| Author | Message | ||
     Jerry Sjostrand (Jerry) |
Well folks, my face is red. I am embarrassed. In my posting of the weight I added to my elevator, I said "ounces". Wrong!!!! I meant "pounds" as in 16 ounces. You smarter ones out there probably already picked up on that but no one called me on it. It has been 7 years since I flew my Express for the first time and there has been a lot of "air over the wings" and (through my ears?). I saw Copeland's newly painted Express today and it is "nice". Better hurry up fellows! | ||
| Kevin Dennes (Kdennes) |
I am interested in hearing what builders have to say about priming the surface of the aircraft. Do you prime the wings and fuselage while the wings are off the fuselage and do the paint finishing after the wings are mounted or do you do the whole job of priming, undercoaating and painting after mounting the wings and wing fairings? I would also be pleased to hear what materials you are using in the painting of the aircraft. Jerry, the paint job on your aircraft looks superb. What did you use (or is that a trade secret!!)? Regards. Kevin (from Downunder) | ||
| Reinhard Metz |
I primed AND painted every piece while it was apart. My personal feeling is that yields a far better result, getting into all the nooks and crannies that may show later. It also makes it far easier to finish sand and polish the paint, if you plan to do that. Of course, many have very sucessfully painted the whole thing at once, while together. I wrote an article for the CBROS Express newsletter detailing the prep, paint, and finish sequence. Let me know if interested and I can dig it out, perhaps put the text here. The paint I used was a German catalyzed Urethane, called Spies-Hecker, used on lux. cars in Europe. Works very well and is more benign than Imron or Deltron. My whole finish sequence was basically taught me by Jerry Sjostrand (to whom I am deeply indebted!!), who is the real expert on all this. Probably one of the most important considerations with paint is to be sure not to end up with material that conducts and trashes your antenna performance, assuming you want them to stay inside your sleek craft. I know that the Spies-Hecker and Deltron products are OK, but you may want to check with Copelands - I think their primer clobbered their radio operation. Reinhard Metz | ||
| Eric Holmberg (Erich) |
Reinhard, I would love a copy of the details. I have talked to Jerry and he has provided me with details and promised more when I'm ready, but I would love to have something to read first, so I'm don't make him repeat everything! As a side question, once the wings have been attached (after painting), how did you seal the fairing to the fuselage? Did you just use caulking? Does anybody have close-ups of this? For some reason, that detail slipped my mind at Oshkosh this year. -Eric | ||
| Kevin Dennes (Kdennes) |
Reinhard. Me too. I would very much like to have those details. Regards. Kevin (from Downunder) | ||
| Jerry Sjostrand |
Eric and Kevin (and others); I have been keeping a secret all these years. I installed "drip rails" on the fuselage under the wing fairings to catch any water that "probably" would enter at that point. I also was able to "attach" the wing fairing with silicone on the pilots side as it did not fit well when the temperature changed. I used a very special technique to do the job and will attempt to help any of you by phone if you are interested. I did not take pictures of that operation as it came late in the game. I also will try to get it on my web page if enough builders show interest. I also put a "drip rail" on the top of the firewall for the same reason, "what will happen if water comes in on all my electrical garbage on the firewall?" I will attach pictures when I can get to them. Anyone particularly interested can email me and I will put the information on my web page or send it direct. I wish I was there to help all of you first hand but there are too many of you. I still expect to go to Sweden to help Sven Eriksson fit and attach his wings in the spring of next year. So you see, I do make exceptions!! I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about such things. Hope you do the same! Cheers, Jerry | ||
| Eric Holmberg (Erich) |
Hmmm.... How much does it cost to get you out here to Colorado? -Eric | ||
| jharlow |
FWIW, I primed everything prior to assembly and then after installing the wings the fairings were permently glassed to the wing and fuselage with mill fiber. I had some concerns about cracks but after 2 yrs and 150 hrs of operation everything is fine. Should I ever need to pull a wing I realize I will need to cut the fairing. John | ||
| Jerry Sjostrand |
One more time:  | ||
| Reinhard Metz |
My wing fairings were sealed to the plane with white silicon rubber, and I have no leaks or loss of adhesion. It was installed by prying the fairing away with tongue depressers, and injecting the silicon rubber. There are two considerations, however: 1) You need to tape off the adjacent area carefully, as the excess silicon rubber will not come off easily, especially a thin smeared film. While not immediately visible, it will become dirty later. 2) There is enough flexing in the wing fairing (in any case, whether glassed in place or just sealed) that the paint on the fairing needs to have a flexing agent (like impact coat) added, or it will crack in that area, especially if it is a hard catalyzed urethane. Here's the overview of what I did for paint and finish, as was in the Dec '99 - #21 CBROS newsletter. Again, I owe most of what I learned here to Jerry Sjostrand, who taught me how to paint and finish. 1) Filling of low areas and contours (after glass) was done with Evercoat 100838 Chrome-a-Lite for rough areas, Evercoat 10040 Polyester Glazing Putty for the finish fill. Both of these harden quickly and without surface tackyness. 2) All sanding 320 random orbital or by hand, dry, not wet, wet is too smooth for good paint adhesion. 2.5) I also used a sprayable polyester filler in some areas where there was no Jellcoat and the pinholes were too much for primer. This stuff is a lot of work, though, because you basically end up sanding most of it off again, just to fill the pinholes. 3) I used Spies-Hecker catalyzed Urethane paint. It is a fabulous material - results are astonishing, but so are the prices! Vario 8590 primer, sanded at 320, fix any revealed defects now. (This material must all be applied with a fresh air respirator, prefferably a full suit, if you expect to survive!!) Clean all surfaces with Prep-Sol and wipe with tack rags for every paint application. 4) Finish coat was Spies-Hecker Permacron series 257 in white, colors with clear-coat for stripes. Spray one extremely thin tack layer, let almost dry - about 20 minutes, followed by two full wet coats separated by about 20 minutes. The idea is to get chemical adhesion, but as late as possible to avoid running. 5) When the finish coat is hard, but not ancient (between 36 hours and 1/2 year), wet sand (air random orbital sander) with 1200 using 3M 01318 adhesive backed resin coated sanding disks. Precede this with a thin layer of "guide coat", which is a lacquer, like red or black primer, that is sprayed thinly on top of your finish coat, that will be sanded away and will quickly show any surface irregularities or places you missed with the following sanding step. It also shows you exactly when any orange peel is gone - it is the way you get the paint perfectly flat. Use this 1200 grade step to get rid of all small imperfections, and be prepared to re-paint any large ones, or live with them. During the 1200 step, keep a trickle of water flowing, use good lighting, and squeegee dry periodically to monitor progress along with disappearance of the guide-coat. I can't emphasize enough the importance of the guide-coat, and it's entertaining to watch others when you do it too, because at first it looks like you are totally vandalizing your beautifull finish coat! Do be carefull not to sand through the paint and stay 1/4 inch away from edges. This also means you need to tape mask the edges and details, like countersunk screw holes, before the guide-coat step. 6) Follow with 1500 3M hook-backed resin discs on the random orbital wet sander, with a foam inter-pad. With care, this combination can be used out to the edges. 7) Hand wet sand with 2000 grade paper. This is essential for the final stage to be able to reach a full polish. 8) Now for the magic - The last step is polishing with 3M Finesse 05928. Use a power polisher with a yellow lamb's wool pad (not white). Follow the 3M directions - This stuff is high science - it does not remove material - it polishes by re-flowing the paint at a molecular level, but it can only do so up to about 2000 grade roughness. Be carefull, though, not to burn the paint - use light pressure at the end of the process. You can let steps 5-8 go onto the plexiglass windows, as the Finess will return them to optical grade as well. So, that's it. Experiment, talk to folks at paint stores, be prepared to do stuff over. Good Luck! Reinhard Metz |