Who has painted an airplane with housepaint?

[C5Engineer 1170]

Who's painted an airplane with house paint? I did some research on this and lots of people seem to do it. I am in the process of fixing my bad spots in my paint on my fuse and building back up the dope to blend it. I need to spray the back of my fuse, my vertical fin and rudder, and my elevator. I need to be able to match it to the Randolph insignia white on my wings. I'm thinking real seriously about taking the sample I made up to Kelly Moore and getting a gallon of some good outdoor house paint made up to match. That stuff will stick to anything, is flexible, and has UV protectant in it. Keep in mind this is just one layer to blend my repairs. I'm not going all crazy and spraying clear from the dope up.  Not only can I match it but a quart of Ranthane, the thinner, and the catalyst runs over $100 right now and putting a finish like that on my fuse is like polishing a turd. My dad built an ultralight from scratch in the 90's and never flew it. It's been sitting in rain and snow for over 10 years and the finish still looks great. He spent less than $50 on latex housepaint when he covered it. I'm waiting for the weight flag to come up but I have to do something with this paint and a total recover is not feasible right now.

What do you guys think?

[Av8r3400 1177]

I'll be watching this thread very closely...

More details soon.

[akflyerbob 41]

check with a auto body shop

there are some fillers that are light and flexable,

ie for plastic bumpers and such, come in a tube, and are designed

to be painted over with hot or mild paint/thinner

house paint weighs almost the same on the house as it does in the can

Bob

[C5Engineer 1170]

Bob are you thinking I could use the filler instead of silver to smooth out the patch and where I sand out the ring worm?

[akflyerbob 41]

Yes, I thought you were trying to fill the hole where the ring worm

came out

[C5Engineer 1170]

Yes I am and I'm open to any ideas besides spraying, sanding, spraying sanding, ect ect.. silver is not a whole lot of fun to spray especially when your trying to do it with basically an airbrush in a centralized location. The area I'm working in is not much bigger than say a paper plate and the patch I have to do is to cover a 3" tear. I also have a few small places on my elevator about the size of a quarter that are down to the fabric.

[akflyer 1427]

time for some "Alaskan" mods.  Duct tape and fly the hell out of it   If you are just looking for a quick fix, you need nothing more than to put silver on it and go fly, it does not need a top coat to play!  At some point later, when you feel like it you can shoot the top coat.  You can pick up a "touch up" gun at most auto parts stores pretty damn cheap, or just use a foam brush to apply the silver.  Tape it off, brush it on and sand to blend.  I did this when I put a drill trough the wing drilling out the rivets on my sky light after a gas leak in the vent tube.

[C5Engineer 1170]

Leni I'm all for that BUT.... I have to get a conditional done after 15 years without one and I also have to get a DAR to do an inspection and issue me an airworthiness certificate as if this thing was brand new. I doubt a guy signing his life away is gonna let a plane into Phase I with duct tape on it. 

[akflyer 1427]

I was not aware that you did not have and Airworthiness on it yet.  Are you going to be able to get pull off getting the repairmans certificate for it?  If it has never been registered, you should be able to pull it off.

[C5Engineer 1170]

It has been registered and flown 110 hours but he did not take his logbook back to the FAA to prove the Phase I was complete back in 1993 and the cert expired. So according to the FAA it has nothing. I will not be able to get a repairmans certificate on it. I have several friends who will do my conditional for a minimum fee.