Skid
Well Known Member
About every year or two I pull the sliding canopy off the airplane and clean the rollers and the track. The track seems to attract lots of dirt and grime which makes the slider not slide freely.
Recently when removing the sliding canopy to clean the rollers and track I lost my grip and dropped the canopy, UGH!
Luckily the canopy didn’t break but it left a nasty scratch on the side of the fuselage.
After consulting with someone who paints airplanes on exactly how to repair the scratch I decided to give a try. If I messed it up I could always take it in for repair.
To begin I cleaned the scratch with solvent.
I then applied multiple coats of paint directly on the scratch with a thin art brush, layering it to build up the thickness until the paint was proud of the surface.
Next I very carefully wet sanded just the raised paint to get it down to the height of the existing paint. I used 400 grit wet sand paper. I wrapped the sandpaper around the edge of a 1/4" piece of aluminum, a piece of wood would work as well.
I then wet sanded the area with 2000 grit wet sand paper.
After sanding I used an electric DA polisher; first with a paint cutting compound to remove the sanding marks, then finishing up with a polishing compound. It doesn’t take much polishing time with either compound.
The paint is SW Matterhorn White.
It turned out pretty well considering I have never done this before.
The pictures are of the scratch, after sanding with 2000 grit, and the finished repair
Recently when removing the sliding canopy to clean the rollers and track I lost my grip and dropped the canopy, UGH!
Luckily the canopy didn’t break but it left a nasty scratch on the side of the fuselage.
After consulting with someone who paints airplanes on exactly how to repair the scratch I decided to give a try. If I messed it up I could always take it in for repair.
To begin I cleaned the scratch with solvent.
I then applied multiple coats of paint directly on the scratch with a thin art brush, layering it to build up the thickness until the paint was proud of the surface.
Next I very carefully wet sanded just the raised paint to get it down to the height of the existing paint. I used 400 grit wet sand paper. I wrapped the sandpaper around the edge of a 1/4" piece of aluminum, a piece of wood would work as well.
I then wet sanded the area with 2000 grit wet sand paper.
After sanding I used an electric DA polisher; first with a paint cutting compound to remove the sanding marks, then finishing up with a polishing compound. It doesn’t take much polishing time with either compound.
The paint is SW Matterhorn White.
It turned out pretty well considering I have never done this before.
The pictures are of the scratch, after sanding with 2000 grit, and the finished repair