Paint over existing Paint?

[Knuckledragger 135]

My plane came with an Army Air Core-esque paint job featuring olive drab.   I saw enough olive drab while on active duty to last a lifetime despite being a Sailor.

Would I be adding a significant amount of weight by painting over what I have?  Is there a preferred way to do this besides recovering the plane?  I'll probably keep it simple and use water based latex acrylic, which seem like it sticks to just about anything.

Also, is there any problems with painting the majority of the plane black?  There would be contrasting accent colors to make it stand out against the sky and ground.

[EDMO 1078]

I believe the one plane that stands out in my memory as the easiest to see in the air was a solid black MU2 - It had a thin red stripe, but you had to get close to see that.   Dark planes can get a lot hotter than light-colored ones.   Red or Orange planes are easier to see in the snow, but you don't have any.  I guess a book could be written on paint colors?

Paint adds weight.   I would do the minimum amount I could live with, like adding Red, Orange, or Yellow tips and rudder.  I would not use latex, because it is real labor-intensive to get a good shine, and I don't think it will stay bright for as long, but "whatever works"!

EDMO 

Edited 24 Oct 2015 by EDMO

[EDMO 1078]

BTW - I like your OD paint...It's like a tribute to those old pilots who kept us safe...

EDMO

Edited 24 Oct 2015 by EDMO

[Fly-n-Low 181]

My plane came with an Army Air Core-esque paint job featuring olive drab.   I saw enough olive drab while on active duty to last a lifetime despite being a Sailor.

Would I be adding a significant amount of weight by painting over what I have?  Is there a preferred way to do this besides recovering the plane?  I'll probably keep it simple and use water based latex acrylic, which seem like it sticks to just about anything.

Also, is there any problems with painting the majority of the plane black?  There would be contrasting accent colors to make it stand out against the sky and ground.

No more weight than what is in the can plus primer if you use any. And you'll lose some of that in over spray and evaporation of the carrier, or thinner. Plus what you sand off in prep. You are supposed to do a weight and balance after a repaint. Also all the control surfaces are supposed to be balanced too. But that is on factory built airplanes. Do you know what is on it now? I don't think I would use house paint either. And if you use car paint, make sure you get a flex additive in the paint, other wise it will crack.

Mine is/was painted with the old school dope and is crazed and cracked. Skin is fine. I found that out when I reskinned the horz stab and elevator. They are now painted with Jet Glow. I plan on sanding the rest of the fuse wing etc, priming it to take the cracks out, and painting it with all Jet Glow. When I was spraying for a living ,my favorite aircraft paint is AwlGrip. It would gloss out like nobody's business. Imron is great because it dries so fast. So I used to use it for stripes.

BTW the FBO I worked at was a Beech dealer. I painted nothing but metal stuff, but the fabric seems to be the same as far as the paint process goes.

I also liked the ODG.

 

[EDMO 1078]

If you can find out what the original builder used for paint, I would use the same kind, just change color to what you want.

I like the OD - Makes you stand out from the Ivory soap crowd!

EDMO

Edited 8 Nov 2015 by EDMO

[Knuckledragger 135]

I like the OD - Makes you stand out from the Ivory soap crowd!

EDMO

At the flyin last week, I was the only OD plane out of ~200.  But there weren't any black with red accents planes either, which is what I might eventually go with - or maybe just have fun with the rattle cans...

 

[KFfan 151]

I like the OD - Makes you stand out from the Ivory soap crowd!

EDMO

I think I remember a video (or 2) of the gal that did the commercials for that product...

[C5Engineer 1170]

KD I did that just that with my plane. I used Latex shot out of a Harbor Freight el cheapo spray gun to cover up some ugly spots on Aerothane on just the fuse. Latex is flexible, contains UV protection, covers well, is light, cheap, did I mention it's cheap? I used a lot of rattle can on metal parts after sanding and priming them. 6 years later and I still an occasional compliment on it. She's no showbird but that is NOT what I was after. I just wanted to get her flying and it turned out better than I ever imagined. Now if you are looking at resale value, and things like that you should consider starting over from scratch but covering is substantial chunk of money these days.

Heres a link to the process I used.

Also check out www.weinerdogaero.com for more info on Latex painting on aircraft.

[KFfan 151]

KD I did that just that with my plane. I used Latex shot out of a Harbor Freight el cheapo spray gun to cover up some ugly spots on Aerothane on just the fuse. Latex is flexible, contains UV protection, covers well, is light, cheap, did I mention it's cheap? I used a lot of rattle can on metal parts after sanding and priming them. 6 years later and I still an occasional compliment on it. She's no showbird but that is NOT what I was after. I just wanted to get her flying and it turned out better than I ever imagined. Now if you are looking at resale value, and things like that you should consider starting over from scratch but covering is substantial chunk of money these days.

Heres a link to the process I used.

Also check out www.weinerdogaero.com for more info on Latex painting on aircraft.

That URL takes me to a "links" webpage