Painting

[sfGnome]

Whenever I ask questions about painting the plane, I get one of two answers. Either “Are you crazy? It always looks terrible if you do it yourself!”, or “No worries. You just incomprehensible the acronym, but don’t forget to farnarkle the fluglesproket”. Neither of these answers is particularly helpful, though there’s no doubt that the former scares me. So…

 

I have a couple of questions for those of you who have actually done it. 

1. What spray equipment did you use (make and model please)?
2. What paint (primer and top) did you use (again brand and type please. If I google ‘two pack’, I’m likely to end up with lots of references to dead rappers 😛).
3. What environment did you do it in (backyard? Shed? Shed with extractor fan? etc)
4. What would you do differently if you did it again? Would you ever do it again, or did it turn out to be just too painful?

 

Part of me wants to be able to say I did everything in this build (the same part would prefer to spend money on the engine/avionics than on a painter), but the other part is terrified of getting in too deep and making a mess of what is really a very big investment. 

[facthunter]

Use the LEAST amount of paint possible. Dust and insect free area. I prefer ACRYLIC Lacquer. Easy to repair..  Light colours (Cooler and more visible). Use a thin etch primer on metal surfaces. Tubes in white matt. (See cracks easier.).  If the Air s high humidity use heat lights to prevent blooming.   Nev 

[skippydiesel]

When I did the full refurbishment of my ATEC Zephyr, I used the Stewart Paint System https://stewartsystems.aero/.

• A certified paint system 
• Not Cheap
• Comes with a very comprehensive set of instructions - follow to the letter & you can't go wrong.

When the time came to paint my Sonex,  using high pigment auto paint, I was persuaded that I should use the services of a professional automotive paint shop. Big mistake. I think my plaine was the first they had ever done.

• Should have used a lot more elasticizer in the mix, to allow for metal skin movement.
• Rivet lines & edges (especially leading) should have been painted first, before applying final coat.
• I honestly think I could have done as good a job and saved myself a few $K

I have a couple of questions for those of you who have actually done it. 

1. What spray equipment did you use (make and model please)?  Iwata, High Volume Low Pressure (HVLP) gravity feed gun. Needs steady supply of high volume air pressure, choose your compressor carefully (most only tell you pressure, which is not enough to know if it will maintain supply volume). Use a water catch/regulator on the compressor and back that up with a secondary, disposable, water catch & mini , regulator at the gun. Quality face mask/filters, gloves and disposable overalls ( ALL paint is damaging to your health). 
2. What paint (primer and top) did you use (again brand and type please. If I google ‘two pack’, I’m likely to end up with lots of references to dead rappers 😛). This will depend on your aircarft build material - ask kit supplier/others who have same plane/etc
3. What environment did you do it in (backyard? Shed? Shed with extractor fan? etc) For a good finish, your and the environments safety, you will need at least a well vented, basic spray booth/clean room (I used air conditioner filter material on the air IN side to reduce the chance of insect/dust entry & a big pedestal fan pulling air OUT.  If spraying in winter some way of heating to ensure a good cure is advisable (I used an old reverse cycle window rattler).  Need very good lighting - as many fluros/LED lights as you can beg/borrow/steal
4. What would you do differently if you did it again? Would you ever do it again, or did it turn out to be just too painful?  If there is an next time, I will definitely do my own. Dont try & be fancy - go with a single colour (any shade of white is the most forgiving & functional).
5. Practice on any vertical sheet /wall you can sacrifice - cardboard that has been sprayed with undercoat is good. 
6.  Always  do a short test spray, on above, to check gun settings BEFORE commiting to the aircraft.
7. Do not try for full coverage n one coat - several "mist" coats (tack off between each) will result in a better finish
8. Know what the gun controls do - spray pattern, volume of paint, etc
9. Good preparation is the key to successful. Surface to be sprayed and having all you need handy to the job. I use 100% isopropanol to wipe down the surface before spraying (purchase from cleaning material wholesale supplier.)
10. Read the paint specification sheet & understand your mix ratios, tack of time, temperature range, etc

😈

,

[Moneybox]

If you love your bird paint your car first 🙃

 

You don't have a paint booth so pick your time to paint carefully. You need good light but artificial lights create great reflection to attract the bugs. A good sized moth leaves great track marks before becoming bogged down where he flaps till he stops. It doesn't look good.

 

Nobody can paint successfully without a decent amount of practise. There are a few tricks that you learn along the way like spraying the little edges and awkward spots first. These are the areas where you are likely too apply too much paint while trying to get into the corners so knock them off first so the finish strokes are smooth and even. Most of us fall into the trap of trying to get coverage on the first coat. Some paints are quite transparent until they dry. You need an even light wet coat and then walk away until it tacks off before applying a second coat where you'd expect coverage.

 

I'm not a painter but I've done a lot of painting. Most body shops seem to use gravity feed guns, I've always preferred a pressure pot where your paint is delivered down a tube so it doesn't matter what angle you have the spray gun paint delivery is exactly the same. There's plenty of cheap paint out there so spend a lot of time and effort practicing on old vehicle doors or bonnets or something similar to your plane.

 

If you're aiming at multiple colours and designs consider vinyl film. Good luck, it's very satisfying to paint your own. 

 

One more thing. You never paint with the gun stationary, press the trigger while starting your sweep and let off before you stop to return 😉

Edited Thursday at 07:41 AM by Moneybox

[Marty_d]

Good info gents. I'm also getting to this stage so interested in the answers.

Mate in Canberra who's built 2 Zenith CH750's has told me he used Norglass Shipshape which is available through Inspirations.

[onetrack]

Never try to paint anything without a sealed paint booth. One mosquito or fly can do an enormous amount of damage to a fresh paint job. You can buy cheap inflatable Chinese paint booths that are good value.

Use plenty of thinner and lay down several very thin coats, waiting a few seconds between coats for the first coat to go tacky. Use premium grade paints, they're worth the extra money. If using two-pack, make sure you use the exact ratio of hardener, that the hardener is fresh, and ensure you have, and use, an airwash hood. The ingredients of two-pack paints are potent carcinogens. The temperature when you paint is crucial, never less than 15°, and never more than 35°.

Finally, keep your paint and hardener in the workshop fridge, so it lasts longer (and make sure you mark it properly, so there's no confusion!).

[skippydiesel]

The Stewart System is

• Specifically for aircraft (obviously can be used elsewhere but why?)
• Being waterborne, is fare less dangerous than traditional two pack.
• Recommends HVLP gun, much reduced aerosol generation and paint wastage.
• Follow the instructions , to the letter, you will be surprised at how good the result is😈

[IBob]

I bought a car parking tent and erected it in the workshop.
It was early spring, so heating was required. At one end of the tent I had two bathroom extractors venting to the outside. At the other end I cut a hole to take a 2.3Kw electric radiator...one of those cheap ones on little wheels. So with the fans on, air was drawn into the tent via the radiator fins. This gave steady gentle air movement that didn't kick up the dust. In the 'booth' I had a cheap wall thermometer. With aircraft part/s in place, I would switch on radiator and fans, then wait until the temperature stabilised at an appropriate level: as I recall, I would suit up and start mixing once I had about 23'C. The painting itself is pretty quick, I think I turned off the radiator before picking up the gun, as there would be plenty of residual heat in the radiator. This worked well for me.
As mentioned by others, you need lots of light. This may not be essential for skilled painters, but I found the only way I could see what actual finish I was getting was to move my head so as to get direct lighting reflections off the surface. With just a few points of light you can't do this. I had lighting all down one side of the tent, that worked okay if I ran round the other side of the job. In a perfect world I would have had lighting down both sides. And if you look at professional high quality spray booths, the walls and ceiling are solid banks of lighting. (As an aside to that, if you get a 'dry' spot or area (too much air or gun held too far away) you can sometimes remedy it by loading up quickly with thinners and applying a light overspray of that. But you do have to be quick to spot it, before the paint hardens.......which requires that good lighting.) So, yes, lighting: you can't have too much.
As a complete amateur (I once applied a coat of paint in an orange-peel finish to a Fiat Bambina, 40years ago, and that was it) I figured I would need all the help I could get. So I spent some time making supports to hold the wings tilted up towards me, as that was the easiest angle to be working the gun. And I rotisseried the fuselage with a suspension rope round the engine mount, which allowed me to paint it in four stages.
Initially I had too much air at the gun, and had to clean back one complete wing underside and start again. I bought an air gauge to go on the gun, as the gun pressure is not the same as the compressor when you are spraying. Once I got that sorted out, and with careful focus on gun distance and speed, it went quite well. I did the colour last, and found it much easier to see how that was going on than with the white.

[IBob]

In my opinion, some kit builds are badly let down by poor choice of colour and layout. Which is kinda sad, given the care and the hours that go into a build.
It took me a long time to settle on what I wanted, and I spent hours over the final months looking at online pics of this aircraft before deciding on the layout. The online stuff is gold when it comes to seeing how a layout actually looks from different angles.
Then I had trouble finding the colour: I knew I wanted blue, in the end I got a friend to help go through the housepaint colour cards at the hardware store, then I got the colour mixed.
The layout is very traditional Savannah. I stuck with that as I think the white underside makes the aircraft look less heavy in the belly. And it's simple as it just follows the overlap in the skins.
For the white tip of the vertical stabiliser, that looks right if it matches the angle of the forward strake.
And another builder suggested that the registration looks best if applied fairly far back.......so I did that. Also it's on straight (and surprising how many aren't).
What I didn't do was fiddle with colours and layouts on paper. First, you never actually see the aircraft in the side elevation often used for that. And second what may look good on paper can't be relied on to look good in real life.

[skippydiesel]

Well done IBob - lots of initiative.

I would suggest that the:

• two bathroom extractor fans ae insufficient - the principal is correct, just need to move more air.
• heater you used could easily be an ignition source - its use close to a potentially explosive atmosphere is very risky

My paint booth was a wooden frame completely wrapped (including floor) in builders plastic sheet, (edge sealed with packing tape). Top/walls had an extra layer of bubble wrap for insulation.

One end wall skin was about 1/4 air-conditioning filter (bubble wrap drop down sheet to keep warm air in when not spraying)

The opposite end, double doors (to facilitate large component entry) with a ducted cheap industrial pedestal fan extracting air, in the left door, the other my entry/exit. 

About midway I had an old reverse cycle air conditioner mounted at ground level (warm air rises) with the thermostat set to deliver a constant 25C about half way up the structure (used cheap digital thermometers with Max/Min temp recording).

The filter end of the structure had my paint preparation bench.

I wet down the  floor before spraying as an additional dust suppressant.

An old rotatable engine stand was modified to hold the wing root end, of each wing , the tip supported by tie down point, either from roof or floor stand  - this allowed the wing to be rotated about its long axis.

I had no mains electricity so used a 7 kva generator for power and my compressor was/is a  Honda powered unit.

 

Will try & find some photos.😈

[facthunter]

Have good water separators in your airlines This is NOT easy, REDs fade. Have plenty of tinter so a thinner coat covers it. Have Parts so they can rotate is if on  a spit so you don't miss  bits. Avoid RUNS and overspray areas. "Lousy finish"  Make sure there's no sanding dust or blasting remnants about in tubes or cavities. Retarder thinners in the final coat will prevent "blooming" and give a better finish  PRACTICE on anything you can before doing the actual job. Surfaces let dry fully  will require Sanding before the next coat  is applied  Use lint free cloths and air to remove dust,  Have a dust free environment. Keep the lids on your thinners tins.  Nev

[sfGnome]

Thank you all for your comments thus far. I feel a bit like a kindergarten kid in a physics lecture, but I really appreciate all the info. 🙂

[facthunter]

It's very satisfying when you get it right. Paints are also EXPENSIVE and can add a bit of weight, Mask off everything you don't want overspray on.

[Moneybox]

You can't possibly know it all until you've absorbed a fair bit of advice from YouTube 😅

[IBob]

Skippy, two bathroom extractors moved the right amount of air. They were 6", not the little 4" jobs. I think because they vented directly out through the (wooden) wall of my workshop. The owner who very kindly lent them had less luck, probably because he had them running out of his hangar through long spiral wound ducts.
And as noted, I turned off the heater before loading the gun.
It sounds like you built the Rolls Royce. My setup was a lot less sophisticated......but (more by luck than good judgement) it did work well here at the time.

Edited yesterday at 01:33 AM by IBob

[facthunter]

You will learn from your mistakes, ie (the hard way) It is a specialised SKILL after all. Preparation cleanliness and Patience and watch what is happening where the Paint goes on. No crud in the gun, stir and if necessary filter the paint,  Nev

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 01:31 AM by facthunter
more content.