REFLECTOR: She's in her War Paint

[Terry Miles]

At last!  
 
I will try to recap some this week on my website in the near future.
Use green masking tape over the blue.  Buy a big box of those lint free
painters' paper towels.  Regular paper towels and/or tee-shirt rags
don't cut it.  Lots and lots of fine line 1/4 inch tape.  The 3/4 inch
doesn't go around corners anywhere near as good.   I hired a guy to
spray.  He used a lot more air and a lot more material in his gun
settings over what I would have done, but had a stroke rate to match.
It was fascinating to be in there with him, and watch him work up close.
We only got one run all day with the clear in the area under the back
window.  It was hard to reach there, and also at the furtherest in
points on the roof.  Make plans for that reach.  

The fuselage paint day was a marathon from 7:30 a.m. until midnight.  We
had to stick it out because of the Dupont recoat window issues and the
fact we shot the red so early in the day.  It took a lot more time than
anticipated to layout the color lines.  Those stripe lines across the
upper cowl, run forward and double in width as they stretch forward
under the belly.  We had her in the paint booth and so the use of lasers
to line stuff up was limited, since we could not get far enough away to
project a decent line.  In the end it was all eyeballed and hand done.  

In the early going we stuck that piece of foam up on the nose and tipped
her back 'til she hit the ceiling right there in the paint booth.  That
was a big help. We did color first, then the white, then clear.  The
white and the clear on the belly all had to be shot from a creeper on
the floor.  We went bottom up to paint these coats.  We used the slowest
reducer we could get, and planned out where in the day we had to move
fast.  I was there to untangle the hose, mix paint, refill his cup, get
all the trash out of the painted surfaces as he went along--we had a
pretty contaminated booth despite all our cleaning and rehab--but the
price was right.  Some of the trash issue came off the hose and off his
clothes getting on and off that creeper.  The floor was very very bad
for trash and decomposing concrete.  I am very glad this guy was younger
and in good shape...even w/ the adrenalin flowing--be sure to have a 2nd
guy in there with you who knows how to assist.

We still will have some surface issues, but they will buff out.  At this
point--she looks great!!  What's left entry doors and sundry smaller and
much more manageable stuff.  Thanks to all who gave me so much good
advice to ponder and apply to my circumstances.    

Terry   


-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of Brian Michalk
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 12:53 AM
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: painting fuselage



> 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.
>   
Why is it important to keep the dust off the plane?
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