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Hi Joe
Just to complete the picture for you from my end, my aircraft is you could say almost fully dissasembled when it was shipped from the USA. Is this an advantage for painting ??? one could argue either way as it depends on many personal factor's, cicumstances and objectives.
For me it is ideal as we are able to gain access to many areas of the aircraft, inspect and replace items not normally done during a repaint. Even though we have low TT we are not planing as they say to "leave no stone unturned" during this process.
Time is a slight luxury for me, but I do have an target date for completion. If I was looking at painting an assembled aircraft and completing the task myslef, I would allow 6 weeks full time without any skin repairs as a rough guide.
Cost for materials only to strip, etch, alodine and repaint using Jet Glo Express have been around $4500 and I expect to use the 10% contingency for additional materials I have allocated. This includes all abrasive pads, tape etc etc.
Like yourself my labour has no cost, except when the wife gets involved.
The end result so far on the 40 odd covers, gear doors and rudders etc that I have completed has been excellent with a great finish.
Light corrosion around some screw's has been the biggest pain, easy to remove just time consuming. Also I would recommend a stainless screw kit, I have had many drilled off screw heads from the dissasembly due to seized screws. To assist with removal of the old screws I bought a craftsman reverse drill bit and screw remover kit from Sears when in the USA, it cost me $34. I would say this is a must if you do any partial dissasembly, one end is a drill bit, the other end is an easyout.
Hope this helps with your decision making
Regards
Dave
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