Painting questions

[RickWoodall]

I know most folks finish, fly, log the 40 etc prior to painting...i just need someone to explain that to me. My plan is to paint a "jet glo" or similar all white paint, with some modern decals put down the side, blue and grey.... eventually. Anyway, while the qb wings are coming together nicely...i look at them and think, man its got to be a ton easier to paint that before mounting. I am not expecting absolute perfection and I know there will be a few touch ups and inspections etc...but...wouldnt sanding, prime and a nice coat of white make sense once I have them basically ready to hang and had preclose inspection done? Same with tail...just asking. I read a post somewhere about waiting...just dont know why. I would buy adequate paint of same batch for all and not paint until i knew the rest would be painted within a few months. Of course paint kept from freezing etc. Any suggestions welcome. Needing a aircraft facility with room for a plane and paint booth at an airport cant be cheap, and i would think auto quality smaller paint booths would do a as good if not better job. Just asking, I am a long way away...but just dreaming about the finished product.

[N24YW]

My suggestion would be not to paint until you have installed the wings and made the wing root fairing. It would be difficult to do the install and make the fairing without damageing the paint. Once the wings have been installed push rods hooked up and such it is much easier to paint the wings off of the plane. I havent used jet glow but I beleive it is similar to Imron being a singel stage paint. Unless you have a pressure fed paint system it becomes difficult to paint large areas with small equipment. I can send you a pic of my paint job if you would like I havent up loaded pictures to the sight so it is easeir to email me.

drop me a email at

trabbart1@aol.com

Jim Knight
Burlington Iowa

[kentb]

I was going to fly first, paint latter. I talked to a couple of people about the paint after flying process and became aware that there are a number of plane that were flown first and never got around to the painting part. After all once you start having fun, who wants to stop to paint (or anything else).

This made me decide to paint before putting on the wings. I had already mounted the tail feathers, but removed them for painting. It is a lot easier to paint smaller thing that can be hung on wires from the ceiling.

I converted one half of the two car garage into a paint booth with about 100 ft of plastic from Home Depot and a couple of box fans/furnace filters.
I broke the painting down to a number of sessions as follows:
1. Tailpieces.
2. First wing, aileron and flap
3. 2nd wing, aileron and flap.
4. Fuse.
5. Cowl and some misc pieces.

I didn't paint the wing tips and the gear leg fairing as I wasn't through making them. Plus they come off easy latter for painting.

I painted GMC fleet white and will be adding vinyl color before OSH this year.

My next plane I think that I will paint as I go.

Kent

[Robert M]

I plan to paint before I fly. My "half garage" will become a pressurized paint booth and I'll paint all of the big parts at one time.

[N24YW]

I inserted a picure of how I painted the wings. They had been firt to the airplane and the wing roots were done.http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/1571/im000092wr5.jpg

Jim Knight

[Ironflight]

I think everyone's situation will be different, so recommendations probably aren't as important to you as gathering ideas on pros and cons from others. I flew first, and painted later for a number of reasons...(and yes, it was really hard to do without the plane for a month after flying it for six months - but it gave me time to catch up on other parts of my life!)

1) I had painted airplanes before, and knew that I wanted to have this airplane looking better than I could possibly do,.

2) It was going to be much easier to FLY the airplane to a paint shop than to try to take the pieces somewhere. That also allowed me to basically pick the best paint shop from a much wider area - not just what was near home.

3) Even if I did want to paint it myself, I didn't really have a good facility to do that - my workshop just wasn't set up for it.

I originally thought that there might have to be adjustments that would mar the paint, but it turned out that nothing like that came up - I doubt that it would for most people - these airplanes fly pretty well from the start!

Paul

[Kyle Boatright]

I'm sure there are other local builder networks which rationalized things differently, but most of my compadres painted their own planes and did it piece by piece in home made booths. Typically, it was the last step before each component got carried to the airport. When they ran out of stuff to paint, it was time for final assembly.

By the way, the paint jobs are excellent...

[terrykohler]

Rick:
Check out Centralia Aircraft Finishing at Centralia, Ont. airport. Brian Kearnan is a one man band and has been painting aircraft for over 20 years. Nearly all of his work today is homebuilts and he is usually booked 4-6 months in advance. Took him over 4 weeks to paint my 9 and he knows what he's doing and has got proper equipment. Glad I didn't try on my own.
Painting is a little like landing an aircraft. You can do a passable job from start up to approach, but what everyone really notices is whether or not the landing was good. Not really a true reflection of all of your real skills up to that point, but that's the way it is.
Good Luck
Terry

[hevansrv7a]

The folks at Goderich use Sherwin Williams (Jet Glo is SW's). You probably knew that. The folks at Sturgis Aviation, Sturgis MI (KIRS) use it too. Both do excellent work. I'd put Sturgis half a point above Goderich, but that's a personal opinion.

I flew first and I'd do it that way again. Different solutions for different builders. Enjoy.

Mine is at KDET just across the river from you and you are welcome to visit (once it's back from Sturgis) anytime. Write for contact data if interested.

[robertahegy]

My recommendation is:

If you are going to paint it yourself, do it before you fly.

If you are having it painted, fly it first.

Roberta