Does anyone in the Brethren have a recommendation on who should do a prebuy inspection on a Piper JetProp Conversion, any potential gotchas and things to look for?

Chad Menne at Malibu Aerospace at Anoka (KANE).

Closer to you, Joe Casey in Jacksonville, TX (KJSO).

Good question for MMOPA. There are a few guys with great reps.

Kevin Mead, formerly of Mead Aerospace, will do a travelling prebuy. He is THE guy.
620-728-8634

Tony Beauchamp owns Midwest Malibu (formerly Mead Aerospace) in KHUT. If you're planning to maintain it there (which would be a very good idea) he's also a great prebuy option.
(620) 728-1356

The fleet is small. Good chance one or both of them knows the plane.

And Chad is a superb choice as well. Just farther away.

What year is the airframe? Different issues depending on year.

Windshield is the big issue. It's a $20K part that requires 100 hours of labor and pulling out the whole panel to replace. Otherwise the jetprop airframe is notoriously robust - $5K of squawks at annual is pretty common.

Thanks for all of the info.

The plane is a 1996 and was converted in 2002.

OK, the '96 started as a Mirage (350 hp Lycoming) and has electric flaps, hydraulic gear, and the parker hannafin hydraulic system. It has the older (pre-Meridian) spar and likely a KFC150 autopilot. It should have come with a heated glass windshield (not hotplate). All of those things are desirable or at least not problematic.

The Malibu has an fuselage life limit of a little over 10,000 hours. The JP conversion takes away 10% of remaining life. So a 2000TT airplane gets dropped to a 9200hr limit at conversion (10% of 10,000-2,000). Unless you have a very unusual high time plane that won't matter.

And definitely join MMOPA. Totally worth the $250.