REFLECTOR: smooth prime

[Richard Riley]

At 09:04 PM 4/19/05, you wrote:

>Thanks for the info.  I will have no difficulty avoiding humidity during 
>spraying - it's plenty dry in California's Central Valley in the summer
>time.

Remember, we're not sure it's the humidity.  But dry air may help, and it 
won't hurt.

>What would you recommend for a paint system?  I have absolutely no
>spray painting experience or equipment, so I may contract out the painting.

At the very least, contract out the spraying itself, if not the 
prep.  Spraying is a skill that takes a lot of practice.  I wouldn't dream 
of spraying my own plane, beyond small repair patches.

>I need to know enough about the subject to specify the finish, though.

I've had good experiences with Sterling and US Paints.  I've used DuPont 
Chroma Systems, and it was all right.  I had a paint job with Dupont 
Centari, and it peeled off like wallpaper.

Any 2 part (color and clear coat) linear polyurethane will give  good 
performance.  To be safe, use it over the primer that's part of the same 
system, from the same manufacturer.

Make friends with the counter guys at your local auto paint supply 
place.  Finishmaster is pretty much everywhere - 
http://www.finishmaster.com/locations.cfm?state=CA
They also have really good sandpaper at good prices, squeegees, latex 
gloves, respirators and mixing cups.  If you tell them you're building an 
airplane they'll probably get a kick out of it.  In the central valley 
you'll have access to some of the best body men around - the ones that do 
low riders.  Find a good one, get him excited about a homebuilt airplane - 
the fastest ride he's ever worked on - and he'll be worth his weight in 
Imron.  In other words, about $20,000.

As a rule of thumb - make sure that any system you use will kill you if you 
don't have a fresh air breathing system.  That will give you the basis for 
a good quality paint job.  The "friendly" stuff all gives up performance 
for safety.  If it didn't, no one would ever buy the dangerous stuff.