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My covering again.....

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Posted

I took a video to show you guys what I'm working with today. I brought my elevator home and cleaned up the spots with some MEK. I'm using a small brush to paint on some thinned silver. The first layer went on great. I wet sanded it and thought it just might work. The 2nd layer however caused the paint that was already there to start peeling. I was able to somewhat sand it out but I am not sure if this is going to work or not. Anybody out there care to school me on fabric work? I don't know what the paint is on the elevator. It was recovered by a friend of my Dad a few years ago. It takes some serious elbow grease with MEK to get it do much so I'm thinking it's a Thane based paint not dope. Onto the video and pics.

Youtube video of the overall condition

This is after the second and third layers and one wet sand. I think I made a bigger mess than what I had to start with. My plan was to keep putting on layers of silver and sanding it down till it was built back up enough to spray some paint on it.

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Posted

UPDATE... Okay that experiment went horribly wrong. There was no sanding that crap out. I hit it again with MEK which took off all the silver I put on along with the peeled paint. I now have bigger spots than what I started with that are all the way down the fabric. There are no coatings on there at all. There are about 6 spots on one side of the elevator like this. They are also on the top. This fabric is only like 2 years old so I know it's good. So what's next??

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Posted

What were you using for "thinned silver"?  Nitrate or Buyterate with silver (aluminum powder) added?  Randofill? Stitts Polyspray?

Dopes are like working with lacquers and enamels....(example)... you can put enamel over lacquer, but lacquer over enamal will lift and bubble the undercoat.

You can use buyterate over nitrate, no nitrate over buyterate.

The fabric cement "Superseam" is made with nitrate dope... it will lift a buyterate finish and will attack cured Poly-Tone.

Seems like ya need to find the proper top coat (silver) that won't "kick" when it hits the undercoat.

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Posted

I was using Rand O Fill silver thinned with nitrate. Some guys over on the Supercub site said to just put a patch over it and build up the patch. Not sure about that process either though. Super seam or dope, overlap or not....

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Posted

"........ thinned with nitrate.    Ahh... there's (possibly) your problem. Don't use nitrate anything after or over butyrate.

Try using butyrate thinner..., better yet mix your own with clear butyrate and the special silver paste.

A fabric patch is a poor band-aid and the defect will still show underneath...., if it could be made not to show, you wouldn't neet the patch.... and the adhesion of the patch will only be as good as the paint its glued to.

My plan was to keep putting on layers of silver and sanding it down till it was built back up enough to spray some paint on it...........  This is still the best plan.

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Posted

Actually I think it was butyrate thinner. Found this site today regarding latex paint. I think I'm gonna try it on the elevator and see how the finish comes out.

http://lazair.com/housepaint.htm

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Posted

Took my horizontal to the paint shop today and got the best exterior Kelly Moore had to offer matched up to it. Started experimenting with it tonite. So far so good. It sticks to the existing stuff great. I'm getting set up with a spray rig this weekend and I'm going to go to town on it. Wish me luck.

They said I was in the running for the weirdest thing brought in to match paint to. They were a little surprised when I told them the piece was from my full size plane not a model.... ;D

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Posted

I put three coats of latex which matches my Q1050 insignia white perfectly over those spots tonite with a 1" foam brush letting it completely dry between coats. I was careful to feather in the edges. I hit it with some 400 grit sand paper and it came out smooth as glass. You can't tell those spots were ever there. So far so good. I'm picking up a spray rig this weekend and I'm going to do the rudder and elevator. If that goes well I'll move onto the back of the fuse and call it good. While not ideal people have been doing it for years and if nothing else will buy me some flying time. Oh ya my quart of paint cost $12. Little better than the $1200 I paid for the materials for my wings.

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Posted

SWEEEEEEET.  Getting closer to that first flight!  Keep pluggin away you will be there in no time at all!

:beerchug:

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Posted

C5, I'll be following your results with great anticipation.  :siterocks:

My current thought is to make the few fabric/tape repairs that I need with Polytac, Polybrush and maybe a squirt of Polyspray to get the bird flying.  Then I may refinish the entire plane with latex this winter...

I've read that quality, exterior latex paints have sufficient UV blockers that the poly spray wouldn't be needed.  Any thoughts?

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Posted

Some guys that start with latex right on their fabric do a layer in black first for UV. Since my airplane already has an approved finish with silver minus these few little spots I'm not worried about it. My Dad painted an ultralight he built in the early 90's with straight white latex and no UV. It's been sitting outside on the farm for 10 years where they get 10ft of snow a year and long hot summers it's never been under a shelter ever. The paint still looks new and the fabric is still strong. I'm sold. The only downside is making repairs with it. It can't be any worse than sanding on aero/ran thane like I have on my fuse now though. I plan on spraying tomorrow evening after the weather cools down. Going to start with a 10% floetrol mixture to slow down the drying process a little bit for a better coating. I'm only going to do a couple coats since I already built back up my bad spots and I don't want to add a bunch of weight. Here's a couple teaser shots.

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Smooth as glass

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Posted

Taking a break to let the paint dry... it's working so far after over an hour of experimenting with mixtures.

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Posted

Since you are not painting the entire fuselage, how are you planning on blending the new latex to the existing paint?

I'm seriously following this because I want to fly my Mangy-Fox for a year or two then recover for good looks.  This process could buy me some more time before the recover...

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Posted

I am impressed at how well my paint came out. I AM going to do my whole fuse. After a lot of fine tuning I have my set up and mixture dialed in. I used half a quart to do the rudder and elevator. A quart of dried latex weights a mere oz's.  Weight is not going to be an issue. My formula came out to be 12oz paint, 6oz water, 4oz floetrol. I'm using a $17 harbor freight spray gun and a borrowed compressor. Here are a few a pics with some light shining through the fence to show the finish. It's not perfect but a hell of lot better than what I started with. The first pic is of the same spot where I had the three big bare patches shown in the previous pics. You cannot even tell they were ever there. I'm going to do the same process on my fuse.

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My Laboratory. I'm using Kelly Moore superior semi gloss mixed to match my horizontal stab which was covered in ceconite and finished in butyrate dope. The floetrol slows the drying process significantly and allows the paint to flatten out giving a smoother finish. It was 95 degrees here and the coats were taking about 25 minutes to fully dry.

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Posted

I moved all my stuff out the hangar today. I have about 3-4 hours of prep work to do to the fuse then it'll be ready to spray. After looking it over again today I think I'm just going to paint the vertical stab and the back of the fuse and leave the rest alone for now. I put the elevator up against the horizontal stab today on sawhorses and I can't believe how close my semi gloss latex matches the Q1050 Insignia white dope. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll be ready to reassemble her.

I put my seat back in it after the doing the bellcrank mod the last time I was out and I sat in the seat and fired the motor today with the wings unfolded. It's a good thing there were chocks in front of the tires I was ready to taxi!!! Can't wait to start doing some taxi testing with it.

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Posted

Looking good!  here is to your maiden flight SOON :beerchug:

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Posted

Spent three hours working on her today. Got my patch done and most of the rest of it prepped for paint. Still need to do some sanding but getting close to being ready to spray. Hopefully it comes out as well as the spots I fixed up on my elevator. Getting closer!

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Posted

Got in another 4 hours last night on the bird. I'm ready to spray. I forgot my camera but will try to get a shot of what it looks like all prepped. I did a lot of little things in between coats of paint that I've been wanting to do also. I got my tarps all set up and everything taped off so that next time I get out to the hangar I'm ready to set up the spray rig and get after it. The new paint is quite a bit brighter than whats on the fuse. I'm going to start with the back of the fuse and the tail and see how it looks. I have a feeling I'm going to be peeling off my pin stripes and spraying the sides too though so it looks uniform. I should be able to get the sides in one or two light coats since the paint that's on there is in good shape. Not sure when I'm going to get to spray. I'm entertaining family this weekend and Wed morning I'm leaving for a road trip from the Bay area to Idaho to see my side of the family. Won't take long now once I get out there again.

On a side note I got to play detective this week. I had my trailer parked next to a big hangar on the airfield where the maintenance was. He cleaned out his hangar on the 1st and left. Early this week I drove over there to check on my trailer and it was gone! Since our airport has security and a coded gate I knew it had to be someone on the inside. There are a few geezers out there that are notorious for scrounging. Our airport is a small tight knit community at least. It only took me a day about 15 phone calls to find out who took it. I called the guy and said wtf? He was told that anything that was left after the guy closed up his maintenance biz was free game. I would have thought the Idaho license plates with current registration and the big padlock he cut off the tongue would have raised a red flag.... he's a nice guy just not too bright. He returned it with no argument which is a good thing because I was about to turn him into the cops. Anyways my Avid trailer is safe and sound at home now.

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Posted

A few updates. I sprayed the back of my fuse and tail section but it didn't blend very well with the existing paint...well not really at all. I peeled the pin stripes off the sides before I left for my mission. I got in a few hours yesterday and today and have it all sanded, a few small dings fixed, and I got everything taped off. I am spending most of the weekend with my family but I'm going to try and get out and do some more spraying soon. Once this is done I can re-assemble my tail and get down to the nitty details. I will post some pics after the weekend.

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