elgoatropo wrote:Sorry about all the carnage, Lenny. You can thank me that you're not rebuilding the pilot's door on top of everything else. I trussed it up with that rope on the outside, when the wonky latch kept popping open in the south wind. And that was when that beady-eyed Canadian owned it.

Thanks! LOL The wonky latch has been fixed up.. Engine should be built next week (pretty much all steel parts are new), prop has been OH and new stab is waiting for us to go pick it up in Palmer. A loaner left elevator should get us in the air until we are done with the court crap and can have our own elevator rebuilt.. again.. With any luck, the ramp mummy should take to the sky again in July with a fresh engine and all up to snuff. Will be fun to fly it when its making more than 160-180 or so ponies

That beady eyed Canadian should be happy to see the plane back in the air with a good bit of TLC done to it.

Bump for an update, Leni...?

Need some input from the pros.

Quick update. Engine FINALLY got back in one piece and looks pretty sitting on the stand. Still sorting out the issues with the tail feathers, but I have a set of loaner spares I can use to get the bird back in the air.

We had another shop rebuild the ailerons (as mentioned above Grey Morrison at M&M first class A+ job on those, they are PERFECT) I would HIGHLY recommend him to anyone in the area that needs sheet metal work done. Nice guy and he knows his shit, better yet, he is a CRAFTSMAN who actually takes pride in his work! He is also a machinist so we know those guys dance to their own drums and get off on the minute details so he is my go to guy now for aircraft metal work LOL.

Dilemma....

My partner in the plane has a buddy that has done a bunch of paint work for him the past (matching suburban, drag boat and trailer) and this guy does really nice work. He had him stop by the hangar the other day then he calls me up and tells me this painter says he wouldn't strip the plane just hit it with scotch brite and then reshoot it as the paint is stuck well its just chalky and fading....... mind you the new primer and paint is sitting there ready to do the plane right (in my mind right is to strip it and new primer n paint). So of course, its now a matter of figuring out what we should do. This guy has painted around a dozen planes over the years and is going to take us around and show us how the planes look years after he has painted them.

I want the plane as light as possible.. to me that is stripping and shooting the new primer and paint so we know how much of what product went on... the painter guy says the new primer will add just as much weight as the old paint we have now and if the old paint is stuck on well, no need to remove... The primer we bought is epoxy so I can see that adding more weight than the original zinc used so in the interest of weight savings do you think there will be much difference. As far as I am concerned, if we just shoot it and get another 5 or 10 years out of the paint and delay the pains of stripping it all down it may be worth it so we can get the darn plane back in the air.

The control surfaces are all new and will be shot "from the ground up" then balanced so I am not worried about stacking on tons of paint that leads to possible flutter...

Any opinions I can get from you guys to go back to my partner with to shoot holes in the no stripping route is kinda what I am looking for here I guess, or can you convince me that you have done / seen it done to just shoot over the top of whats there now will work.

For the record, we are not trying to make the plane nice a shiny so we can sell it to someone that thinks they are getting a new plane. I figure this bird will be ours till it gets wrecked one day. My partner is the kind of guy that will never sell anything he has ever owned cause he gets too attached to it LOL.

If you're going to keep it forever, thats all the more reason to do it correctly the first time. Absolutely strip it! It's not a steel car or work truck. Umteen years out in the moist salt air of the Cook Inlet is enough reason just to strip the old paint and remove and neutralize corrosion lurking underneath that you can't see now. You can't see all the tiny fissures in the old paint now, but trust me there present. Strip and then a real thorough scrubbing with acid etch followed by alodine. Forget all the greenie new non chrome primer. Use the chromic base primer. Floatplanes are really tough on paint jobs, especially when used in salt water. My rule is plenty of paint or grease and para ketone. No powder coat or bare cad plate hardware , otherwise it will rust and corrode guaranteed. Scuff and paint is what cheapskate brokers do to maximize profit. If your paint guy sounds like the standard bush mentality just getting by to get it done, find someone else.

Rockhopper, you echo my thoughts exactly! I am of the mind to do it right once and be done. I don't fly the planes in the salt, but they still take a beating in fresh water. I will shoot the paint myself and we have epoxy chromate primer sitting in the hangar right next to the top coat cans... I think my partner is not thinking about the weight savings, but more of the wait savings.. But I have only painted a few fabric planes and boats, the "paint guy" has done planes, cars etc for a living for his entire career.. hence I am looking for more input to print and bring to my partner in crime LOL.

akavidflyer you are in a very similar situation to me, and while its very tempting to go with the re-spray, 'gut feel' tells me I wouldn't be happy with anything other than a full strip and paint. Too many times you take a short cut and it ends up costing more in the long run when you eventually fully strip and paint anyway. I've yet to do the numbers on mine and if a tidy up respray is much cheaper and can hold for another 10 years I might be happy with that as a mid term option i.e the numbers stack up and override personal preference.
I think you already know the answer to your question you just need to convince your partner.

I'd vote for doing it right the first time. Painting an airplane is a really big deal, no matter how you judge it.

As previously noted, there may be some corrosion there you haven't seen. Stripping and priming is the best.

Finally, I guarantee that if you do it half assed now, you'll never convince yourself to do it right later on. Do a good job the first time, and you'll smile every time you walk up to the plane. That counts for more than you may think.

MTV

mtv wrote:I'd vote for doing it right the first time. Painting an airplane is a really big deal, no matter how you judge it.

As previously noted, there may be some corrosion there you haven't seen. Stripping and priming is the best.

Finally, I guarantee that if you do it half assed now, you'll never convince yourself to do it right later on. Do a good job the first time, and you'll smile every time you walk up to the plane. That counts for more than you may think.

MTV

Your preaching to the choir here.. but its only 1/2 up to me LOL. I will do what I can to convince the partner that doing it right is the only way to go. Does not help his case that I am a QC manager and its my job to make sure everything is done to specs and codes.... Coatings included..

Okay, I'll be the odd man out here. If your painter says it will work okay to top coat it, I say do it.

This isn't going to be a show plane, right?
Just a flyer and work horse, right?
Why all the expense of a total strip and paint when it isn't really needed or wanted?

Av8r3400 wrote:Okay, I'll be the odd man out here. If your painter says it will work okay to top coat it, I say do it.

This isn't going to be a show plane, right?
Just a flyer and work horse, right?
Why all the expense of a total strip and paint when it isn't really needed or wanted?

If it's just a flyer and a work horse why do anything to it? Leave the old paint on it.

If you're gonna do it, do it right. If it was me I'd strip it first then paint.

If you're not gonna strip it, just leave it as is and wait until you can do it correctly. Squirt the tail feathers before you put them on and when you do the rest of the plane, you can bag them in several layers of plastic. Get it flying and work the bugs out of it and then do the cosmetics. Covering up old paint and corrosion with more paint is just a bad choice. Penny wise and pound foolish!