Hello,. 39H Is all metal,never painted.I need advice from start to finish .how prepair ,what primer to use. What say you list. my regards . Ken C. In Mo.
Ken:
I've never painted a polished plane, but I have painted
my Cherokee, over old paint. The principles should be the same.
Steps I took:
Wash the plane completely, twice is better. Clean all oil, waxes
and stuff from the surface. Use Sotch-Bright. Then a clean
cloth. Don't use soap with wax or silicon in them. Use special
care around the rivets, screws, bolts, cracks, etc. - don't
leave any dirt or oil around these.
Don't use any type of metal on the surfaces (including
steel brushes). These will cause corrosion.
Light (water) sand all surfaces. Remove any corrosion.
Don't sand rivets - any damage to these can fail your
inspection.
Make any repairs you need in the metal.
Blow off all surfaces with compressed air. Clean
out cracks with air.
Wash again. Dry. Don't touch the plane with your bare
hands.
Wash plane with paint thinner or other type product (compatible
with the paint you are going to use).
Don't touch the surface with your hands or other items which
may contain oil.
Use tack cloth to remove sanding residue.
Primer surfaces - two possible procedures here:
1.- Etch the surface and use a primer. Zinc Chromic.
2.- (My way) - Use Sherwin-Williams Self Etching Primer.
(This works excellent and saves lots of steps. It
is a filling primer, fixes small scratches.
It comes in both spray cans and bulk).
Watch for snake eye surfaces. Kind of like the result of
water and oil separating. If you get these, sand, clean,
re prime. Let dry, re prime. Repeat until all the surface
is covered with primer. Bottom of the plane and gas tank
area are bad for this, where oil has blown. (That's why you
wash it in thinner).
Wet sand again.
(Still don't touch the surface with your hands).
Don't damage the rivets.
Remember that the primer is soft. It is design to
allow for easy work. It will come off easy. So
sand lightly.
Blow off again.
Re prime any bare area, scratches, etc.
Allow these to dry and re sand.
Wash and dry again. (Same as before, sotch-bright, cloth, etc).
Tack cloth again.
Paint.
Paint temperature is critical. Now is a good time. Cold weather
will do more damage than hot. If you can't keep the temp above
65, then don't paint. If your are going to paint outside
burn some of the bug candles, don't spray any bug kill, it will
settle back on the surfaces.
If you put a hardener in the paint, use it correctly. To
much will cause it to blister.
Several light coats of paint. Don't stop moving with your sprayer.
Never stop! If you have trouble, go on - fix the spots later.
Paint the top first. You hose will hit the plane, clean any area
where it does before you paint that area.
You will go blind, esp. if you use white,
so make sure someone else will be available to point out
light spots.
Use a good quality masking tape, you will be glad you did.
Other points:
The Dupont paint is preferred by most. I used a good auto
paint and a clear coat, Wal-Mart cans have been used also.
The clear coat looks like wax. But the clear coat
runs very easy, so be careful if you do that. If you do
strips and trim in another color, there is a masking
tape made of plastic. I'll get you the name, if you don't
have it. Use this to cover any trim area. Paint cannot
penetrate it, so the lines are smooth.
You will need to put on the large N numbers (12 inch).
You can by a stencile or I had mine cut by a computer
sign person, peal and stick. Easy to apply. Looks good.
Remember to balance everything back out. Weight and balance
is important after this. Weight the plane is the easy way.
I don't know about balancing the elevator on a coupe - you
should balance it. The FAA guys grounded about 30 planes in
NJ recently for not balancing after painting. (Seems as if
they looked at the screws that held it together. All had
been painted over and never removed to balance).
Don't wash for about a month. Don't wax for six months.
After it is done, I would spray the inside of the wings
and plane with Corrosion X or ACF50. Insurance, but worth
it.
If you need any other details let me know, I give you
what I got and lie you about the rest.
Jack
