Replies to my earlier post indicated that Latex paint would either work fine, not hold up, crack from vibration, could/could not be polished shiny or would gum up trying to sand. I found some good news on sanding. I know; sanding and good news don't really go together in the same sentence. I have 3 coats of Latex house paint primer sprayed on my fuselage. I had used 400 grit silicon carbide wet/dry sand paper (used dry) because that was the only type 400 grit I could find at the hardware stores. The silicon carbide would gum-up very quickly. I went through 3 packs as I struggled to sand about 1/2 the fuselage over 9 hours. The label on the silicon carbide sand paper says the surface is coated with resin. My theory is the resin "grabs" the latex paint dust and sticks it together for the gum-up. Every once in a while I would get a black streak on the paint. I suppose this came from the sandpaper; it is black also. Then I would have to sand more to get the black streak off. All out of 400 grit, I went back to Lowes and found 400 grit aluminum oxide. Wow! What a difference! The aluminum oxide just makes lots of white powder dust. The paper appears to get clogged, but one swipe with the dust brush and down the vacuum maw it goes. I sanded the remaining half of the fuselage with one sheet of aluminum oxide in about 1 hour by hand.
Aluminum Oxide sandpaper is highly recommended for Latex paint sanding. Your results may vary... Sid Wood Tri-gear KR-2 N6242 Mechanicsville, MD USA sidney.w...@l-3com.com
