Thorp Air Command - T18.net

Some painting happened yesterday and today - tips and cowl.

I decided on Sherman Williams Genesis - single stage - not top of the line, but a good product with a history on airplanes and similar cost as comparable products. The store peddler was a young kid whose life revolved around painting cars and was an enthusiastic purveyor of all paint means and methods - gave me a 20% discount after I promised him a ride in the plane. Age sports wisdom. With youth rides enthusiasm. Then again, If Zig Zigler were a paint peddler, I'd have probably bought Zig's Paint and Peel. Painted in the garage with a heater, some forced air from inside the abode, vented through the bottom of the garage door. Some of you guys are shaking your head wondering why I would even attempt this - I actually enjoy painting.

6 weeks to prep the cowl, the tips and the pants - lot's of sanding the old Imron off - 40 years old and still looking pretty good in most placed - tedious glass work - glazing putty and more sanding - 3-4 hours for three evenings a week and one 6-8 hour day per weekend - no beer, but everyone wants to drop by the hangar and blahblah - that probably delayed me at least a week. Most sanding was done by hand with the final sanding with 320 grit and an eccentric (no swirl marks) air sander.

Anyvay.....a few things I learned.
1. No matter how much poly sheet you erect, everything in your garage will get a coat of acrylic urethane.
2. If you think you have enough light, you don't - even with a stand of halogens, my big bench light, the garage door lights and a florescent hand held in the left hand was not enough.
3. You can not enough tack cloths - I tack clothed each piece at least three times.
4. Do not paint things on the floor - raise them up to a table, or in may case, using 5 gallon buckets for the top and bottom cowl pieces. Everything settles to the floor.
5. I used a Harbor Freight HVLP gun - actually worked really well - cheap and cheerful - MAKE SURE you go to the paint store and get a regulator and gauge on the gun and keep the air down to about 10-12 PSI at the gun - someone recommended I start at 20 PSI and work down - 20 PSI at the gun atomizes the paint too much and you will fog the room in 30 seconds - I also opened up the fluid line 1.5 turns off the factory setting - that seemed to help, tho it could have been tweaked further, I think.
6. Send your wife somewhere for the weekend - a resort, a spa, your best friend's bachelor pad, Vegas for the Chippendales show, Jamaica.....ANYWHERE!!..........she will love you and you will not be reminded every 5 minutes how you have ruined her weekend and how much worse (than normal) you stink.

All in all, the parts turned out pretty good - 1 run, no drips and a couple of tiny areas of a light sand paper finish where it was just a tad dry and didn't flow out. Nothing I can't live with or buff out - Most of the parts are done - still have to shoot the rudder and vert stab, then on to the wings, and then the fuselage. I think I might get the local pro to shoot them, ergo our lab retriever not having a house mate in the future.

_________________
Fraser MacPhee
N926WM
Serial #279-1
Angel Fire, NM (KAXX)

Yo Bro ! Not sure how you didn't end up in a fire ball shooting that paint in the Gee Rog ! Shot my paint and primer in the driveway with lots of drop cloths and wetting the surrounding area. $20.00 gun from HF. Siphon feed. Bought several at that price almost cheaper to throw away than clean ! My paint was also single stage from TCP Global at $120.00 for a 1 gallon kit. AU, hardner and reducer. Not a job I care to do again ! Where are ur pics of this Mona Lisa ?

RB

The HF paint guns don't do a bad job, in fact pretty good one at that.
Rich, next time buy the 3 dollar warranty and when it gets dirty take it back, they will give you a new one. The sales gal at the local HF put me on to this tip.
I wait until they come on sale and have 20% discount coupon, last one cost me less than 9 dollars.

Goodness...you're a cheaper Ba_ _ard than me ! I already have 2 spares, but will be on the look out for your Airline Pilot "Special." I bought a $200.00 DeVilbiss HVLP gun and gave up on it after 30 minutes of use and went with the HF Special of the Day. It did a far better job. I have the DeVilbiss I will sell for 1/2 price along with can liners and a gun cleaning kit. Gun looks brand new and was thoughly cleaned If anyone one is interested I can get the data on the gun a post it.

RB