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Stewart Systems Paint

MikeyDale

MikeyDale

Well Known Member
I would like to say, I am very pleased, using the Stewart System EkoCrylic paint so far! I am a rank amateur at painting and this is my second batch of parts that I have painted.

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After reading all the horror stories about problems with SS paint (internet search), I was worried for sure. I did follow the instructions to the T including waiting for humidity fall since we have been getting a lot of rain lately. I am using the Devilbiss Finish Line 4 gun. My biggest worry was getting the wet coat on without producing orange peel and runs. I painted two batches of parts yesterday and never got a single run! I sprayed the wet coat much wetter than I thought was possible and still no runs! The shine is unbelievable!

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My vertical stab came out with a hint of tiger stripe and I'm having problems with some scattered foreign substance that looks like lint showing up on the wet coat. I'm going to change the furnace filters on the air inlet side of the booth to a better quality filter to see if that helps. I have a sink in my hanger and clean up with water is wonderful! I would have used a barrel of solvent by now washing up with solvent based paint. Overall, I am very pleased!
 
I had promised someone a while back I would document my experience with Stewart Systems paint. My experience has been good so far but I am learning more each day. I have finished painting everything but the wings and fuselage.

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I am using a Devilbiss Finishline 4 spraygun with a 5 hp single stage 220 volt compressor. I have a Can Air Q3 filter. At the recommended 23 psi at the gun, the compressor will run 75% of the time spraying continuously. I have found the Eko-Crylic paint is very forgiving and I can get good wet coats spraying with the part vertical or horizontal. I did have two problems. I started out getting lint in my painted surfaces. I thought I could cut and buff it out but that did not work. After talking to Dan at Stewarts, we determined it was caused by wiping the parts with alcohol using a terry cloth before spraying the top coat. The Alcohol makes the primer sticky and pulls very fine fibers off the terry cloth. The instructions did say to use a lint free cloth so it was my mistake. I also had a problem getting full color saturation on a few parts. I have learned that you have to get all your color saturation from light or fog coats prior to the wet coat. The wet coat provides the depth and shine but the fog coats provide the color. If you accidentally spray a wet coat before getting full color, you will have to scuff and repaint the part later. The shine is great and the orange peel is very light. I have pressed my luck on the wet coats and only had a couple of runs so far.

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I used a vinyl mask to paint checkerboard on the rudder. I will use hot rod red 3m vinyl for the red trim, ordered but not arrived yet. The pic below is just red electrical tape and a water transfer to get an Idea what it will look like but the black checks are painted and look very good.

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Now that I have learned so much, I can paint parts right the first time. I am looking forward to the wings and fuselage this week and maybe get this bird in the air next month!
 
Looks good Mike. I am just about ready to start my painting. Thanks for the gun review too. Your plane is looking nice and I like the checkerboard rudder.
 
Glad you're having a good experience with Stewarts. Your results look nice. Plenty of people (fabric guys, mostly, it seems) have struggled with it. There is a local RV-10 painted with Stewarts that I'm keeping an eye on to see how the paint holds up.

What's a "Can Air Q3 Filter"? I googled it and didn't find anything that looked like what I was expecting. Is it an in-line filter or the mask you're wearing?
 
Mike,

How is the paint as far as overspray and fogging of the paint area? I have been using the primer and find it very clean. I see you have glasses and don't have them covered.

Jay
 
Here is the CamAir QC3 filter.
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http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/devilbiss-camair-qc3-air-filter-dryer-130525-p-16233.aspx The one I bought comes with a replacement cartridge. I also use a disposable filter on the gun just in case something gets past the Cam Air. I wear a 3M mask as on the Stewart videos. I have two filtered box fans blowing into the 13x24 booth and one 22" fan sucking. The overspray has not affected any of the parts and I have painted 8 at one time. I do have to clean my glasses after each session.

I will use 1.50 gal EkoPrime. 3 gal Insignia White EkoCrylic, and 1/2 pint black for checkers. I did prime my fiberglass parts multiple times sanding each time getting rid of imperfections in the parts. I will do all the trim other than the checkers in vinyl so I can change things up if I want later. They told me 2 gallons would paint the plane but it would be close so I bought 3 gal so I could practice a little and have enough for repainting mistakes. I built the booth using 2x4" studs and 6 ml plastic from Lowes. much of the cost for the booth is lights. I put in 4-8' and two 4' florescent lights. I have found its not so much the number of lights in the booth as it is learning what angles to paint from so you can see the reflection of the lights. I have found 95% of the work is sanding and preparation and 5% is spraying.

Paint and Primer; 1150.00
Booth materials; 500.00
Gun and filter ; 300.00
Vinyl; Cousin that runs a sign shop and has experience wrapping cars.
 
Update

I would like to finish telling you my experiences using Stewart System Eko-Crylic paint. I finished painting my plane 1 month ago. I was reminded of this this morning when I looked at my thumb.

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I would say this is very encouraging as to the durability of the paint. I may not be the cleanest person in the world but I do wash my hands at least twice a day and take at least one shower a day. I use hand cleaner often. I went to a wedding a couple weeks ago and my wife tried to remove the paint with fingernail polish remover. It has worn off a little in the past 30 days and I can scrape it off with a knife.

The paint is easy to use. I did make a few mistakes and have some blemishes to show for it. The main problem I had was getting good color saturation while trying to keep the coats and weight to a minimum. I wound up adding another coat to quit a few of my parts after deciding the color saturation was not complete. By the time I came to painting the fuselage, I had switched from the smoke grey primer to the white primer. (Top Coat is Insignia White). This cured all my saturation problems and the fuse painting went wonderfully. I will really encourage anyone painting white top coat to use white primer instead of the recommended smoke grey. The second coat on all the parts will probably come in handy when I start cutting and buffing later. I only added another coat to the top surfaces that will show. If I had it all to do over, I could paint the plane in 1/3 of the time now after the experience I've gained. I used Hot Rod Red 3M vinyl for the trim. I plan to experiment with the vinyl until I find the scheme I really like then maybe paint the trim later. The black checkerboards on the rudder were painted using vinyl masks and were very easy. Oddly, the best finish I had was the bottom of the fuselage. I layed on a creeper and sprayed upside down holding a flood lamp in one hand and the gun in the other. The bottom came out perfect! Overall I am pleased.

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I will use Stewart Systems paint again on my next plane if the finish lasts like I think it will. You can read more about it on my blog and see more pictures.
 
Mike,

Where in the paint line did you put the QC3 filter/dryer?

Great post. I'm thinking about using Stewart for my composite.

Best,
Dan
 
I have a 5hp 30 gallon compressor in the loft in my hanger. I ran PVC from it to an old tank that I rigged up for a water and oil sump in my paint booth. This gave me more air capacity and more chance for moisture and oil to fall out of the air. I mounted the filter on that sump tank. But sure to use all new hoses with no oil contamination. You will also want a separate hose coming off the filter to blow parts off because you don't want to contaminate the parts with unfiltered air.

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So it's OK to have 25 feet or so of hose past the filter? I'm running two compressors and need about 25-30 feet of hose after the the tee that combines the two compressors to paint the airplane. My question is where in the 25-30 feet of hose to put the dryer/filter. I'm thinking it goes maybe right after the tee that ties together the two compressors. ??
 
I would put it at the T and be sure to buy and use a filter at the gun. They are small plastic filters that are just an extra precaution. I found them at a local auto paint store.

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Just make sure they do not cause a restriction. I had to have 25' of hose to paint the fuse and get to the back of the paint booth.
 
EkoCRYLIC vs ekoPOLY ?

Mikey Dale,
I used eckoPOLY because my brother inlaw was doing fabric 140 and thought it wise to use the same paint to minimize waste. The poly was VERY sensitive to prep/ coating weight/ time between coats to allow moisture out. I constantly fought pinholes/fisheye over fiberglass and fillers. but not aluminum.

I have never had this problem with Stits or car paint. It sounds like ekoCRYLIC worked more like the others but is waterborne. I Will never use ecoPOLY again. My decision would be Steward ekoCRYLIC or waterborne car paint. Any comments ?
 
I've heard horror stories about fish eyes and Stewart paint but I didn't have any problems with EkoCrylic. Keep in mind, I only used Insignia White except for small amount of black for checkers. I did have a couple of spots where I got some solvent pop by applying to many coats too fast. My main problem was color saturation and that was solved using white primer instead of grey. Waterborne is wonderful but it will burn your eyes and make your ears peel! I learned pretty quick to wear them goggles and hood covering my ears!....I will say also, I had no painting experience before this.
 
Burn your eyes

IF you don't get the catalyst / paint ratio EXACTLY correct, the fumes are very aggressive. That said, Dan assures the iso is non carcinigenic, but it is irratating.
 
MikeyDale said:
I've heard horror stories about fish eyes and Stewart paint but I didn't have any problems with EkoCrylic. Keep in mind, I only used Insignia White except for small amount of black for checkers. I did have a couple of spots where I got some solvent pop by applying to many coats too fast. My main problem was color saturation and that was solved using white primer instead of grey. Waterborne is wonderful but it will burn your eyes and make your ears peel! I learned pretty quick to wear them goggles and hood covering my ears!....I will say also, I had no painting experience before this.
Click to expand...

Mike,

Did you use white primer under the Insignia White? Asking because they recommend the smoke gray under white so it it is easy to see what is being covered. But if the color saturation is poor, maybe I'll go with white.

Thanks,
Dan
 
I used grey on the wings and tail as per instructions and had trouble with Tiger striping so extra coats (extra weight) were applied in spots. Switched to white on the fuse and it worked great!....If I had it to do over, bottom of wings and tail would only get 1 tack coat, 1 saturation coat and 1 wet coat. There is no need to obsess on the color saturation on bottom surfaces because they will always be in the shade and the only thing that matters is corrosion protection. I did that on the bottom of the fuse with white primer and the finish turned out better than anywhere else!
 
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