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Aaaargh! Are you kidding me? - Skin scratches

lShadowl

lShadowl

Member
After all the precautions I took.
I even left the plastic on...the cleco managed to make a tool mark!
I have a few holes like this...maybe 3-4.
And yes, I'm feeling it big time with my nail.

So I guess I should go with : sandpaper, scotchbrite and alodine?

20160615_161901.jpg

It's on the HS - Exterior skin
 
If this upsets you that much, you probably shouldn't finish the airplane.

There's More-to-come!
 
lShadowl said:
Yes Bret, I will...
Click to expand...

Then the whole plane will get scuffed, sanded if necessary and primed -- stuff like this will completely disappear. You can spend extra years worrying about it while you build, or days getting rid of it before you paint.

:)
 
You will spend almost exactly the same amount of time to prepare the rivet hole to the left as the bulls eye one. Maybe one more rub with the scotch brite.

If you are worried about what will cover and what won't, take a scrap piece of aluminum and make some scratches like you have, dress them with scotch brite, and paint them. The rest of your build will be much less stressful.
 
Absolute perfection is the enemy of completion. We've got scratches through plastic that came out of the crate that way. Build on.
 
bobnoffs said:
you will look back on this in a year and laugh.
Click to expand...

It took me three years to get past this stage, not like I am throwing tools across the wings or anything, but, the finish went from a looks good at 5 inches, to 5 feet....ok, well maybe 15 feet in some areas........;-)
 
It has been suggested several times that behind the shops of the award-winning builders are enough parts to build a couple more planes.

I'm not an award-winning builder......but my planes fly OK. :)
 
I'll never forget, on my first trip to Oshkosh almost 2 years ago, my first stop was Vans Aircraft booth to take pictures of their baffle installs. I was shocked at all the chipped paint and signs of heavy use! I just assumed all RV's were show planes!.....I've come to realize, if you want 100% perfection, you best not ever take it out of the hanger!
 
While you're at it, might as well remove all that blue plastic. Sure, you'll get some micro-scratches, but they will magically disappear under the first coat of primer. The plastic gets tougher to remove as it ages.
 
That's the way it started

I wasn't going to prime except for the mating surfaces and those parts that weren't alclad. Then I started deburring and working with the parts and I got very light scratches in the parts and skins. That got me thinking about how deep the alclad layer is or isn't. Is that small light surface scratch thru the alclad layer? I don't know.

So I started to prime everything because I wanted to make sure. I wrote it off as getting experience with the spray gun so that I can do the exterior painting. Priming looks nice. I'm using Stewarts so that I can prime indoors in the winter. Not sure if I want to do that though, because prep is a pain.

For now I'm priming. When winter comes and I have to do it down in the basement I may change my mind.
 
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