciding to do upgrades during the lockdown would already face a delay ‘till at least end 2020. In november 2019 I was foreseen for my upgrade in april 2020 which became eventually july 2020. A major contributing factor is the constant promoting of new avionics by Garmin, Aspen, Avidyne,… I can’t keep up with all the webinars those companies are organizing these days :-)
We are doing a panel upgrade. I bought all the boxes mostly used, or new, depending. I have a genius A&P/IA in Czech designing the loom, and making it for us on a bench. Then we will strip out the old loom. I have already replaced all the coax cable. We will use local avionics guys on their days off the lay the loom and fit the boxes. Cost is modest compared to the benefit we will get, and the value it will add. New avionics add 50% of their cost on a book valuation. Used avionics properly installed offer the most value for money. Not everyone can do it this way, but I’m an insider so it works for us.
Now the fun starts. Loom is made, all the items are purchased. Time to remove the entire panel and have it fitted. We will recover the Cessna glare shield and paint the top of the panel when we have everything out. We had already installed new Coax and just two antennas to fit along with the FS210 under the floor.
What avionics are you installing?
It’s not an American style $60k panel upgrade. We know the best value is in used avionics. There is no autopilot, our 99% average departure point and arrival point is a grass strip hence;
Xaon PCAS
Garmin GMA340 Audio Panel
Garmin Aera 660 GPS/Traffic Display in Airgizmo
Garmin GNS430W Com/Nav/WAAS GPS
Flightstream 210 Bluetooth
Garmin GI-106A GPS/Nav CDI Indicator
King KY-197 Com 2
King KN-64 DME
King KR-87 ADF
King KI-227 Indicator
Garmin GTX-330 Mode S Txpr
Stratus USB Power
EDM830 Engine Monitor
Artex 345 ELT
There will be some nice things like traffic from the Xaon to show up on Aera 660, and the 430W will link to the iPad via the FS210 and that route will be displayed on the Aera 660 as a better VFR display. We put alot of effort into things like getting “gold” plated king crimp pins, new ptt switches, new RG400u coax, the Lone Star RF filter and new stereo jack plugs.
On Facebook I constantly see folks in the US doing panel upgrades that exceed the purchase price of the aircraft. That’s great if you want a forever aeroplane. We just want as much capability for the likely missions our aircraft type will be used for. This spring we will sell all our aircraft – U206F, TR182, DR400, PA32-260 and Koliber 150 then rebalance into different stock.
Where / how do you get the glareshield recovered?
Mine was $100K when all was said and done a few years back, but that was with new radar. IFD540 ADS/B, new Garmin Nav/Com, new audiopanel, new remote transponder, new L3 backup horizon etc, new one-piece panel, repainted throttle column etc. Yet still with the analog main HSI. In hindsight I should have put an Aspen or a Garmin PFD in whilst I was already in there, but can be done at later time and I was out of money.
If your candidate has an S-tec AP either one or two axis, the wing leveller running off the turn coordinator, these seem relatively trouble free and straightforward. Upgrading to a GFC500 would be a big deal. Other rate based systems may be smoother but rely on an attitude indicator, and need for TLC.
Two G5 and taking out the vacuum system (pumps gyros and hoses) seems a safety investment. $20k? not sure about installation cost.
Then a GTN650 and a GTX345 (which might be bought as a combo), and keeping a legacy NAV COM and DME. The new kit having AHRS redundancy and speaking to an iPad. $10-15k?
This seems a future proof (well around ten years) set up.
My last panel upgrade was quite modest: a second hand KLN94 $1.5k installed, and a GNC255 NaV COM, $3k. The plane has a trouble free S-tec hence being quite keen on these as a simple light IFR system.
Just don’t go for this panel upgrade, it costs a lot of money 
Fixing the old HSI and mechanical ADI+FD will cost as much as 2*G5+GFC500
The avionics you put in are really all down to what the aeroplane is going to be used for. The avionics used by folks in Africa, Mexico, Alaska are not the same as you might see sitting on the ramp at Le Touquet for example.
The side of avionics that nobody likes to talk about is the toppled glass screens, broken autopilots, faulty engine monitor probes, inaccurate fuel computers, offset HSI’s that I come across routinely. We had a fabulous SR22 that filled the cockpit with smoke on someone. All that glitters is not gold.
