Paint techniques

I?m just about ready to paint, but have a couple of generic type painting questions.
? Do you typically paint the fiberglass parts installed on the airplane, or separately (fairings).
? Same for the cowling, is it installed when painted, or painted separately. If not installed, are the top and bottom joined together, or individually painted?
My main concern with these is that after painting the parts are able to be installed or removed with a reasonable chance of not damaging the paint at the joints. For items such as cowl hinges, if painted together, will the paint cause the parts to become essentially glued together such that the paint chips off when the cowl is separated? On the other side of the issue, if painted separately will the hinges no longer fit together due to interference from the thickness of the paint? I?m just looking for some good paint shop practice techniques here to hopefully avoid doing something avoidable which could cause a lot of rework! I appreciate anyone sharing their experience here.

Trib,

You want the parts, panels removed from the aircraft to paint. Do the cowl in two parts. You can mask the hinge areas prior to paint. Allow for the paint and primer thickness on butt joints, this can range from 1/32 to 1/16" or 2 to 3 mils if you have the capability to measure a mil. You may want to check out Loehle's paint system if you haven't committed to a brand yet. I have found his wonderfil exactly that and the paint is some of the nicest I've worked with. They provide a video and a great manual with tons of info. My total cost to paint my -10 was just under $3000 in materials. That was everything filler, primer, color and clear.

<<1/32 to 1/16" or 2 to 3 mils if you have the capability to measure a mil. >>

A mil is 0.001", so 1/32 to 1/16" would be 31.25 to 62.5 mils. Factory paint on a car is 3 to 7 mils, most around 4. Which is all just trivia....you certainly want the 1/32 to 1/16 gap between panels regardless of paint thickness.

Metallics?

If you are spraying metallic or pearl. make sure you orient your parts the same way they will set on the aircraft, lest the metallics lay differently on each section.

Or, could it be Metric?

DanH said:

<<1/32 to 1/16" or 2 to 3 mils if you have the capability to measure a mil. >>

A mil is 0.001", so 1/32 to 1/16" would be 31.25 to 62.5 mils. Factory paint on a car is 3 to 7 mils, most around 4. Which is all just trivia....you certainly want the 1/32 to 1/16 gap between panels regardless of paint thickness.

Click to expand...

Could Rick S. have been thinking in metric, as in silly little mm's?? They are SOOO easy to use, too bad we didn't make the switch back in the '60's or 70's when it came up.

Rick S. said:

Trib,

You want the parts, panels removed from the aircraft to paint. Do the cowl in two parts. You can mask the hinge areas prior to paint. Allow for the paint and primer thickness on butt joints, this can range from 1/32 to 1/16" or 2 to 3 mils if you have the capability to measure a mil. You may want to check out Loehle's paint system if you haven't committed to a brand yet. I have found his wonderfil exactly that and the paint is some of the nicest I've worked with. They provide a video and a great manual with tons of info. My total cost to paint my -10 was just under $3000 in materials. That was everything filler, primer, color and clear.

Click to expand...

I'm also getting things ready for paint, and have had little luck getting any help from Loehle. After reading about their products, I sent several e-mails to them and finally called them and had a long conversation. I'm still waiting to hear back from them and receive a couple of paint samples, and it's been weeks.

I was really hoping to work with them instead of with the local auto paint people, but it's becoming increasingly apparent that they're not interested in my business.

If you use their services, I wish you better luck than I've experienced.

DanH said:

<<1/32 to 1/16" or 2 to 3 mils if you have the capability to measure a mil. >>

A mil is 0.001", so 1/32 to 1/16" would be 31.25 to 62.5 mils. Factory paint on a car is 3 to 7 mils, most around 4. Which is all just trivia....you certainly want the 1/32 to 1/16 gap between panels regardless of paint thickness.

Click to expand...

Actually got my words ahead of my thoughts, leave a 1/32 to 1/16 inch gap to allow for 2 or 3 mils of paint...

N8RV said:

I'm also getting things ready for paint, and have had little luck getting any help from Loehle. After reading about their products, I sent several e-mails to them and finally called them and had a long conversation. I'm still waiting to hear back from them and receive a couple of paint samples, and it's been weeks.

I was really hoping to work with them instead of with the local auto paint people, but it's becoming increasingly apparent that they're not interested in my business.

If you use their services, I wish you better luck than I've experienced.

Click to expand...

I had a good experience with them but they are NOT internet people. They do business the old fashioned way with a telephone. I was able to talk to them every time I called. I also like doing email and web ordering but some don't. My paint was custom mixed and all the materials came well packaged and undamaged. Sorry to hear you had problems, I first started talking to them around the holidays and they were taking time off. As soon as they returned I got an email and away I went with the order.

Rick S. said:

I had a good experience with them but they are NOT internet people. They do business the old fashioned way with a telephone. I was able to talk to them every time I called. I also like doing email and web ordering but some don't. My paint was custom mixed and all the materials came well packaged and undamaged. Sorry to hear you had problems, I first started talking to them around the holidays and they were taking time off. As soon as they returned I got an email and away I went with the order.

Click to expand...

I can appreciate that, Rick. It surprises me that they have a rather developed Website for not being "internet people", but that's their choice.

My last exchange WAS on the phone and it was rather detailed. Didn't ask for any miracles, just accepted the offer from them to spray a couple of samples and send them to me.

Nothing. Nada. Zip.

I'm sure they're wonderful people, and I wish that buying their products had worked out for me. But it doesn't seem right that I should have to chase them down to buy products from their company, that's all. No sour grapes here, just adding my experience to the pile. These days, customer service is everything, IMO.