Advice / Suggestions on Painting the Interior

[XOverZero]

Originally Posted by Brett H

prior to priming) prior to riveting. Is the rivets not being primed an issue?

2.) What is needed to prepare the primed surface prior to spraying it with Jeflex WR (i.e. nothing, lightly scuff with scotch brite pad, degrease, something else)?

Thanks.

Brett Herrick
Columbus, Indiana

Keep everything covered as well as possible after priming to prevent contaminants from settling on it. Plastic sheeting drop cloths work well.
At paint time, go over the surfaces to be painted with an air gun - again, the dryer the air the better.
Last thing before spraying, lightly wipe down all surfaces with a tack rag. That is what worked for me. Wishing you every success.

[rapid_ascent]

Just did my first batch of Jetflex WR. I started with 10% DI water and decided that wasn't enough. I shot 3 test pieces then decided to dilute a little more and then I shot the F-704 assembly. It came out really nice for my first attempt.

I prepped the pieces by using maroon scotch Brite on my Akzo primer followed by a wipe with a tack cloth.

[DanH]

I realize spray cans are easy, and eco-friendly feels good....but for plain 'ole toughness, painting the interior with the same products used on the exterior has a lot of merit. By "same", I mean a quality epoxy primer and two-part single stage acrylic urethane, or two part base/urethane clear.

I have a flat black glareshield in the tip-over canopy, and the panel itself is semi-gloss, but the rest is PPG DCU urethane clear. Canopy reflections have not been a problem, and at 600 hours, there is little or no seat belt damage. I don't use carpet, so shoe grit has scratched the painted floors, but it's surface only, not enough to penetrate the clearcoat.

Do not paint the cabin side of the stainless steel firewall.

[Brett H]

First, thanks to all of the people who have helped me.

Regarding the decision to spray gun paint it or rattle can it, I glad that I went the spray gun route. Spray painting was a new experience. It generally went well. Yes, I wish the spray paint would have ended up a bit smoother (i.e. I think the root cause of this is overspray). But, it is my belief that by spray painting I got better coverage than I would have gotten with rattle can, that it turned out better than if I had used a rattle can and allowed me to gain a better understanding of spray painting (i.e. I had no prior spray painting experience).

I selected the Sherwin Williams JetFlex WR because of its low fumes (i.e. my house in a residential area and I painted it in my garage) and recommendation of others. I would use it again. I diluted the paint 17.5% (i.e. it was in the middle of the recommended 10 ? 25%).

Trying to get the standard color chart for JetFlex WR from Sherwin Williams was not successful. After multiple requests on the Sherwin Williams website, they finally sent me the standard colors for all of their paints EXCEPT JetFlex WR. So, a phone call to them, explained what happened and they said that they would send it. It never came. I finally got the standard color chart from the distributor in Ohio.

Yes, I used the recommend Harbor Freight HVLP gun. The first one had to be returned. It would not come apart to be cleaned. The second one didn?t want to come apart either. But, the store manager finally got it apart.

Building the paint booth went well. One inch PVC pipe made a good structure that the plastic was wrapped over. I would have liked the ?door? for entering and exiting to have sealed better. I had two twenty inch fans with furnace filters in front of them pulling the air out. It is not clear how much air flow is right amount. Does more air flow do a better job of removing the over spray or does it spread it around more? In hindsight, I wish I had run the fans on high rather than low. Finally, pressing some of the PVC pipe connections together rather than gluing them worked well and allowed the paint booth frame to be taken apart so that it could be stored in my attic.

My path to learning to spray paint was to use scrap pieces of aluminum, advancing to internal inspection covers that run down the center of the fuselage, then onto the baggage compartment skins, then the seats and then finally the interior of the fuselage.

Lessons learned:
1. Spray painting with distilled water was cost effective way to learn what the spray gun adjustments did
2. In the diluting the paint, weigh the paint and water to added to separately and then mix. This way you can?t add to much water to the paint.
3. Painting parts hung vertically didn?t work for me because they moved around too much.
4. The Harbor Freight stand for holding the spray gun was well worth the cost.
5. Going through the motions as to how I was to spray a part was good practice for when I was actually going to spray paint the part.
6. Spray painting the edge and then the whole part didn?t work for me (i.e. I got a funny line approximately a quarter of an inch inboard from the edge). So, I just spray painted the surface making sure to start spraying before the edge and stopping after the edge.
7. The mask, google and Tyvek suit didn?t limit my ability to spray paint. I?m glad that I wore it.
8. I setup the spray gun by allowing maximum paint flow, adjusting the spray pattern to what was designed and finally the air pressure to what gave a nice spray pattern.
9. I went away from the Harbor Freight filter / dryer to its large pressure drop when the spray gun is flowing air and its length. I switched to a filter dryer from Lowes that is the size of a small orange.
10. Purchasing multiple quarts at one time rather than a gallon made it easier to stir the paint and minimize the time that it was open.
11. Cleaning the gun right after spraying kept the gun from plugging during the next use. Unfortunately, during drying of the spray nozzle with an air hose it slipped out of my hand and was damaged. Efforts to purchase a replacement spray gun at the local Harbor Freight has not been successful. Of the 7 in stock, 5 wouldn?t come apart to be cleaned and 2 came apart at the wrong location.

Once again, many thanks for those who helped me with this. I couldn?t have done it without your help.

Brett
Columbus, IN
Starting on the Finish Kit