Just bought a 1968 Cessna 182 and i have a spot, around the size of a quarter, that needs to be touched up on one of the wings where all the paint has come off and it's bare aluminum. What's the best way to touch this up?

Sand it with 800. Tape it off. Use a self etch primer. Shoot it with an airbrush. After you pull the tape, wet-sand the edge of the new paint with 2000. Let the paint cure for a couple weeks and polish with Maguires, 3m or something similar and then seal with the same.

Fixing the red:


The red after:

Looks good.

What type of paint are you using?
Is a two part from an auto paint store?
How about the color. I need to touch up a white spot on my wing. How did you match your color?

I don't have a sprayer setup, so I'm going to be using one of the preval sprayer setups.

thanks for you comments

Dale

Lucky wrote:Looks good.

What type of paint are you using?
Is a two part from an auto paint store?
How about the color. I need to touch up a white spot on my wing. How did you match your color?

I don't have a sprayer setup, so I'm going to be using one of the preval sprayer setups.

thanks for you comments

Dale

I like acrylic enamel. Take one of your inspection panels down to a higher end auto-paint store and have it matched. Go to harbor freight and pick up one of their all in one airbrush kits. Has the compressor and every thing you need. Pick up some thinner to clean the brush.

Jim

Jim,

Thanks for your tips and how are you cleaning before spraying. Alcohol & then a clean rag wipe?

Lucky wrote:Jim,

Thanks for your tips and how are you cleaning before spraying. Alcohol & then a clean rag wipe?

I use a product called Prep-All. Thinner or Denatured alcohol will work just fine.

Jim

jaudette wrote:I like acrylic enamel. Take one of your inspection panels down to a higher end auto-paint store and have it matched. Go to harbor freight and pick up one of their all in one airbrush kits. Has the compressor and every thing you need. Pick up some thinner to clean the brush.

Jim

Exact ditto. The Harbor Freight air brush kits are $9 and will do a great job. In fact, you will start eyeing all the other paint touch-up jobs on your other vehicles as soon as you see the results.

Just a couple extra items: You might ask for a brand with plenty of solids. You can see a lot of touch-ups in bright sun even with a perfect color match and extra coats due to transparency. The problem can go away if you spend a little more for a higher solids brand of paint. The other suggestion is to pick up a cheap inline desiccator cartridge at Harbor Freight to add in front of your airbrush to prevent tiny drops of water or oil from speckling your work. They are only a few bucks and work for quite a while.

Jim, do you know anyone out here good with more than touch-up level paint work? I have a LOT to do (wing leading edges and other areas, cuffs, rudder, fin, tips, belly, etc). It may almost be worth stripping and starting over by the time I put all these new parts on there, but would like a professional opinion.

A good way to blend a touchup using a 2-part paint is to use 3 masks - one the same size as the spot, and two more a 1/2 and 1 inch larger. Hold the smallest 1/4" above the spot, paint the spot using the full mix of paint, catalyst and reducer. Wait 15 minutes, then go over the repair using the next larger mask 1/4" above the surface after cutting the paint 50% with reducer. Repeat using the large mask 15 min later with the paint again diluted another 50% with reducer.

colopilot wrote:Jim, do you know anyone out here good with more than touch-up level paint work? I have a LOT to do (wing leading edges and other areas, cuffs, rudder, fin, tips, belly, etc). It may almost be worth stripping and starting over by the time I put all these new parts on there, but would like a professional opinion.

Here is my Bonanza before and after. It was a mess but turned out good!

Before:



After:



I'd be glad to show you how!

Jim

A few years ago, I learned the technique for blending paint. I was working on Lears, doing a lot of frame repairs that required paint touch up on the outside. Business jets have very few ‘panel lines’ to paint to, requiring blending of the touch up with the original paint. The process goes like this:
-Farecla Cut coumpound the area around the repair(at least five times bigger than the repair area)
-Clean entire are with isopropyl alcohol
-Paint repair area with paint mixed normally
-Cut mixed paint in cup by 50% with thinner and lightly spray area 1/3 greater original repair area.
-Reduce previously reduced paint by another 50% and spray the area outside the previous application.
-After this, the area you sprayed should be about 3x the original paint/repair area and you will see just a light ring/ haze around the outside where your last spray was.
-After a day of paint curing, polish the area lightly with Farecla G10 finishing compound. Light use of the polisher and lots of water will make the paint repair dissapear!

The key to this process is the first cut/compound. That is was breaks the gloss on the surface of the original paint and allows the touch up paint to adhere to it. This is definitely an art and takes a lot of practice but once you master it, you will be amazed at the results. It is truly possible to make invisible paint repairs.

Thanks for everyone's tips and I'll post some before and after pics after doing the work in a couple weeks.