Smilin' Jack
Well Known Member
As some know I am involved in Painting my RV7, and have run into 3 Issues that I will share with you and hopefully keep you from having the same frustrations.
1st if your going to paint your aircraft with yellow, either PPG or Acry Glo, make your you use a white primer as the yellow will not cover green, epoxy primer even with 3 coats...,,We called two aircraft paint shops and found out the Yellow is the hardest color to apply and cover.
2 nd. Even with great amounts of reducer to get it to flow it has a modeling problem or as some would say texture. Of course you can wet sand with some 3000 and then buff it a mirror finish.
3 rd. Iif you use metallic paint such as Acry Glo make sure that the base dries at least 4-6 hours not as the directions say 1 hour. Sherwin Williams tech fellow told us even better to dry overnight but to do the clear before 15 hours. The problem is that the base will soften when the clear is applied ( Even though the base is dry to the touch )and will cause the metallic to settle in bands, that look like tiger stripping ( or that you missed areas when painting or got some areas heavy and some lightly coated. This being said if you use an accelerator in the clear, then you still should wait 2 hours before you apply the clear coat .
He stated the problem using accelators is often in Metallics they produce Halos in the finish.. Not in the solid bases.
I have had to do a lot of sanding to eliminate the paint thickness, thank God, the paint was applied in thin coats and we still can see all the Rivets very good. I don't want 50 lbs of paint when most folks get by with about 30 lbs on an RV.
I will say that the Sherwin Williams green epoxy primer goes on slick as grease and adheres to the aluminum excellent.
Just another minor set back in the construction process. I hope it looks great when done... Even though I just want a safe, good looking aircraft, and that
these tips can help some other RVer avoid time consuming, costly mistakes.
Smilin' Jack
1st if your going to paint your aircraft with yellow, either PPG or Acry Glo, make your you use a white primer as the yellow will not cover green, epoxy primer even with 3 coats...,,We called two aircraft paint shops and found out the Yellow is the hardest color to apply and cover.
2 nd. Even with great amounts of reducer to get it to flow it has a modeling problem or as some would say texture. Of course you can wet sand with some 3000 and then buff it a mirror finish.
3 rd. Iif you use metallic paint such as Acry Glo make sure that the base dries at least 4-6 hours not as the directions say 1 hour. Sherwin Williams tech fellow told us even better to dry overnight but to do the clear before 15 hours. The problem is that the base will soften when the clear is applied ( Even though the base is dry to the touch )and will cause the metallic to settle in bands, that look like tiger stripping ( or that you missed areas when painting or got some areas heavy and some lightly coated. This being said if you use an accelerator in the clear, then you still should wait 2 hours before you apply the clear coat .
He stated the problem using accelators is often in Metallics they produce Halos in the finish.. Not in the solid bases.
I have had to do a lot of sanding to eliminate the paint thickness, thank God, the paint was applied in thin coats and we still can see all the Rivets very good. I don't want 50 lbs of paint when most folks get by with about 30 lbs on an RV.
I will say that the Sherwin Williams green epoxy primer goes on slick as grease and adheres to the aluminum excellent.
Just another minor set back in the construction process. I hope it looks great when done... Even though I just want a safe, good looking aircraft, and that
these tips can help some other RVer avoid time consuming, costly mistakes.
Smilin' Jack
