Paint prep
Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 9:03 pm
It won't be long before I will be finished with the basic airframe
construction. I want to paint all the pieces separately before assembly. I
don't know anything about painting an airplane, but after seeing an average
price of ~$8,000 US to have someone else do it, I guess I'm gonna have to
learn. Here is what I plan to do:
1. Fork out the bucks (~$900) for a Citation HVLP paint sprayer/air
breather combo
2. Sandpaper and maybe small Dremel Rotary tools to remove bits of proseal
and chromate around rivets and seams, and to grind down the "proud" rivet
mandrels from the Avex-like rivets MAM issued with some kits. (By the time
I heard that MAM would replace them with true Avex rivets, I was so far
along that I didn't bother.)
3. Aircraft quality, light-weight filler for the cabin to tailcone
corner-wrap transitions and any other areas that I want to smooth out,
sanded smooth with sandpaper.
4. Entire part(s) cleaned with Acetone.
5. Entire part(s) Scotch-brited, then wiped clean with lint free cloth.
6. Primer, paint, then clear-coat as recommended by the manufacturer of
whatever paint I decide to use. It'll be all white of some sort. I'll
worry about trim/stripes and registration numbers later. No way am I going
to try and tackle trim and stuff masked and painted separately from the base
paint! That's for experts.
Questions:
1. Am I on the right track?
2. Can I primer right over the top of chromate where it sticks out past
overlapping skins and stuff?
3. My manual says somewhere that I shouldn't clean with solvent after
scotch-briting. So I don't. Hence, step 4, "...wipe clean with lint free
cloth".
4. Any paint manufacturer/type recommendations for the rank amateur? I've
heard that urethane type paint is harder to paint and is more toxic.
5. If there is any significant time between when I prep a part and when I
paint it, should I do anything more than just wipe clean again with a dry
cloth?
6. If I paint some parts one year and other parts another year, will the
painted parts match in color? I know what happens if you buy paint from a
car dealer for your car. It never quite matches, even if you used the paint
code on the car's ID and your car isn't very old.
Also, I was planning on sending my instrument panel to someplace like
Aircraft Spruce and let them fill it up with flight instruments and basic
electrical stuff like circuit breakers and such, unless I find out that the
labor cost for that is too high. Anybody have any good recommendations for
someone to do that? I won't be able to afford any avionics at first, so
that will have to wait for later too. (I will probably do first flight with
my hand-held radio at best.) Is there some kind of aircraft standardized
avionics racks/rails that I can have installed to make avionics installation
easier later on?
Mike Kimball
SR #044
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construction. I want to paint all the pieces separately before assembly. I
don't know anything about painting an airplane, but after seeing an average
price of ~$8,000 US to have someone else do it, I guess I'm gonna have to
learn. Here is what I plan to do:
1. Fork out the bucks (~$900) for a Citation HVLP paint sprayer/air
breather combo
2. Sandpaper and maybe small Dremel Rotary tools to remove bits of proseal
and chromate around rivets and seams, and to grind down the "proud" rivet
mandrels from the Avex-like rivets MAM issued with some kits. (By the time
I heard that MAM would replace them with true Avex rivets, I was so far
along that I didn't bother.)
3. Aircraft quality, light-weight filler for the cabin to tailcone
corner-wrap transitions and any other areas that I want to smooth out,
sanded smooth with sandpaper.
4. Entire part(s) cleaned with Acetone.
5. Entire part(s) Scotch-brited, then wiped clean with lint free cloth.
6. Primer, paint, then clear-coat as recommended by the manufacturer of
whatever paint I decide to use. It'll be all white of some sort. I'll
worry about trim/stripes and registration numbers later. No way am I going
to try and tackle trim and stuff masked and painted separately from the base
paint! That's for experts.
Questions:
1. Am I on the right track?
2. Can I primer right over the top of chromate where it sticks out past
overlapping skins and stuff?
3. My manual says somewhere that I shouldn't clean with solvent after
scotch-briting. So I don't. Hence, step 4, "...wipe clean with lint free
cloth".
4. Any paint manufacturer/type recommendations for the rank amateur? I've
heard that urethane type paint is harder to paint and is more toxic.
5. If there is any significant time between when I prep a part and when I
paint it, should I do anything more than just wipe clean again with a dry
cloth?
6. If I paint some parts one year and other parts another year, will the
painted parts match in color? I know what happens if you buy paint from a
car dealer for your car. It never quite matches, even if you used the paint
code on the car's ID and your car isn't very old.
Also, I was planning on sending my instrument panel to someplace like
Aircraft Spruce and let them fill it up with flight instruments and basic
electrical stuff like circuit breakers and such, unless I find out that the
labor cost for that is too high. Anybody have any good recommendations for
someone to do that? I won't be able to afford any avionics at first, so
that will have to wait for later too. (I will probably do first flight with
my hand-held radio at best.) Is there some kind of aircraft standardized
avionics racks/rails that I can have installed to make avionics installation
easier later on?
Mike Kimball
SR #044
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