I’m looking at painting my Maule wings this winter, they haven’t matched the fuselage for the last 1.5 years. Planning to strip them down, makes any small repairs needed to the aluminum, acid etch, alodine, epoxy primer, paint. That’s about all I know. Looking for general tips/tricks specific to wings as well as product recommendations. Preferably from people with large project experience like wings and whole airplanes. Likely either doing a solid color or a solid color with a different leading edge color.

- what paint remover/stripper do you prefer?
- what acid etch product?
- which epoxy primer?
- which brand of paint?
- order of ops of painting the wing - do I prime one side, flip, prime the other? Or do it standing on end all at once? Or build a rotisserie?


Thanks! This winter will hopefully be phase 2 of my project and maybe it’ll end up matching..

https://backcountrypilot.org/forum/amor ... ject-24886

Hey there ASA. I read your entire fuselage thread. Much thanks for my M-5-235C decades long project. You make is look so simple.

Next on my list is becoming an avionics technician prior to installation of the glareshield and windshield.

Then, the wings...

Strippers are nasty. I had a Morrisey Shinn 2150A that I did a pre-buy on, and ultimately all the maintenance. It's got a steel tube fuselage frame back to the baggage compartment where it's got typical monoque construction. There are sheet metal panels attached to the steel tube fuselage structure. Someone in their infinite wisdom decided that it would work out okay to leave the sheet metal panels attached to the fuselage and that chemical stripper would work out just fine.

Looked good on the outside, but inside, the vapors from the stripper caused the zinc chromate stripper to peel off of the steel tubes. Surface corrosion, and repairable. 83 hours worth of taking everything apart, removing all the zinc chromate primer, and replacing all the wood screws with something more in line of real airplane hardware.

I'm sure you've seen the wing construction on a Maule. Metal fittings pop riveted directly to aluminum. Zinc chromate on the fittigs.

I was thinking about using laser paint removal. You're not going to just go out and buy one of these systems. Very expensive. YouTube has many examples. Paint comes off, nothing gets hurt.

My 1978 wings are painted in what I believe is acrylic enamel paint. Nothing but the best for the Maule Factory. You know, all those little MIG wires poking out all over the place on the fuselage? Mine even had redwood stringers.

The best ever primer is something of the MIL-P-23377 flavor. There is a 23 page pdf available on everyspec dot com. Lots of manufacturers. The thinner is something readily available. Can't remember what it is. Most of the time, the mix is ready to spray mixed as advertised.

I don't remember having to do anything really scientific prior to application of the MIL-P-23377 like alodine. Just make sure the surface is clean.

I removed the wingtips and washed out decades of of dirt from the inside of the wing. You're pretty good with fiberglass from what I've seen you do with the cowling. The last time I talked to Ray Hooper at the Maule Factory, he told me the fiberglass parts were made by a "trailer" aka "mobile home" manufacturer down the road.

And, not to mention all the good stuff in the wings you're probably going to want to remove. And while you're at it, maybe replace the wires with the good stuff, M22759. My favorite is /11 which is silver plated copper, PTFE coated. Solders good. Cheap on Ebay if you know how to crack the wire code.

Some sort of polyurethane paint. The airplane flavors have flex agents just in case you end up in the flight levels. Maybe what you used on the fuselage?

If you go with a different color leading edge, your application gets to be much more simple. Paint one side. Mask when dry, then paint the other side. Mask and paint the leading edge. DIY wing rotator will make your life much easier. Never mind all those places you don't want to overspray through all those holes. Invest in 3M blue tape.