Thorp Air Command - T18.net

And that's exactly what I did. Flaps are off. Per Bob's recommendation I hooked a piece of safety wire to insure the flap cable didn't slip backwards out of reach.
The entire airplane is sanded in 320. We'll put some spot primer in areas the paint wasn't happy sticking. Then this weekend we should be able to get the whole thing in another coat of primer.

For painting- our group purchased a 19x33 inflatable paint booth. So far it’s been used for a 1958 Jaguar repaint. Next up is 218TH- the booth this time will be inside the hangar. We learned the hard way that it is not rain proof. Additional sanding was required on the jag as the paint was not yet set.

Pretty exciting to get it painted!
You have quite the attraction for kids, coming round to check out your ‘jumping house’

Les

TH is all gray are prepped for it’s journey to become white...and other colors. It’s quite the preparation process, but I’m sure the results will be worthwhile.
Happy turkey day

I am really looking forward to watching this paint process. Like building an airplane, it seems like a huge task if I think of all the steps at once.

The paint process started on Friday. It wasn’t so after we began the realization hit us that we would be short white paint. A call was made- but long story short....more white won’t shoe up until the 16th. I guess that’s part of working with material that’s not at the local paint store. But that’s another story for another time. The paint is laying out well. Yesterday whistle was applied to outer wing panels, wheel pants, gap strips, all trim panels, vertical fin and rudder. Today is red day. After which, the parts that have now stripes will get clear and be finished. The plan is to have another paint weekend either right at the end of December or the first fall of January. And yes it is exciting to see the light and the end of the process!

Terry,
I like the way you did your wing panels, I wish I had thought of that when I painted mine, I just laid them on saw horses would've been a lot easier to hang them.

_________________
Bruce Finney
N18JF T-18C #262
Yelm, WA USA

Pretty exciting. It’ll be fun putting it all together for good with a new paint job. We’re all waiting to see.

Les

It was ‘paint weekend’. We got most of the trinkets in white, but soon realized that there was not enough white to get everything painted. A decision was made to get the entire cowl finished. What you see is all 4 parts of the cowl in red and 4 coats of clear. More paint is on the way....but so is Christmas.
It may be mid January before we get another window to get the fuselage done.

Status Update. I haven't been able to get anymore painting done for a couple reasons.
1. mid December - torn achilles tendon...I'm 2 weeks past surgery and another 2 weeks to go before I can start physical therapy. A typical timeline for this recovery is 9-12 weeks.
2. Temperature- This is normally the coldest time of year on the Florida Gulf Coast. It'll be end of February before we get a weather window above 70 degrees for paint.
So my recovery and weather should correspond at the same time. That gives me the last 2 weeks of March to get the Thorp reassembled and ready for Sun N Fun 2021!
More photos as progress is made.

Okay, I was able to sit and get some of the cowl parts complete

Really liking the results of the cut, buff and polish on the cowl cheek...this is ~ 4 coats of clear on top of the red

The weather cooperated and I was able to get the fuselage in white. We may get another opportunity to get additional colors on this Thursday.

In the tail up position- in the booth- most of the fuselage is accessible. When the inboard wings were covered, boot cowl and bottom of the fuselage. Once we lowered the tail, all that remained was the turtle deck, top of the stab and hip skins.