New Paint
 

Off to Sturgis Aviation in the mighty burrow of Sturgis, Michigan. Here lies a paint shop that does not advertise (ever) and has a 2 to 3 month waiting list. The first time I met Danny was last October and told him then to put me on the list. He said based on the back log he had right then it could be February before there was an opening. Even thought my interior guru said that he would be done by the end of December, I told Danny that was just fine, pencil me in. At the time I made the visit, back in October, he was doing the paint on brand new Beech Hawkers from the factory, the customer that bought like 7 or so Hawkers did not want factory paint but was having Sturgis Aviation do all the paint on all the new Hawkers. That was very impressive but then Danny said that he had never painted a Skymaster. Well then, let's get you started on new territory. BTW, the last issue of Sport from EAA with the P-38 "Rough Stuff" on the cover, yep Danny painted it. In fact he has a number of planes that have won awards at OSH. We are going to try it with a Skymaster this year. Hope to see some of you 337 enthusiast there too.

It sounds like it will be about 4 weeks to completion. Can't wait!!! I delivered 2JF on Saturday and today was my first visit back. After complaining about driving to Larry's for the last 4 months, I now have to drive another hour past Larry's to the paint shop. I know whiner. Anyway they had the paint stripped and were removing control surfaces. I have one flap that has a boo boo so off to the control surface doctor. Wow, that is expensive work but it has to be done. I am not going to paint something that is wrinkled. This shop has some real good people. They are painting a Citation, Mooney Aclaim (both touch up stuff) and a full job on a AT-6. This isn't much of a load for them so the Skymaster should move pretty quickly. I will be replacing any screws that have to be removed for inspection with stainless. Even the cowling latches will be stainless. I am doing a neat design on the spinner for a little pizazz and going with the #3 paint scheme.

Here are some photos from today.

Well it's been 2 weeks and I have not seen the progress I had originally hoped for. I had a Citation in front of me and it's gone. Now the T-6 and it's just starting to get squirted. They have all the controls removed. Cowling is all off and the labor is starting to tackle the original paint. Lacquer. It's a four letter word in a paint shop. The original paint is lacquer from Cessna. It cannot be removed with power tools. It has to come off with good ol' elbow grease. Even though they did the chemical strip, all seams, every seam on the plane was taped to keep the chemical from migrating into the airframe. So the earlier photos above make it look like no big deal but while I was there yesterday it is a big deal. I worked on a couple spots for a long time and not much progress. The use MEK to remove the lacquer. Once the lacquer gets a little soft then it can be scrubbed with a scotch bright pad to help speed up the slow process. I have a deadline date and they promise they will make it with no problem. The new paint will be Polyurethane. The use JetGlo by Sherwin Williams. For some accent and stripes they might use Imron (Dupont) but the JetGlo is the standard. Lots of detail and they know their stuff. It has been a real interesting process so far.

No pictures yet but the aircraft is completely stripped. They really jumped on it last week and removed all that lacquer. The lacquer has to come off because if you spray the polyurethane over lacquer it blisters and bubbles. It's bare bones metal and today they gave it the first shot of primer. Tomorrow I will go down and mount the boom fairings and wingtips so that the second sanding coat of primer can be applied. All the controls are still off and each control is painted independently on it's own. All the little dings and stuff will be filled and a third primer coat will be applied. Then on Wednesday the Matterhorn White will be applied to the entire aircraft. I will have some photos to post tomorrow night. It won't be long now.

This is another SNJ (not the one above being painted) that was delivered to the shop so they could match the paint on the T6 (soon to be SNJ) that is above. At least 2JF is not lonely, lot's of neat stuff down there.

Primer On
 

Here are some photos of the primed aircraft awaiting the first coat of paint tomorrow. They took the whole skin to bare metal, and applied a Chromate Primer first. After that was cured then the sanding primer is applied (as in the photos). At this point today they were searching for every miss imperfection they could find to fill and smooth. Using a bright flashlight they scan the entire aircraft for any spot that needs attention. Once they find something they mark it with a sharpie and the fill and sanding crew takes care of the blemish. The one guy that was doing the inspecting said that he could not believe how good the aircraft was. There were very few places to prep. All the plastic and fiberglass was removed and taken to the control / small parts shop to be prepped for paint. These will be painted separately and then installed to the aircraft. The front fiberglass nose parts were looking pretty shabby from the last 41 years of use. When I saw the repaired nose parts I thought they bought new units. They had completely refurbished the fiberglass. It looks really good and it's not even painted yet. The detail that this shops puts to each part is amazing.

The tech that removes and installs the control surfaces was explaining the process of balancing all controls before they are reinstalled. Quite extensive work to carefully check each control before it is installed. Really interesting. This tech is a master with sheet metal. He has tons of experience with all types of aircraft.

There were some good discussions with Danny about the type of paints that are out there. The reason that Cessna used Lacquer was for the fast drying and cheaper costs. There may be other reasons but lacquer will never look as shiny as the polyurethane does. Once everything has white on it the controls are reinstalled and then the design is added. The plan is to use stainless fasteners on all panels that require removal during an annual. This will keep the finish nice so that the paint is not chipped when the panels are removed. Well next trip it should start really looking like a new airplane.

The stripes on the spinners look cool

Detail is looking really good. As posted in the previous message, the components were prepped meticulously. As you can see by the nose cowl it really turned out smooth and all the other carbon and plastic parts are like new. I will be laying out the design tomorrow with Dave the co-owner of the shop. We will lay out the first side and then he will duplicate the other side. Should be flying soon, finish is estimated by the end of next week.

See ya in Branson

More excitement ......................... sorry to bore ya'll so much but this kid's having fun

WOW, looks really really smooth.
They are doing a great job.

Design Layout
 

We did the design layout this morning. It was another 1 1/2 hour drive down to the shop to meet Dave for the fun work. As you look at the photos, the orange tape is the gold stripe, the beige tape is the dark brown and below that is yellow. It is amazing how quickly he set this up. We changed a couple things based on the rendition #3 in the refirb thread but most onlookers will not even notice. Some of the changes were based on the boom fairing placement because these were not in the rendition sketch. In one shot you can see the rendition mock up taped to the winglet but this is rendition #1 because it had the winglet design on it and #3 did not. But #3 is just a modification of the original #1. I think this is going to work well. The tails will be inside and outside matched and the winglets are just a touch different on the inside because of the wing connection. But all colors will carry across the trailing edges of the tail and winglet. Also the gold will continue up and over the rear cowl on the top. Continuity, yes!

The spinner design was an idea that Larry and I had. Something to kind of just add a little personality. The rear spinner is what I had envisioned with Larry because of the MT blades angle to the spinner. Each blade with have this photoed stripe and will be painted in the dark brown. The front spinner was going to be a corkscrew, but after I did the rear I decided I liked the photoed version better. Again continuity, fun stuff! The front spinner will be yellow stripes. In some of the photos you can see the N numbers stencil on the boom. Those will be painted in dark brown too.

Dave will have the design on both sides by tomorrow some time and start painting Monday. They say I will be flying it home Thursday or Friday.

Almost done, I should be flying it home tomorrow afternoon. I am too tired to write anymore now but the photos tell the story

It's Finished
 

The detail is just amazing. Right down to the fasteners and the lettering.

Fabulous!!! Congrats!!!

Great Looking Bird
 

Herb,
That new paint job looks great. Dale Campbell

New Light Night Flight
 

Say that 6 times

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mLUVa4N60o

Here is a look at the new lights with the new paint

New Lights
 

Hi Herb,
That is the brightest 337 in the skies I have ever seen. You look like a airliner on approch.
How much glaire do you get back into cabin area from tail strobe and landing lights. The bounce back off lowered flaps looks blinding. No one will miss seeing you that is for sure. By the way what is your take off roll. It looks like you took off vertical on the video. Dale Campbell