How to paint an airplane with HVLP With the proper professional tools and modern quality paints, anyone can complete a professional paint job even if you have no experience. Painting equipment and modern paints used today make it much easier for any individual to paint their own aircraft. What Makes Spray Paint Crackle http Transcript In this video you will learn to purchase, paint and install a replacement plastic bumper on your. This morning, Windows users woke to terrible news Microsoft was reportedly axing its beloved Microsoft Paint. The program, which has been annotating our memes. Waterbase paints are becoming widely available. For aircraft builders, you have spent years building your masterpeice so why hire out the finishing touches. Aircraft builders have the added advantage of a desire for perfection and perserverence. Even if you have never picked up a spray gun you can do the job. Professional painters for hire are often motivated by profit. Many want to paint your plane as fast as possible an move on to their next pay check. Many are auto painters, and are not used to the paints used in the aviation industry. An example is fabric covered top coats like dope. A professional paint job can easily range in the 3. You can paint a plane assembled or unassembled. A first time painter will be better served to paint the airplane prior to assembly. It is much simpler to paint the individual parts of an airplane rather than to paint the entire airplane at one time. However, a smaller plane is not as difficult as painting a large assembled aircraft. Some builders will want to wait until they have test flown the airplane prior to painting. That enables them to correct problems and make necessary changes resulting from the test flying period. Some of these changes could affect the finish of the aircraft so they will wait until this time for final painting. Again, if you possibly can, paint the airplane prior to assembly. You will gain experience quickly. Before you begin applying the finishing topcoats you will have acquired much experience spraying primers. The primer coat does not show so if spraying mistakes are made they can be easily corrected. You can also practice spraying techniques on large pieces of cardboard, scraps, etc. If you are painting a fabric covered airplane you will have literally hours of practice spraying the more viscous coats of chemicals used on fabric. Then when you are ready to spray the final color coats you can do so with confidence. The bottom line is this painting an airplane is usually approached with much more fear than is necessary. Whether or not you elect to paint your entire airplane you certainly will end up painting a number of small parts anyway so consider investing in good lifelong equipment and paint the airplane yourself. You will then also be able to maintain your plane and touch up with your gun. SPRAY BOOTH You will want a large well lit area to paint your plane. If you are painting by piece you can use your garage. Some builders are fortunate enough to locate a hangar or other such facility for their painting. Bear in mind that some airports will no longer allow painting unless the shop is designed and built to comply with local restrictions. Certain locations require the user of solvent based paints to filter overspray and have a method of collecting waste. Consider using todays modern waterbased paints and you will not have this problem. A garage or workshop is adequate. After you have found a suitable location you can easily build a poor mans paint booth. This can be done very easily by using a wooden frame or PVC pipe and plastic sheets. Build a square frame out of wood or PVC pipe large enough to cover your airplane or the largest surface you will be spraying. You should allow enough space to be able to walk around the surface. You can hang the frame from your ceiling. If you have a car port you may be in luck. You can even use an outside tree. Cover the roof and sides with plastic sheeting stapled or taped to the frame. Tape the sheets together using duct tape. At one end of the booth place a furnace filter and at the other end we also recommend you placing a furnace filter and seal it off. You can place the fan outside of the spray area to draw the air our. An explosion proof exhaust fan with an enclosed motor is the correct way to do this. If you are unsure about the fan, leave it out and quit spraying when the booth becomes full of overspray. The overspray will settle in minutes and then you can go back to work. You can also ask your dealer about non flamable waterbased paints. Lighting is of utmost importance best at 4. When you are painting you cannot have too much light. You will also want to hang small pieces of your airplane for spraying. You can use PVC pipe or a welding rod. The length of pipe or wood can be suspended from the top of the spray booth. SAFETY ISSUESCertain health hazards do exist with spray painting. If worried go with modern waterbased paint. Hazards depend entirely upon the chemical that is being sprayed. The most significant health hazard occurs when atomized chemical particles are inhaled. You must protect yourself with an adequate respirator. A charcoal filtered respirator, such as the one pictured, is sufficient for most primers, dopes, and paints. However, if you are using any type of polyurethane paint you should have a forced air breathing system. Polyurethane paints emit polyisocyanides that can be extremely hazardous to certain individuals. Some people have severe reactions to polyurethane so dont take a chance. A good investment to protect your health. You also need to protect your skin with gloves and a cheap paint suit available where you purchase your paint. Follow the manufacturers safety requirements and if flamable do not use power tools while you paint. TYPES OF PLANE SURFACESAluminum. Aluminum surfaces are treated differently depending upon whether the metal is new or used. Paint must be able to grip or adhere to the surface onto which it is applied. Most aluminum surfaces have a layer of pure aluminum on the surface called alclad that protects the metal from corrosion. It is very smooth and not favorable to paint adhesion. Therefore the surface must be adequately prepared by cleaning and slightly roughening to guarantee primer adhesion. This is accomplished by using a conversion coating such as alodine. This chemical process creates a ceramic layer over the aluminum that coats the surface and provides tooth adhesion. Used aluminum must have any primers, paints, or corrosion removed. Paint strippers are used to remove old paint. After stripping old paint the corrosion should be completely eliminated. Use fine sandpaper, Scotch Brite pads, or aluminum wool. Never use steel wool or a steel brush. After the corrosion is removed the old aluminum should be acid etched. This is simply a process of washing the aluminum with a product such as Poly Fibers E 2. Acid Etch diluted with water. An acid etch removes oil and light corrosion while etching or roughening the surface to provide a firm primer bond. The part is then thoroughly rinsed. Next wash the surface with E 2. Conversion Coating that inhibits corrosion and further enhances primer adhesion. After this step the part is rinsed and allowed to completely dry. Once again, new aluminum surfaces need only be treated with a conversion coating. After the aluminum new or old has been properly cleaned and treated, it is then primed. You can use a two part epoxy primer. An epoxy primer will insure corrosion protection and also provide a bonding surface for most topcoat paints. Very often, polyurethane topcoats will lift or wrinkle primers other than epoxies much as a paint stripper would do. A primer is necessary to provide a bond between the metal and the final topcoat paint. The primer coat should be applied according to the manufacturers directions. Usually, two light coats will be applied. Heavy coats should be avoided. Steel. Steel surfaces are much more susceptible to corrosion problems in the form of rust. This rust must be completely removed prior to priming the part. Of course, any old paints or primers will usually be stripped. Certainly, if you are going to paint over the existing topcoat you must still deal with any rust that might be present. Removal of old paints can be accomplished with a bead blaster or sand blaster found for as little as 4. However, this must be done without pitting or damaging the metal. Using the proper amount of pressure in blasting is essential. Once the structure has been stripped and the rust eliminated, the metal must be protected within 1 2 hours. Be sure to have the primer and spray equipment ready before you begin blasting or cleaning.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |