Forgot to mention, there should be FAA form 337's completed for most of this reskinning and possibly some of the other work. You need to review these with the pre-buy mechanic and get his opinion of the completemess of the form and the work done. Completeness of the logs is essential in this case.
Depending on how long the aircraft sat un-operated, you should also look at whether flight instruments were replaced or inspected/repaired/overhauled by a FAA certified repair station (CRS), instrument rated. I'm refering all of the instruments on the pilots panel. Not really interested in fuel gauges, oil press and temp, they either work or they don't and they generally are not real accurate anyhow. You should look for "yellow tags" or FAA form 8130's for all parts and he should be able to produce receipts for virtually all parts.
Another consideration is if exterior plastic was replaced, or simply patched up and painted over. See what was replaced, wingtips, elevator and stab tips, vert fin cap and rudder top and bottom caps.
If you ask why I suddenly became so concerned about all of this, it was the mere mention of reskinning that threw up the red flag. Either this airplane suffered from considerable exterior corrosion, or was a damaged, project wannabe that the former owner never got around to completing. In either case, it warrants a very close look all all parts of the aircraft and paperwork.
Charles
