Sure you can. Just be careful over the fasteners.

Buffing 101
 

I've done a lot of car painting followed by buffing both basecoat/clear and single stage. I strongly suggest you practice on something you don't care about even if you have to paint some scrap with the same paint materials as the plane.

Buffing wheels are great but they can rip thru paint really quickly. Most often, novices damage the edge (by going the wrong direction) which then requires you to learn how to blend. Take a look at 3M products when u r done with wet & dry paper.

Lots of water, always use a block, experiment a lot (use your teenager's car) before hitting the plane.

Here are my notes on 2015 VW I recently did. Enjoy!

Color sanding procedure as of Mar 2019 ? 2015 VW

First cut ? Use 2000 grit paper with lots of water and flat block. Make sure nibs do not cut into clear. Never use your fingers and sand paper. At the very least, use a flexible block else your fingers will press into the paper and cut unevenly. Do not use 1500 paper. Work in the sunlight to speed the process. The more material you cut off in this phase, the less time you will spend in Second cut.

Second cut ? Let the surface cool off & dry after being in the sun. Use the white foam pad with big nubs on it, lowest speed on the buffer, and the 3M white compounding liquid. Work indoors else the liquid will stain. Work on small sections, perhaps 6? x 12? or less. Study each section for clouds before moving onto next section.

Third cut ? 3M FINESSE II and white foam pad with ridges - work indoors else liquid can stain.

Fourth cut ? 3M PERFECT IT (blue and white bottle) and white solid foam pad.

Perhaps the most important component is to make sure the towels, applicator, buffing pad and anything else do not have any grit embedded lest it will scratch the clear and u will never get rid of it.

Tips
 

Thanks. Yes, I always practice on test parts. Problem is no matter how much I practice, Murphy still shows up unannounced.:D

As long as you don't use Harbor Freight abrasives. :)

3M stuff works really fast and doesn't shed grit like cheap paper.

There are some specialty discs for car work that have some sort of lubricant on the grit. Those leave a great finish but don't last long.

This may not work for every kind of paint, but for siloxane epoxies I find that grits higher than 1000 are a waste of time. Meguiar's cutting compound makes a shine without clouding in a few seconds after 1000-grit finish.

3M
 

Yep. I learned some HF stuff isn't worth the cost savings. I use 3M paper.
Going with Meguires 105 and 205 for final compound and polish using 3M pads.

Photos re-posted...again!

Cut & Buff
 

Cut & Buff
I don't want to steal any thunder from Dan. He is the expert and probably forgot more yesterday than I'll learn in a lifetime, but this is how I did it. I post details on everything to my blog and will post photos to my blog soon.

I starrted with 3M 1000, 1,500 and 2,000 wet sand. I did have to use more agressive grits for some pretty ugly spots. Pretty straight forward. Wet sand a little, dry, examine. When the orange peel is down to just a few glitterlike reflections, move on to the next grade. By 2,000, they were all gone and the surface just a matt finish.

I decided to play around with the compound and polish this afternoon. I compounded a tiny section then polished it and was so blown away, I just had to finish the canopy skirt. Maybe 20 minutes total.* I actually got a little emotional seeing the finished product. All I can say is Holy Cow! I could easily shave in the reflection.* So here's the destructions.*

1. I bought a rotary Dewalt Buffer, but for small jobs like this, it's totally unecessary. It may actually be a hindrance. This is so easy and takes just a little elbow grease.*

2. I chose Meguires 105 Compound and 205 Polish. Turns out a gallon is probably a good quantity for an airplane. I'll be buying more 105 eventually.*

3. Cut up some old cotton rags. 1' squares are good for applicators. Save the big pieces for buffing.*

4. Shake the products well.*

5. Apply a teaspoon size dollop of 105 to a patch.* Rub it on a section maybe 2? feet till it starts to dry like a wax haze.

6. Buff with a dry patch.*

7. Repeat with 205.

Yep. That easy.* It's perfectly flat, no orange peel or pinholes and shiny like a mirror.

Fix some really bad drips
 

Hello all,

I'm considering purchasing an already flying (and painted) RV-12. It was part of a teen flight build in Nor Cal. Related, the paint job was donated by Kracon Aircraft Painting. Net, given a pro paint shop did it, the paint job should be fantastic right? Well, the answer is mostly.

Somehow, while the whole plane looks amazing, there are REALLY unsightly drips under each wing. I have no idea how it passed QA. While the paint job was donated, Kracon did stick there logo on the tail cone under the data plate. Given the the size of this drip area, if I were the owner of the paint shop, I'm not sure I'd put my name on it. Anyway, the rest of the plane and paint are literally perfect. So, I want it. But I wanted to get some feedback on how to repair this section. Is it too big for the razor blade method on the 1st page of this thread (run over 400grit, convex, scrape a little, buff a lot)?

Here's a pic of the area (assume it's about the same under the other wing).

Thanks!

Have you considered talking to Kracon about it? I would think since their name is on it that they would want to fix it themselves.

I did send them an email last night. Going to call later today once they?re open. Not sure how helpful they?ll be since it?s been painted and flying like that for about 9-10months

Serious drips and sags
 

Fortunately, they r under the wings. Take the photo to your local paint supply shop and check if there are any newer methods than those I've suggested here and elsewhere which include a very sharp razor, Dremel, block sanding with lots of water, followed by buffing with various 3M polishing compounds. One time I waited for the Sherwin Williams salesman's visit to the supply shop and queried him. Those guys support all of the pros so coordinating a visit with the supplier salesman might yield some new ideas.

I'd wait till the end of summer so the surface is cooler. The biggest problem is burning or cutting thru the paint and then you'd have to learn the art of blending which is not easy. Working with power tools is tempting but given that u will be handling the tools upside down, the probability of ripping thru the paint is almost certain. Start in a very obscure location and perfect your skills. It's possible they laid so much paint on that it will come off in chunks and expose the primer. Meanwhile, you can fly and enjoy.

Kracon
 

Given it's a 12, the wings can be removed. It would make repair much easier. I agree with the vendor fixing their mistake. If they won't, another shop. It's difficult to cut a large area and not break through.

All great advice. Thank you! I'm awaiting to hear back on whether original shop will fix it. Otherwise, I'll likely deal with it myself in the fall (through a local shop). Hopefully, Kracon will just fix it and it'll be a non issue.

As large of an area and quantity of paint to be removed and location, it is doubtful it can be "restored" to look like it was painted properly. The best idea is to sand down for the base and repaint those two sections. White should not be too difficult to rematch. This would be the fastest and most satisfactory result. IMO

My concern as well. Worse, paint shop has been unresponsive to me and the seller... my bet is I?ll end up needing to having it done locally after getting it here. Ugh...just one more thing. But, it does give me something to do and we have he paint codes. :)

Might be worth relocating the painter's nameplate so that it's adjacent to the runs....

Dave

Almost makes you wonder if the runs are the result of something that happened after the plane was returned to the teen build site.....maybe an amateur attempt at repairing some shop damage? It's hard to imagine a paint shop leaving a mess like that.

GREAT IDEA 😂. Of course, it?s possible the theory that this is something that happened afterwards is possible. Seller certainly isn?t indicating this happened and is point finger at painter. We?ll see. Not a showstopper on the purchase, just a pain to deal with later.

It's important to know what kind of paint it is when it comes to touching up and blending.

You may not have to do any of that, though. One thing you could try: mask off everything else thoroughly; spray some black paint over the area with the runs; sand away with 1000 grit until all the black is gone. Use a thin firm rubber pad and press only where there is black. That way you won't cut through the white paint. When satisfied, cut&buff as described in the OP.

The scraping technique, yes.
But, you can slice off the thick part of the runs and work your way down. I've done it plenty of times. Just use brand new single-edge razor blades and carefully slice off the runs. You can then get the last bit with wet-sanding.
I think this is totally fixable. The biggest issue are the rivet heads and not burning the paint off of those if you buff. Protect them with a strip of tape and be careful.

Razor technique
 

Thats totally fixable. Sorry, I hadn't looked at the photo. Dan's razor method works really well. You need plenty of light so you can see when the drip has been removed down to the level of the flat surface. I have found the razor needs to be retreated when it stops scraping.
Once you remove the drip, follow his compound and polish method. Tape over the rivets to prevent blowing through the paint.

Awesome, starting to feel confident I can do it. Paint shop did reply. There?s still a chance they?ll fix it themselves.

Good news! Paint shop is repairing at no cost :)

Well, as a new member here and soon to be RV-8 owner - I can’t thank Dan and everyone else for this thread.

I re-painted my Lancair 360 years ago, and I have to say I did more than a fair job of it. Much of what I did (scuff/level, prime, prep, shoot color, prep, shoot clear coat, cut, buff) is laid out here in great detail.

The good news is the plane I’m buying is probably one of the nicest combo planes that can be found - solid construction, great low-time engine and prop, way top-notch avionics, and the maintenance has been outstanding.

The bad news? It was an $8k total paint job. So I get to paint another airplane! Woo!

This thread was great; thanks again!