The International Cessna^® 170 Association

Anyone out there done their own painting? I'm going to give it a try, and do my own painting on my '48. I'm curious as to quantities used. I know what the books says, I'm just looking for some actual numbers if anyone is willing to share. I'm planning to use Aerothane from Consolidated on the fuselage and control surfaces and Poly-Tone on my wings. Any advice, tips, gotchas would be appreciated.

Thanks!

-Dustin

Hey! Ol' Gar! Looks lik you got sum kompitishun fer this years "Mos' Potenshial award!"

(But Dustin.... yew'll haf to paint 'er in the rain an' onna durt floor to beet Ol' Gar!)

Dustin, we are just about to paint my 48, It's all stripped just waiting for the hanger temps to get a little warmer. I am using the Imron Af700 base coat top coat process for aircraft, I bought 2 one gallon kits for the white and a half gallon kit for the red trim ( by the way red is veerryy expensive!!!). The paint totaled up to 2800$. for the wings we just sanded down the top coat and reapplied polytone nevada silver, used about a gallon and a half.
We are hoping in the next couple of weeks or so.
Vic

Vic,

Do you have any opinions regarding Imron vs. Aerothane? Never having done this before, how important is matching the "gloss" in the aircraft's appearance? I know poly-tone is semigloss and can be buffed slightly higher. Can you avoid having to use flattener with the Imron system?

-Dustin

Hi Dustin,

There are a lot of variables to how much paint you will need. How many coats do they reccommend? What type of gun are you going to use? Siphon or HVLP? HVLP will deliver more paint to the surface with much less atomized and wasted overspraying your toolbox, wife's car and whatever else is stored in there. How you adjust the gun, how much reducer you add, and what color you use are also important factors Are you using their reccommended primer? A good primer coat gives you a uniform color that is much easier to cover than splotchs of primer scattered hither and yon. ALWAYS use cross coats with the hardest direction to apply used first. (Perpendicular to fuselage then Parallel to fuse. on a two coat application.) Have GOOD lighting set so you can see where your paint is laying down, a big help in avoiding dry spots.
Consider your sequence. I like to paint the belly first, that eliminates a lot of overspray settling down onto the top of the fuselage if you do it first.
I can't remember if the ailerons are balanced. If they are hang them leading edge down. Be sure to check the balance before reinstalling them.
Use a blower nozzle to blow out all the seams so any trapped dirt is dislodged and dosent pop out into your fresh paint.
If/ when you get a run depending on location you can sometimes add more paint and run the run off the edge or to the belly out of sight.
Practice on something to see how much paint it takes to make it run. Paint an verticle test sheet area to where you think it looks good gloss wise then wait at least 1/2 hour and check it again. Some paints look good till you shut off the lights then stampede for the ground. So when you check the next day you have a real mess.
As far as how much you need figure your area in sq feet then see what they say as far as to coats and times that by the area. You can figure four triangular areas approximately the size for the top, bottom and sides of the fuselage I like to have a little more than enough paint than to run
short.
Hope this ramble helps. Brian

Dustin, for the wings we left them alone so they are semigloss. One of the reasons why we are repainting is that the previous paint job by the previous owner they put a flattner in the paint for the fuselage. The last few years the paint started to check really bad and whe I had my soot incident it got into the paint really bad. I went with Imron for the following reasons. First they claim that the process is very aviation friendly, you spray to cover, no need for a tack coat. It has a longer hold overtime so less overspray, you can stripe or trim up to two days later and not have to scuff. Second, out of all the manufactures only Dupont replied to my inquires and had a dealer come out to us to demo the process and show us how to use it, it was a try before you buy, he even brought just about every brand of spray gun with him for us to use because we told him we were looking for one. We settled on a devillbiss plus, he told us were we could get a good deal on one.
The finish will be the typical Imron wet look but thats what I want, during the demo we each took turns spraying test panels, it was very easy to apply. As for flattner for the Imron I do not know, I know there are additives you add to the clear coat, I am adding a pearl to mine so it will take the gloss down a little. You can call a distributor that handles the AF processes, cashers in PA was who we dealt with for the AF process. The AF stands for Aircraft Finish, it has been out for a year and is a totally specific for aircraft use, most paint suppliers dont know about it yet.
I cant comment on the aerothane, we got hosed by a distibutor for them so we went looking elsewhere, PRC/Desoto (PPG) was another option for us also Sherwin williams but again Dupont returned my calls so they got my buisiness for now and future jobs. As a matter of fact they want to sponsor a clinic in my buddys shop for all the hombuilders so thats cool too.
Vic

Dustin I painted my ragwing with the help of a friend who had been in the auto body business years earlier. I used PPG concept paints and was very happy with the results. I painted all the parts except the fusealage and cowling myself. These were not particlarly hard and if I messed up I just did it again. With what your paying for paint I highly recomend paying a pro to give you a hand on the larger vertical surfaces. What ever paint you use get the tech sheets from the supplier ahead of time and read them carefully. Good Luck Bill K

My 206 had 20 year old Imron on it that looked like last year. It was a good paint that was easy to match when sheet metal had to be repaired. Lots of painters are familiar with it.

gahorn wrote:Hey! Ol' Gar! Looks lik you got sum kompitishun fer this years "Mos' Potenshial award!"

(But Dustin.... yew'll haf to paint 'er in the rain an' onna durt floor to beet Ol' Gar!)

here's a mo' better pitchur of Ol' Gar Panting: (git a load of thet gimme-cap glow-inna-dark brim! ... he's so brite....his muther usta call him "Sonny":

That looks more like a government project, two supervisors and one worker.