build status

[weezbad]

talked with the autobody instructor yesterday and he said that martin seniour was doing really well right now and had a great line of products. ppg had been real strong in the past but were in need of some improvements now...i use ppg because thats what ive always used. but preferably i would like to go with imron simply because its design was for aircraft.i hate to switch paints when im going to be shooting something so important. any good uretahne will do well. planes used to be painted with laquer and acrylic enamel. the uretahnes really stand up well to abrasion and the like. but i know one thing.....i'll be doing it. before you ask why dont i let the autobody instructor paint it...that program is new to our school, located at a high school and has to share a paint booth . the only time they get a booth is in the summer. so most of their painting projects are saved till then. plans are currently on the drawing board for a new facility at work..but you know how the state moves,, like pond water.

[tmbg]

I'm definitely not gonna bother with imron... it's WAY too much money. I have actually been VERY happy with the martin senour producs. Up until recently I've only ever used them for motorcycles, and only the base/clear system.


I was running low on paint that matched the cherokee, so I went down there and bought a quart of each of the colors in a single stage urethane, very similar to Concept DCC. I shot my fuel caps with it, and it flows out very nicely and evenly, and gives a nice wet gloss finish. Plus, the stuff is about $30/quart, plus another $14/8oz for the hardener.

[dpansier]

Anyone have experience with this product? They are aggressively pushing with low prices.
Almost seems to cheap to be good.

Don
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[weezbad]

the only time i ever switched paints is when a sikkens rep (akzo nobel)was so sure i would like his better he gave me the color and clear. i had to buy the reducers and haredeners. it came out very nice. two years later a spot fried up 12"x8" for some reason. i feel that was soemthing other than the sikkens and would use it again...i would not want to try a new product without a long known history, esp. on a plane. could you imagine having to strip a plane.....assembled? yuck i would try it on a car but i've seen alot of cheap paint and usually it just doesnt have the solids to hold up. when you go to get a color mixed they can mix the same exact color in different price ranges..

[weezbad]

paint room finished...uggghhhh what a pain to build this. i like to paint cars and stuff as well so i figured i would do one i could use again.. got a couple of camaro projects in the waiting area. here is a shot of the paint room. the plastic was temporary i have those finished now. i have two exhaust fans and one heated inlet fan in the works. should be able to paint all year round. now back to the emp fairing....just laid a coat of resin on it.

[cjensen]

Sweet paint room!! I may be copying that down the road, so I need more details!

[weezbad]

simply built a room from 4 inch channel under my shed..(would use wood next time). sheeted the inside with galvanized sheetmetal taped seams with 3 inch wide aluminum tape. two fans for evacuation (can run one or two 3000CFM ea.) and one heated pressure feeding for less negative pressure, to prevent sucking the trash from leaks unknown to me. i sided the outside to match the existing structure. WIFES ORDERS
any who here is my homebrew fres air mask. probally 150 $ total cost.
i would buy one next time.

[cnpeters]

Looks great, William. I would love to see a blow by blow account of your painting, as I too am debating what path to take down the road. BTW, are you going to OSH?

[weezbad]

Won’t make it to Osh maybe next year I can pull a sick week. Which is the only way I can get out of work? I teach at a technical college and our vacation time is dictated to us. Sounds worse than it is, I haven’t worked more than 37.5 hrs a week in the past 7 years. I will try to take lots of pics while I paint but I am somewhat lazy in that dept. not to mention slows as Christmas. been trying to post more along the lines of brantels status page but you know the drill, left the camera chip outside or inside or at work.

Building the paint booth was almost a vacation compared to the plane. Even though it was hot heavy work. (Lots of welding) but now im back at it.

I did find as others have mentioned, thinning epoxy with acetone doesn’t seem to work well. Still rubbery after 36 hrs. I can still squeeze the sponge I used to dab it with. The epoxy 8 hrs old without acetone is brick bat hard in the same type sponge...makes me wonder if the acetone causes the sponge to give up something?????

[weezbad]

tried my best to fix the spinner to cowl gap turned out pretty good.






small layer of rage gold.




gap was not paralell at the joint and was 1/8 wider than the other side. now its much closer but still a touch wider. the engine may sag some and make it perfect.






pinhole hell. after much research i figured the best way to go was as vans described in their instructions. so i dutifully washed and sanded the cowl.i mixed up a batch of 105 resin and 205 hardener.did not thin. i applied it with a chip brush but that wasnt gonna cover the whole cowl.(4 full pumps of resin)so i got a bondo squeegee and spread it with that. i ended up with resin back in the cup.
ohhh btw think your cowl is flat think again.






i sanded this with 80 grit then epoxied it with straight resin. here it is after 3.5 hrs (cutting the grass.) dried nicely still a little shy about the acetone. my SPONGE brush is still rubbery. i will try it on a small test piece soon. thinner would be better I WILL NOT USE THE FOAM BRUSHES AGAIN.

[weezbad]

after the first sanding with water...note the changes in color. thats where the low spots are. got them out later.




well several hours of sanding this stuff and it was very smooth.(wet and dry) a few low spots but no pinholes. vans method seems to be the trick for me. i have sanded many paints and primers but beleive me the epoxy ot tougher than them all. not as bad as everyone says but, that would depend on your stamina and experience. i could have sanded a camaro to a 800 finish ready for paint in the time i sanded this cowl.
once i get the bottom half done i will prime them with k-36. i may first prime them with DPLF epoxy primer. maybe not. i already bought it however.

[Spike]

Niice. Out of Curiosity, since you used a fair amount of fans, why did you not make your paint booth positive pressure instead of negative pressure?

[weezbad]

i am a little reluctant to think i could flow enough air through house style filters ( the best lowes sells at 20$ apiece 1700 fpn #)and still have a decent clearing rate with no/little trash. however i am still going for little to no pressure +or - with the heated + pressure fan and two evacuating fans. the pressure fan is a squirrel cage type and will likely out flow the exhaust fans. which i can turn one of them (or both) off and go positive. i am going to pant the rudder and seee what happens. i agree that positive is the way to go but with a sealed room (difficult i know) good results can be achieved. it aint over yet

[Spike]

Keep us posted!!

[weezbad]

i used the west system epoxy and slow hardener mixed 5:1:5 resin,hardener,acetone..thinnned verry nicely, acetone evaporated quicker than you think and sanded dry like spot putty 24 hrs later. non-clogging of the paper and filled the pin holes verrrrrry nice.

[weezbad]

second coat of resin being wet sanded (220 grit)

sanding the bottom cowl, the first round of resin thinned with acetone. (80 grit) brushes on watery thin, then the acetone evaporates whille brushing on and it builds nicely

[weezbad]

second coat of resin thinned gave me some trouble so i wont be thinning it any more. a copy of a post i made elsewhere.
"i painted the inside with akzo it took 3.5 hrs @95 deg. to be dry enough to sand.
as far as thinning epoxy with acetone, it woked fine on the top cowl which i had previously coated with a straight mixture of resin, . got brave and did the bottom with thinned 50-50 first time on. it took a lot longer to dry but sanded fine. second coat on the bottom took days to dry and seems uncured at times while sanding. it would sand fine wet but would roll when sanding dry. luickily it sands dusty dry today.
from now on i will just use straight resin spread with a new yellow bondo spreader. the brush streaks left by the brush were far more trouble to sand out than the streaks left by the spreader. spreader left two ridges the brush left multiple ridges and made sanding a dog.
my observation is that the acetone evaporates by about the third stroke and you have nearly pure resin any way. This makes me wonder if it is taking some of the hardener with it and increases the drying time. dunno"

[weezbad]

finsished sanding the cowl halves and got the factory style pins in...i just wasnt up to making some fancy smancy cover thingy... if you can tell im getting a little antcy and want to be finished


later i primed the halves with dplf epoxy primer. No, the hose isnt touching the cowl. the homebrew respirator is awesome. i think i need to thank chad for posting the sale of masks on ebay a year or so ago. if not chad then someone like him.


if you look closely you can see the light spots on the cowl. i put a second coat on there later. i will get up bright and early tommorow and prime with k-36 or 38 and cut the grass as it dries then try to sand if possible. have to check the product sheet again on dry to sand times of the k primer. ok now it is getting a little fun.



the plane will be summit white 8624 IIRC and hyacinth blue and some medium grey. here is a qiuck rendering of an idea for a finished product. DONT HOLD ME TO IT I MIGHT GET LAZY

[cjensen]

...the homebrew respirator is awesome. i think i need to thank chad for posting the sale of masks on ebay a year or so ago. if not chad then someone like him.

Looks great!! But if you expect me to remember an Ebay sale from last year...don't. I can't remember much from last week!

It's looking really good Weez. I bought a book at the show last week on how to paint your own airplane!

[weezbad]

...the homebrew respirator is awesome. i think i need to thank chad for posting the sale of masks on ebay a year or so ago. if not chad then someone like him.

Looks great!! But if you expect me to remember an Ebay sale from last year...don't. I can't remember much from last week!

It's looking really good Weez. I bought a book at the show last week on how to paint your own airplane!

i thought you were the one that posted a link to the sale but i am not sure.

as far as the book. that is what i did when i painted my first car... i learned alot from that book. and the car turned out very nice..