REFLECTOR: painting fuselage

[Dave Black]

Terry Miles wrote:

> Scott,
> I handed your below note to the painter, and commented that a lot of the
> guys try to create homemade paint booths to work in...I actually have
> one myself in Chicago.  He said one thing to be mindful of is not enuf
> exhaust air grabbing the paint particle before they can settle back on
> the painted surface.  I never gave that condition any conscious
> thought--only that I have proper ventilation for me. 

I hired a professional auto painter to do my Velocity. He showed me many 
tricks with the sanding. And he stressed the importance of lots of 
airflow to prevent paint dust from settling back on the plane.

Since we were unable to move the plane to his paint booth, we made do in 
my hangar. We created the required cross-flow ventilation by slightly 
opening the bi-fold door and placing a BIG fan in the people door. I 
even made a cardboard aperture for the people door so air could not 
sneak back in around the fan. That way we had lots of air coming in at 
the sides of the hangar door and exhausting through the people door. It 
worked like a charm. We made no attempt to filter the air, but we 
painted when the outside air was fairly calm, and at a time when there 
were few bugs. The results are gorgeous.

Dave Black
Shortwing RG