SpyderMike
Member
This lengthy commentary (diatribe?) will recount my journey through the largest hurdle to completeting the prep and painting of my plane. I will write it in sections that i hope are readable. Here goes:
I really enjoyed building my plane. It is a Rans S-16 a two seat side-by-side low wing. I built it in a taildragger configuration. It is a slightly scaled down RV6 if you stand back and squint. In fact, it uses a chopped RV6 canopy I am told. The fuselage is basically a composite shell over a cromoly cockpit cage. In the tail are aluminum formers and stringers. I chose the plane because it looked easy to build and would require no other person to help me. It uses blind rivets, nuts/bolts and epoxy to hold it together. It was easy to build, very enjoyable in fact, until I got to the prep work.
It took me about 4 years and roughly 1,000 hours to get it ready for paint. The engine was in and running, the avionics were installed and operating, then the plane was partially disassembled so that I could prep for paint and shoot it. Then something happened. In the back of my kind I dreaded the thought of hours of sanding, the dust, the smell, the tedious work. I mean I dreaded it. Let me drill, rivet, wire, sweep the floor, anything but sand. Arrgh. Well, that was in mid-2006.
I had hit a mental roadblock, and I could not get past it. In the meantime, the plane fuselage sat in my garage and collected ornaments. Stuff piled up around it until it was barely visible. It became a nuisance to work around. This was not good. I took up other hobbies, bought a race car, bought a new production plane. I found it was easier to do anything than sand and paint.
I tried to focus every now and then and force my self to do the work. I even bought all the painting supplies and a Citation 4 HVLP system hoping that would motivate me. Nope, it didn't.
I'll back up a bit. I chose the Flight Gloss composite prep system because it looked simple and straight forward. Not too many ways to screw this up I thought. First, I rolled on the Pre-Prime Sealer. Okay, not so bad. Piece of cake! Next were 6 or more coats of UV Smooth Prime, this stuff kind of rolls on like a thin Elmers glue. Hey, this is pretty easy. There is texture to it and you are supposed to sand it down. I would sand it down and see areas that I didn't like and spot coat those with more Smooth Prime, then sand again. Again, what is it about sanding that I don't like? Oh yea, everything. Anyway, I would clear out the garage, start to sand, make a mess, then stop. Then the garage would pile up again. I began to realize how much I hate to sand.
I ultimately bought the PTI paint from Aircraft Spruce right after it showed up in their catalog. Having never painted anything before, I liked the idea of a single stage MIL-SPEC paint from a local company. However, the information on the website from PTI left me scratching my head. How much of what should I get? I have aluminum wings and control surfaces and a composite fuselage, what steps does each require? Luckily, I happen to live about 45 minutes from the West coast ACS store, so I went there to ask questions. The conversation with the folks at ACS left me staring blankly into space wondering what I was doing there. They could not give a confident answer - they would have to contact the manufacturer. Reflecting back a little later, I have a better understanding of the challenges of running a parts distribution company with a bazillion parts in your catalog. You can't know everything about everything, and besides, the relationship with PTI was new. As continued luck would have it, PTI was to be at the next ACS open house. Sweet! So I went there and had a real nice chat with the PTI rep (I later found out it was the owner of the company). He answered every question I had and told me what part numbers to order. So I did.
Next segment - the paint scheme....
I really enjoyed building my plane. It is a Rans S-16 a two seat side-by-side low wing. I built it in a taildragger configuration. It is a slightly scaled down RV6 if you stand back and squint. In fact, it uses a chopped RV6 canopy I am told. The fuselage is basically a composite shell over a cromoly cockpit cage. In the tail are aluminum formers and stringers. I chose the plane because it looked easy to build and would require no other person to help me. It uses blind rivets, nuts/bolts and epoxy to hold it together. It was easy to build, very enjoyable in fact, until I got to the prep work.
It took me about 4 years and roughly 1,000 hours to get it ready for paint. The engine was in and running, the avionics were installed and operating, then the plane was partially disassembled so that I could prep for paint and shoot it. Then something happened. In the back of my kind I dreaded the thought of hours of sanding, the dust, the smell, the tedious work. I mean I dreaded it. Let me drill, rivet, wire, sweep the floor, anything but sand. Arrgh. Well, that was in mid-2006.
I had hit a mental roadblock, and I could not get past it. In the meantime, the plane fuselage sat in my garage and collected ornaments. Stuff piled up around it until it was barely visible. It became a nuisance to work around. This was not good. I took up other hobbies, bought a race car, bought a new production plane. I found it was easier to do anything than sand and paint.
I tried to focus every now and then and force my self to do the work. I even bought all the painting supplies and a Citation 4 HVLP system hoping that would motivate me. Nope, it didn't.
I'll back up a bit. I chose the Flight Gloss composite prep system because it looked simple and straight forward. Not too many ways to screw this up I thought. First, I rolled on the Pre-Prime Sealer. Okay, not so bad. Piece of cake! Next were 6 or more coats of UV Smooth Prime, this stuff kind of rolls on like a thin Elmers glue. Hey, this is pretty easy. There is texture to it and you are supposed to sand it down. I would sand it down and see areas that I didn't like and spot coat those with more Smooth Prime, then sand again. Again, what is it about sanding that I don't like? Oh yea, everything. Anyway, I would clear out the garage, start to sand, make a mess, then stop. Then the garage would pile up again. I began to realize how much I hate to sand.
I ultimately bought the PTI paint from Aircraft Spruce right after it showed up in their catalog. Having never painted anything before, I liked the idea of a single stage MIL-SPEC paint from a local company. However, the information on the website from PTI left me scratching my head. How much of what should I get? I have aluminum wings and control surfaces and a composite fuselage, what steps does each require? Luckily, I happen to live about 45 minutes from the West coast ACS store, so I went there to ask questions. The conversation with the folks at ACS left me staring blankly into space wondering what I was doing there. They could not give a confident answer - they would have to contact the manufacturer. Reflecting back a little later, I have a better understanding of the challenges of running a parts distribution company with a bazillion parts in your catalog. You can't know everything about everything, and besides, the relationship with PTI was new. As continued luck would have it, PTI was to be at the next ACS open house. Sweet! So I went there and had a real nice chat with the PTI rep (I later found out it was the owner of the company). He answered every question I had and told me what part numbers to order. So I did.
Next segment - the paint scheme....
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