Stripping and Painting

[jchronic]

For SkyMac:

Dave-

Sincere thanks for all the info and pictures, all very helpful in contemplating the project and whether to try it myself. One other question re covering the joints and seams with the tape: After the panel, etc. is stripped, how do you go back and strip the seam area? Hand sanding or very judicious use of the gel/liquid stripper?

My airplane has (I think) the original factory paint, over which a previous owner who wanted an O2 lookalike painted a military camoflage scheme, so the stripping is going to be quite a job. But thinking about dropping $15K or so and hearing about several less than satisfactory 'professional' jobs, I'm tempted to give it a try.

I've prepped and painted two large (30') boats myself, one with one-part polyurethane, and they came out quite well.

Many thanks again for the response and any other info you have.

Joe
joechr@msn.com

[SkyMac]

Hi Joe

When it came to the seams between cowls etc and other areas where we applied the tape we have used two methods to remove the narrow strip of paint.

Firstly the main reason for leaving cowls etc on, is it's far easier to strip assembled and there is a lot less covering to do. What we do is remove the cowl afterwards and apply a small amount of stripper to the edges and remove it. When it comes to the areas on the main fuselage we again apply stripper in small amounts were possible, remove the strip of paint, wipe excess off, scrub with thinners and wash of using a sponge and a lot of detergent / water, no excess water as with the cowls off your engines etc are exposed. Just take your time.

Secondly in areas that we don't want stripper near, we use a fine or medium scotch brite wheel attached to a drill. I normally buy a few of these when I'm in the USA every 3 months or so, lot cheaper than Aus. Care must be taken to ensure you don't work it to hard and use mid range RPM on your drill. This is slow, but I find satisfactory for the small amounts you have to remove.

As the group have explained there are a number of jobs you will get depending on what you want to pay. If you are going to strip the aircraft yourself, continue to research into it. You can do it with a lot of hard work, if you have experience in painting with poly paints, but research the paint you intend to use also, don't buy cheap paints.

One last thing on all joins or skin overlaps, after a few days we went over every part of the fuselage where their was join or overlap with a fine pointed scribe (one with a 90 deg bend) to ensure that there was not residual stripper left tucked away, easy to remove any as it is normally dried and hard after a few days.

I have chosen to use Jet Glow Express after reading some of Herb's postings and looking at his pitcures, just the finish I'm after (Thanks Herb). This is not an easy paint to use, but gives a great finish and consist's of 3 parts. At present we have removed all inspection covers, stripped, prepped and painted them, plus all the gear doors except one so far. This was just to get used to the paint and to see what sort of finish we could achieve, very happy so far and it was a great excuse for me to buy a new spray gun.

Joe I have time on my side, and I like things done right hence why we are doing this or should I say I. But everything I do is striclty controlled and watched by my engineers. When it comes to putting it back together then thats their job, I become the lacky.

I like all of use want to continue to fly these great machines, but cost is always a concern and will continue to be so for many. By getting fully involved, learning and understanding more about the 337 will enable me to keep cost's down when it comes to future work, if I can do basic dissasembly for the the engineer to gain access, then you save a little.

Painting your aircraft should be more than just applying paint, it's a chance to get to know it, what you do with that knowledge is up to you.

Dave

[jchronic]

Dave -

Once again, very sincere thanks for taking the time to provide this detailed followup info. I'm edging toward taking on the job myself. Although I realize there are distinct differences, as I noted I have a lot of experience with nasty preparation steps and materials and poly paints redoing boats. And since I mainly use the airplane for marine survey work from January through mid-June (a 'hobby job') and am otherwise retired, I have plenty of time.

Plus I have a great A&P/IA who let's me do most the work resulting from my annuals, and keeps me on the straight and narrow safety and regulatory-wise.
If I take the plunge, I'll keep you posted.

Thanks again-
Joe (aka Capt Ahab)

[SkyMac]

Hi Joe

Just thought I would put a few more notes down for you seeing your keen to have a go at this task like I am, hope they help.

Regards
Dave

[jchronic]

Sir, you are a gentleman, a scholar, and a credit to Aussie - U.S. relations!!

Joe

[jchronic]

Dave -

One more and I'll quit bugging you (for awhile): How did you protect the windshield/windows during the stripping process? Obviously don't want to get the stripper on them, but is masking tape/masking paper adequate, or is something more robust and solvent-resistant called for?

Thanks (again) -
Joe

[SkyMac]

Hi Joe

No probs just keep asking away. I used thick black plastic doubled over, it is used for under concrete slabs. Another item to use is aluminium coated paper or insulation foil used in houses under a metal roof or around the wall before they apply the outer skin of the house, this is quite thick foil paper.

Now what I would do is use a good quality aluminium tape (3M) and go around all the windows first paying very close attention to getting it up against the skin surrounding the window. Then apply the cover you decide to use and tape that over the window recovering the initial foil tape. I ended up covering the windows twice over as I didn't want to take the chance, and I spent a lot of time getting the edges right.

Up to you which one you use, which ever it is I would strongly recomend a double up.



Hope this helps

Dave

[hharney]

Joe

Here are a couple of photos of the window covering and such.......

[jchronic]

Much appreciate the pics, Herb. With those and Dave's words of advice, a lot of questions about how to go about the project have been answered. To some degree, painting is painting, even with poly paints. But stripping an airplane is clearly a lot more involved than stripping a boat.

By the way, I've gone back and read the thread about your makeover of your airplane a couple of times...it's full of invaluable information. Good show sharing that experience.

Joe

[SkyMac]

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

[jchronic]

Thanks once again for the furhter amplified information, Dave. It appears now I may have a 3-4 month lull from survey commitments over the summer. If that holds and I get a suitable hangar location arranged (running water, etc.) I may take the plunge. Or live with the current camo awhile longer and see what next year brings. A consideration, of course, is just how much disassembly I want to undertake.

In any case, the more info I have about what's involved, the better. So...thanks!

Joe