Hello,
Having just completed the arduous procedure of a CLASSIC I concur with David:
Save yourself a whack of money by doing the filling and contouring at your own
shop. But then, leave the final priming/painting to the professionals. It does
take many years to get really good at it. A painter intimately knows the paint,
primers and fillers while spraying them on, while adjusting immediately for
the daily changes of flow caused by changing humidity, temperature, etc.
Having spent several weeks in a professional paint shop, finalizing filling and
sanding I can attest that without precautions taken, spray painting/priming is
a risky business for health, no matter what the labels say.
It took me many hours to fill and sand to ready-paint state, which included
sanding
stages after filling, Smooth Priming, Epoxy Priming. Lots of work but look
at the money you save: at $50 shop hours I was quoted close to $10,000 to have
this done.
Doing all the preparations myself, and sanding in between to paint ready state,
the paining process took them only 10 hours to complete which I very happily
paid the shop their professional rate for, plus the material. YES, I was wearing
a mask during the entire process.
What worked for me was to do all the required work at home/shop myself: filling
(Aeropoxy Light filler), followed by filling larger pinholes with quick setting
putty (takes only one hour per side). Then Smooth Prime to fill all the small
pin holes (rolling on is MUCH more economical than spraying as it "massages"
the stuff in, effectively filling almost all pin holes - that stuff is amazing).
I needed only 3 rolled on coats to fill the pinholes (not 6 as prescribed)
and then sanded back. Everything cleans up with water, but wear a mask. I found
including the cross-linker makes for better adhesion, no matter what they
tell you now.
Make sure you wait a week until that stuff completely dries - it sands easily.
The BEST sanding tools I found were the DURA BLOCKS marketed in the US - I
wasted
much valuable time initially messing around with the EUROPA prescribed sanding
blocks. DURA BLOCKS work amazingly and produce much more precise results
with much less scratching the surface. I used an 12, 18 and 24 inch size polus
a small soft block for the fine sanding and contours (yes, I built the wing
fairings
myself).The painter then applied an epoxy primer followed by a surface
filler which I sanded back to 320 and then to 500grit in preparation for
painting
which took only a few hours.
Christoph Both
#223
Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com
[mailto:owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com] On Behalf Of David Joyce
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2011 4:57 AM
Subject: Re: Europa-List: Spraying questions
Graeme, Not wanting to sound discouraging, but I think spraying is the one
thing in the whole build that is worth getting a professional to do. It is
so easy to make a poor job of it on first attempt, and so obvious
thereafter, and so difficult to put straight if you don't get it quite
right! But if you are intent on doing it I would suggest doing a complete
job on say one tailplane first so that you can be happy with your technique
before going on. I am sure others who know more about it will give you more
specific advice, but my one tip would be to be meticulous to the point of
paranoia in preparing the surface to absolute smoothness and mattness (ie
none of the original shine of the moulded bits must remain)
Regards, David Joyce, G-XSDJ
----- Original Message -----
From: "graeme bird" <graeme@gdbmk.co.uk>
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 9:07 PM
Subject: Europa-List: Spraying questions
>
> I am preparing to spraying the top coats (underside of elevators, then
> wings first!) and have a couple of simple questions I am using 2K acrylic
> Octoral PF131 high build primer and Dellfleet 350 top coat:
>
> a) how to spray large areas like wings - whether better to work in squares
> or walk down the wing each time? My paint says cross coats and I am using
> the slow thinner.
>
> b) do I need to let the primer dry ie 24 hours or is it better to spray
> sooner and get a better bond. I would guess dry would be best and fine
> sand off any tiny blemmishes.
>
> Thanks
>
> --------
> Graeme Bird
> G-UMPY
> Mono Classic/XS FWFD 912ULS/Warp drive FP
> Build nearing completion
>
>
> Read this topic online here:
>
> http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=338146#338146
>
>
>
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