[hharney]

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.