Old aircraft frustrations

[3958v]

Four years ago I recovered the wings on my 170 and used a dope finish on my wings. I was having trouble at the time getting a glossy finsh on the final color coat of silver (not to be confused with the silver coat for uv protection). The small metalic particlles would attract each other and the dope appeared to orange peale despite being very smooth to the touch. I talked to the tech rep from the manufacturer and he could not offer any help other than to say that I should put some metal hardware in my paint can and shake the can plenty. That did not work so After more consultation I sprayed the color lightly and clear coated it. If you ever consider doing this DON'T. Initially it looked fantastic but within two years it started to yellow. This winter I removed the wings and rejuvinated them which required 40 to 50 hours of sanding. put the wings back on and filled the plane up with fuel the other day. Went back today and discovered that one of the fuel gage mount castings is now leaking where it is welded to the fuel tank. Needless to say I am totally bumbed as it appears that the wing will have to be removed and recovered because the only way to get the tanks out for repair is to cut the fabric. Before any one says it I did not use the fuel gauge or the neck for a handle when handling the wing. So if you dont see me around this summer I will be busy recovering my wings. Bill K

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Sorry to hear this Bill.

I'm not sure if this would have worked with your silver paint but I had similar frustrations when I was painting something with silver automotive paint. My good friend has various training in the art of auto painting and he told me to do the following to fix what you describe. After laying down all the paint as you want it disrecarding the metal flake give one last dry pass of paint. This last pass separates all the metal flake and makes it look right.

Don't know if it would work but if using dope I'd be tempted to make this "dry" pass with very thin paint or just thinner and see what happens.

[bsdunek]

Bruce may have the right idea. Back in my model airplane days (1950's), that's the way we got a good finish. The last coat was thinned a lot and spray a very light coat. This was with butrate dope.