another paint booth

[Steve Melton]

no, I did not have an air inlet fan. I wrapped the plastic around completely and overlapped on the floor. I needed to put something on the floor or it would rise. I used a 2x4 but a thin floorboard over the entire floor would be better. I have a 7 ft. wide booth. 8 ft wide would have been better. then use 4 x 8, 1/4 inch floorboard.

[Steve Melton]

I left some green Imron primer (interior painted with Imron) around the screws of the canopy side and they bubbled with PPG DPLF primer. PPG primer has acetone as a thinner. If you don't use acetone to thin the primer surface is not as smooth. Washed off with acetone and repeated, 15 minute delay, another lesson. the can-o-pee got three coats of paint. first time to paint three coats. I let the second coat flash for 20 minutes before painting the third coat. three coats looks slightly smoother but I used a more paint but this is a small part. two coats would have been fine for this part but I had extra paint in the gun. for the wings and fuse I will use two coats. DT885 reducer, booth temp at first coat 80F, end of third coat 68F.... warm today. outside air temp 58F.

















big rain today

[Steve Melton]

this was the end of the second coat


end of third coat, no significant difference

[Steve Melton]

curing primer with electric fans on high. booth expands slightly on the sides like a balloon. also, I modified the door hold open device with a rope strung from the top to allow for getting big parts in and out easier vs the rod from the floor method. the canopy was wall to wall. 8ft booth width would be better than 7ft.

[gordodavis]

Hi Steve, I sent you a PM.

[Steve Melton]

booth rotated 90 degree easily. I brought in the babe. rope used to swing the light for clearance. still deciding if I should raise it one foot to be 8ft. I will extend the booth 10ft to get the tail. still thinking how best to get the plastic through the wing. I'm thinking about raising the lights to be above the wing. need another pair of lights. wood as protection against a dropping pvc pipe but we managed without dropping a pipe. I will add the rope cross ties and use some strong duct tape at the upper pipe joints. I shook a lot of **** out of those flexible ducts.











no overspray detected after completing phase 1, this was the coupon located adjacent to the booth door

[Steve Melton]

raised one foot to be 8ft. what I need around the wing is a contoured clam shell with a soft pad interface to the wing. I may try 4 inch polystryrene, the blue stuff.

[s10sakota]

I've been reading this thread with interest and I'd like to offer an 'outside the box' observation. I believe there is a much easier and less expensive way to paint an airplane. But, I know I will have tomatoes thrown at me...

I've painted two airplanes. Both were tube-and-fabric but both had a lot of aluminum and fiberglass parts.

No one here is interested in painting the fabric so I'll leave that part out. But for the aluminum, it was simple and cheap. I scuffed the parts (alum gear fairings, wings struts, trim tabs, canopy bow frame, etc...) with a scotch bright pad, cleaned it off with cheapo alcohol, sprayed it with two-part epoxy primer, and then top coated it with Superflite paint. Done! I didn't use or need any aluma-whatever or any other expensive and dangerous chemical cocktail to 'prep' parts.

I used a Citation HVLP and the parts came out perfect. No orange peel and no runs. For as long as I had the airplanes the painted parts were tough as nails. No paint peeled and no paint chipped. In fact, the paint was very difficult to scratch.

If I recall, a gallon of epoxy primer was around $60. I read somewhere in this thread a guy paid $1,100 for 1.5 gallons of PPG?!?!

For fiberglass parts, there's no way you're going to get all the pin holes out before you prime it. Fill what you can...shoot a coat of epoxy primer...and then fill the holes. I used a cheap red filler that comes in a little tube from Autozone. My wheel pants and cowl had ZERO pin holes. I'm either really awesome or my bone-simple technique just works well!

It's my observation that the RV folks seem to make things as complicated as can possibly be! I can surmise why, but I won't post that here.

Anyway, it's just something to think about. I really don't think painting has to be as difficult as people make it.

I've currently packed my RV-7 away to build a Zenith Cruzer on amphib floats and so far my plan is to paint the entire airplane with two-part epoxy primer and Superflite paint. I think that's the least expensive way to go that will still provide a fantastic finish.

Oh, and the other thing I wanted to mention if it concerns you, the primer and paint went on extremely thin and smooth! So don't think that it's going to add more weight to the plane than PPG or anything else. I was really impressed with how thin and shiny it came out.

Primer on my S-6S wheelpants as described above...http://www.ransclan.com/30jun10.htm

Paint on my S-6S wheelpants as described above...http://www.ransclan.com/8jul10.htm

Finished Wheel Pants...http://www.ransclan.com/1aug10.htm

Priming Cowl...http://www.ransclan.com/25sep10.htm

Paint on Cowl...http://www.ransclan.com/27sep10.htm

Finished Cowl (look how shiny it is!)...http://www.ransclan.com/Log%20Pages/6oct10.htm

[Steve Melton]

your paint looks better than mine. difficult to know which paint to choose. my posts are for info only using the PPG Concept, FLG4 gun and a hangar setup for a first time HVLP painter in the cold season. maybe I need to go back to the Citation HVLP that I borrowed to paint the overall primer but it's difficult to paint upside down and I had some drips from that gun. perhaps the drips were from a faulty seal that could be corrected.

[E. D. Eliot]

Mark, could you please list the details of the epoxy primer. I'm looking to follow your lead. Manufacturer and primer by catalog number would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Ed Eliiot