Guys: Thank you for all the replies!

My son and I spent most of the day out at the hangar trying to figure out the best way to get the anti-icing agent off the wings. Wax pre-cleaner kind of worked; polishing compound kind of worked; Degreaser with one of the yellow and green kitchen scrubbers was the ticket. It took about three hours to get one wing done.

After getting all that crud off, I was left with a dullish white finish. I then picked a small area of about a square foot and went to it with polish and wax (I'm going to touch up all the surfaces with an airbrush before I polish the rest of the plane). The result of the polish and wax was an almost new looking surface.

I took some pictures but they're not worth posting because the lighting was so bad.

I'm stretched for time, so I am going to hire someone to de-grease the plane and then I'll do the touch-up, polish and wax.

Also spent some time polishing the spinner...

Before:


After:

So, I flew the V35B over to immaculate Flight out of KBJC and had the thing thoroughly degreased and cleaned - They have all the tools right there in the hangar. They did a great job and the bird looks ten times better. Spent today having the paint matched and buying all the stuff I'm going to need to touch up the paint (e.g. Air-brush, orbital polisher, 4000 grit pads, paint, reducer, primer, etc...).

This is turning into more of a job than I thought... Everyone has told me that the paint will just come off the bare aluminum (e.g. the little rivets where the paint has popped off) if I don't hit them with self etching primer first.

Anyways... I'll shoot some before and afters so that you all can point me in the right direction...

Jim

jaudette wrote:So, I flew the V35B over to immaculate Flight out of KBJC and had the thing thoroughly degreased and cleaned - They have all the tools right there in the hangar. They did a great job and the bird looks ten times better. Spent today having the paint matched and buying all the stuff I'm going to need to touch up the paint (e.g. Air-brush, orbital polisher, 4000 grit pads, paint, reducer, primer, etc...).

This is turning into more of a job than I thought... Everyone has told me that the paint will just come off the bare aluminum (e.g. the little rivets where the paint has popped off) if I don't hit them with self etching primer first.

Anyways... I'll shoot some before and afters so that you all can point me in the right direction...

Jim

Your tail feathers are definitely magnesium, ailerons and flaps may be. Make sure you know before you paint those because there is a process for those that if not followed will lead to you ruining them.

Bonanza Man wrote:

jaudette wrote:So, I flew the V35B over to immaculate Flight out of KBJC and had the thing thoroughly degreased and cleaned - They have all the tools right there in the hangar. They did a great job and the bird looks ten times better. Spent today having the paint matched and buying all the stuff I'm going to need to touch up the paint (e.g. Air-brush, orbital polisher, 4000 grit pads, paint, reducer, primer, etc...).

This is turning into more of a job than I thought... Everyone has told me that the paint will just come off the bare aluminum (e.g. the little rivets where the paint has popped off) if I don't hit them with self etching primer first.

Anyways... I'll shoot some before and afters so that you all can point me in the right direction...

Jim

Your tail feathers are definitely magnesium, ailerons and flaps may be. Make sure you know before you paint those because there is a process for those that if not followed will lead to you ruining them.

Yes - I was worried about this. All of the control surfaces are in great shape and need nothing more than a good polish. It's mostly the leading edges of the wings (and back from the leading edge about 1.5 feet where most of the chipping is). There is some chipping right behind the engine cowling underneath. Beyond that, I'll just go slow with an orbital buffer.

I'm going to polish all the control surfaces by hand and use an orbital buffer on the rest (after I prime, spray and wet-sand the chipped areas)

gbflyer wrote:Get yourself a little airbrush. I have a Paasche I got off of Amazon with its own little compressor for like $150. Works great. You can fix your spots then buff the overspray off the surrounding area when it dries with compound.
.

I'll second this. I have a little Badger 350 that sees a lot of use in my shop. priming and painting small parts, doing fabric patches and even the occasional plastic model. Should work great for touching up those rivet heads and screws.

Phil

Bear_Builder wrote:

gbflyer wrote:Get yourself a little airbrush. I have a Paasche I got off of Amazon with its own little compressor for like $150. Works great. You can fix your spots then buff the overspray off the surrounding area when it dries with compound.
.

I'll second this. I have a little Badger 350 that sees a lot of use in my shop. priming and painting small parts, doing fabric patches and even the occasional plastic model. Should work great for touching up those rivet heads and screws.

Phil

Thanks Phil - It will be next weekend before I get started with the priming. I'm hoping one day of priming, one day of painting, one day of wet sanding and one day of polishing.

Knowing me it will drag into weeks...

8GCBC wrote:I forgot about Beech using magnesium. It's is treated differently than 2024T3 aluminum. There are STCs to replace magnesium control surfaces I was told. Magnesium is a great oxidizer too. Burns out of control in standard atmosphere.

Before doing anything serious review AC 43 on Corrosion prevention ( especially magnesium, applicable) and repair... I would.

http://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/advisory_circulars/index.cfm/go/document.information/documentid/99861

The Ruddervators on a Bonanza are magnesium..... and CANNOT be changed out to Aluminum! It is a balance issue... and the tail will flutter if you do not have the balance done correctly.

Painting magnesium is critical.... the airfoil must be prepped correctly, dried correctly, primed, painted and BALANCED correctly. As I said not doing the balance correctly can kill you... not doing the prep work WILL promote filiform corrosion which looks like worm tracks under the paint. This will destroy an airfoil in a very short time.... I've replaced 3 and they are NOT cheap.

Just my two cents... having owned and heavily modified 3 V-tails in the past. The paint shop is critical, if they sound sketchy about how to paint magnesium and/or how to balance a ruddervator then they are not worth the money. Most shops DO NOT know how to paint V-tails.... my two cents is find one that does a lot of them, talk to the owners, check out their work, ask a lot of questions.

V-tails are wonderful airplanes.... but only listen to or take advice from folks that know V-Tails. Join the American Bonanza Society
( http://www.bonanza.org/ ).

gunny

Gunny wrote:

8GCBC wrote:I forgot about Beech using magnesium. It's is treated differently than 2024T3 aluminum. There are STCs to replace magnesium control surfaces I was told. Magnesium is a great oxidizer too. Burns out of control in standard atmosphere.

Before doing anything serious review AC 43 on Corrosion prevention ( especially magnesium, applicable) and repair... I would.

http://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/advisory_circulars/index.cfm/go/document.information/documentid/99861

The Ruddervators on a Bonanza are magnesium..... and CANNOT be changed out to Aluminum! It is a balance issue... and the tail will flutter if you do not have the balance done correctly.

Painting magnesium is critical.... the airfoil must be prepped correctly, dried correctly, primed, painted and BALANCED correctly. As I said not doing the balance correctly can kill you... not doing the prep work WILL promote filiform corrosion which looks like worm tracks under the paint. This will destroy an airfoil in a very short time.... I've replaced 3 and they are NOT cheap.

Just my two cents... having owned and heavily modified 3 V-tails in the past. The paint shop is critical, if they sound sketchy about how to paint magnesium and/or how to balance a ruddervator then they are not worth the money. Most shops DO NOT know how to paint V-tails.... my two cents is find one that does a lot of them, talk to the owners, check out their work, ask a lot of questions.

V-tails are wonderful airplanes.... but only listen to or take advice from folks that know V-Tails. Join the American Bonanza Society
( http://www.bonanza.org/ ).

gunny

Gunny - Thank you for the post. The control surfaces are in good shape (e.g. the ruddervators, flaps and ailerons). I'll only be polishing and waxing them, I won't be doing anything to change the balance. I've researched the type of polish/wax that is "kind" to magnesium and it looks like the red 3M is the way to go. Please post if you think that this is a bad route to go. Thanks again!

Jim

Jim-

Thanks good to hear the controls are in good shape. There was some mis-information out there on trading magnesium for aluminum and I thought it needed correcting.

I expect the 3M product will be fine. I preferred Rejex.... but you'll do fine. I also used 3M leading edge tape.... after you get yours back in shape you might consider it. Enjoy your Bonanza!

gunny

Gunny wrote:Jim-

Thanks good to hear the controls are in good shape. There was some mis-information out there on trading magnesium for aluminum and I thought it needed correcting.

I expect the 3M product will be fine. I preferred Rejex.... but you'll do fine. I also used 3M leading edge tape.... after you get yours back in shape you might consider it. Enjoy your Bonanza!

gunny

Thanks Gunny - Have you heard of that Permaguard Treatment? The guys over at Immaculate flight apply it to the paint and then let it cure overnight. It's supposed to be a pretty good system.

Jim

jaudette wrote: ..............

Thanks Gunny - Have you heard of that Permaguard Treatment? The guys over at Immaculate flight apply it to the paint and then let it cure overnight. It's supposed to be a pretty good system.

Jim

I have not, but would be interested to hear your results. I plan on repainting my C-180A real soon now and would love to have extra protection. Will it be glossy?

gunny

Gunny wrote:

jaudette wrote: ..............

Thanks Gunny - Have you heard of that Permaguard Treatment? The guys over at Immaculate flight apply it to the paint and then let it cure overnight. It's supposed to be a pretty good system.

Jim

I have not, but would be interested to hear your results. I plan on repainting my C-180A real soon now and would love to have extra protection. Will it be glossy?

gunny

Gunny - The two airplanes they had in the hangar when I had them degreasing my plane looked like they were covered in glass. I don't know much about the system, but they indicated it fills the pours in the paint and bugs and grime don't adhere to it. I am concerned about the weight added (balanced ruddervators) but the guys at Pierce AC said the system will not add any weight to the plane and strongly encouraged me to apply the system after I complete the touch-up.

I'll post pics along the way.

Jim

Well, the real work started today. I had the plane fully degreased and the paint cleaned a couple weeks ago. This afternoon I went out and primed and airbrushed one wing. Took about 3 hours to touch up all the spots with primer, wait for it to dry and then shoot the spots with an airbrush. Here is a before and after:

Before:




After:




As you can see in the after photo, there are some bright and dull spots. My plan is to let the paint dry and then wet-sand / Polish.

I tried it on a section that was about two square feet and the paint matched perfectly. The nice thing about doing this with an airbrush is that it is really easy to fill the chips and match them to the old paint. Fills the little chip crevasses perfectly.

Time consuming, but fun.

One wing almost done, one to go, then the fuselage...

The fuse only has a few spots to touch up, so, Hopefully, it will go quickly!

Jim

Looks good Jim!

bigrenna wrote:Looks good Jim!

Thanks - I thought about taking it down to polished aluminum, and then every time the thought crossed my mind, I went and looked at all 28 pages of your thread... That was enough just to take on a touch-up job!

Jim-

That looks very nice, a little polish and you'll be able to blend it all together. Do you travel;)

gunny

Gunny wrote:Jim-

That looks very nice, a little polish and you'll be able to blend it all together. Do you travel;)

gunny

Yeah - Blending is going to be the magic. I wet sanded a little area and it looked pretty good. I then tried some polishing compound and screwed another section up. It changed the color to a dull white and took the new paint off - I might have not let the paint set long enough, so I'll have to re-shoot that area (got excited to try see how it would look - I don't have the patience for this stuff).

I'm going to stick to wet sanding, unless someone else has a better idea.

After the wet-sand, I'll use turtle wax or some other urethane appropriate stuff and be done with it.

Well... I've been working on project: "Bo Beautification"... My new Bo is starting to look very good. In fact, Much better than I had hoped. To be honest, I was going to give the touch up a try and if I wasn't satisfied with the results, I was just going to have the thing repainted. After the last few weeks, I think my touch up job will be totally adequate. Here are some updated pics:

Landing gear before:



Landing gear after:



Cowl before:



Cowl after:



I restored the bonanza emblems (have two more to do in the rear). I figure I have about two more days of polishing and waxing and I've decided I'm going to repaint the belly. After 35 years of exhaust and oil, there is no way all the grime is going to polish out. I have new stickers on the way and need to figure out how to get the old ones off. Any ideas? Tried picking them off with my fingernail; that ain't going to cut it!

P.S. I can't figure out how to fix my pictures... Sorry they're sideways!

Nice job! It's really nice to see what some elbow grease (and talent) can do for a plane that's just a little long in the tooth. Looks to me as if you've got your priorities well in hand.....touch up yourself, using sweat equity and saving your bank account for avgas.

Keep us posted.

MTV

Wow, it looks great! Hopefully not too pretty to fly, haha!