Airplane Painting

We've begun the recovery process. If you haven't read the incident report, check that out here. Also check out the repairs here. In this section we'll talk about the process of painting Victor Fox, as we decided we'd put on a "real" coating of paint since we had to do something with the damaged wing anyway. We've decided to go with DuPont Nason, a factory recommendation, as it's supposed to be fairly easy to work with, and less harmful than some. It's also reasonably affordable, we bought supplies and a full supply of white for about $1,300, though we'll probably throw some color in later. The base is simply 400-44 "snow white", the nason base white. We're using Nason Select 2k primer (421-17 Grey) and 2k Clear Coat (498-00) as well. Check out the Nason line here.

05/22/2010 We're I'm applying our Velocity logos on the inside of our lower winglets. I got these from Designery online, but you can get them made at Fast Signs too.

Velocity RTA Transfer/Decal

05/16/2010 We're finally applying our n numbers. We've done an initial sand and buff on the wings so we can apply the numbers, though we may come back and do a more detailed job later. I got these temporary numbers at my local Fast Signs, though the permanant ones with come from AirGraphics.

RTA Transfer/Decal

Embroidered sock/heat shield

Close-up

Applied numbers

04/13/2010 Here's the first bit of paint to come off of the airplane. I say the first to avoid the disappointment if it spreads outside of the speed brake cutout. Obviously a lot of oil from our nose leak dripped out this cut out and the whole area was very very messy. We cleaned it several times, with every product that was recommended to us, and I thought it was bonding. Sadly, no. If this is the worst, we'll be fine. If it's the begining, well, then there's more painting in my future.

Speed Brake peeling

01/18/2009 We're gearing up to move into our new diggs, but in the meantime we potted our door pin reciever covers in, and installed the Reiff preheat system. Also you can see the spray foam we're making the beauty covers on the sides of the footwells.

Sump prepared

Sump heating element

01/16/2009 We brought the fuselage back to the hangar today. The airport was great about letting us store it, the canard, and the cowling in the back of the FBO's hangar to give us a little more space, and not have to worry about overspray (and about painting in our hangar generally). Jerry worked on installing the door pin receiver covers. I bought extra 10x32 helicoils (self-tapping) from McMaster to pot in flox to screw them down, so he's been grinding them out to match the angles of the pins, and then grinding the pins down flush to the doorsill. Meanwhile, I tried to fit the window covers to the windows. Like my buddy Andy, I wasn't happy with how they fit, and I had to do covers for the strake windows anyway, so I elected to make my own covers. The West epoxy didn't seem to want to stick Triax on the ceiling, though, so I ended up making them out of EZ84 and Triax. Also, I started by just covering enough of the window for the lay-up, but that was a bad idea.

Cover prep

Cover fitted

Strake window uphostery cover

Main window uphostery cover

01/15/2009 We ran out tonight just long enough to clear coat the ailerons and elevators to kick off the long weekend. I want to get teh fuselage back into the hangar on Saturday so we can work on it, so we needed to be done with painting. They look nice, and I'm officially bringing the paint supplies home!.

Clear coated ailerons

Clear coated elevators

01/09/2010 We sprayed clear on the wings today, after uncovering everything. It's always surprising how nice everything looks after the masking is removed. The new massive construction heater is working out great, allowing us to get the temperature of the booth well into the 80s without even running it on high. Tomorrow we'll try to get another couple of coats on and get them cooked out. I'm really anxious to get the fuselage back and start putting eveything back together (and get my wings off of those jigs... man they're not really stable... yikes). I'll put in a plug for some must-have tools. The paint shaker (pneumatic) has been invaluable, as has the heater. If I did it again I'd get a gun clener, and I will upgrade my compressor. Also, the large Harbor Frieght air dryer is really important.

Copilot winglet outside

Copilot winglet inside

Winglet bottomn is all blue

Winglet leading edge

New torpedo cannon (heater)

01/08/2010 It's been really cold and snowy here, so the painting has been going a bit slowly. We sprayed the winglets with blue on Tuesday, but there a few places were the paint beaded up. I think this might be polishing compound that didn't get sanded off well enough. In any event, we heated the booth and did a little light sanding, and put another coat on last night. This weekend we'll try to get clear coat on the wings. That'll be just about the end of spraying, I've got an aileron and some odds and ends left, and then we'll bring the fuselage back and get moving.

Wings on edge for painting

Pilot winglet

Copilot winglet blue

12/19/2009 I got the door covers fitted and installed, and made metal covers for the door pin recievers. I also cover a sheet of 3/8" divincyl for my "Savier" sized trailing edge fences and glass both my air cleaner box and a 5 1/4" to 3" transition plenum to connect it with. I'll be connecting my new side-divert runner to the air cleaner box, then on to one of Jim Ward's alternate-air intakes (pictured below). If the air cleaner become clogged, wet, or frozen over the door on Jim's intake will open an by-pass the cleaner with Cowling air.

Door Latch Pin Reciever Covers

Inside Door Cover

Engine Alternate Air Box

Interior wing-strake color coat

12/20/2009 Long day today. We got the canard moved to the big hangar and got started on the main wings. First we got them into the booth, and then sanded off the overspray and polish compound from buffing them preivously. Then we got the swoosh taped off, as well as the blue line on the inside of the winglet. Next we covered everything but the strake end so we could prime where we made the wings match the strakes. Finally we did prime this end, and I'll try to get the white on there tomorrow. Jerry's been doing most of the spraying, but he's traveling for the holiday, so I'm on my own for a few.

It seemed like the booth had more room than this...

The meat of the swoosh

Top of the swoosh

Interior winglet line

12/19/2009 The canard and door interiors are looking good in a fresh clear coat. We'll ditch the canard and bring the main wings in tomorrow and get started on them. We should get the canard touch-up tomorrow and clear the door beams and the canard on Saturday.

Inside door beam clear coat

Canard Clear Coat

12/16/2009 These pants will want to be lightly sanded and buffed, but they look sharp. They weren't going to cure very quick in the cold, and I wanted to move on to the canard and door touch-up, so I brought these home. We should get the canard touch-up tomorrow and clear the door beams and the canard on Saturday.

Pant paint

12/13/2009 We're working on the small bits, but here are some pictures from the work just finished. Notice the chrome in the landing light well, the dark crackle on the strake pocket, and the nice fit of the nose hatch. We're thinking about getting our interior done this spring, so we're going to paint the door beams with gray primer (our interior is grey) and clear coat. We may cover them with leather later, but it seems that might be tough with the door seal (we've not seen anyone else do this), so we're going to paint them just in case.

Pant paint

Pants paint

Nose Hatch reinstalled

Door beams are prepped for paint

Landing Light holder

Strake pocket

Spinner

12/06/2009 Here you can see us making the move from our hangar to the big corporate hangar so we can finish painting the wings.

Side view with door

Pilot side masked

An empty booth

11/28/2009 So, we got out early and worked out the worst of the contamination in the clear coat. It wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared yesterday, so we got the booth nice and hot and started sparaying clear again. This coat looks really nice, mostly glassy smooth. We'll give it all day tomorrow to cure before we start sanding and buffing it out, but I hope to do that, get it uncovered, and get the door handles back on, etc. I've arranged space in the corporate hangar for the fuse while we work on the wings, so I'd like to move her later this week if possible.

Clearcoat

Nice fit! And so shiny!

11/27/2009 Happy Thanksgiving. We had everything ready to go this morning, so we heated the booth and sprayed blue again on just the lower fuselage. In hindsight, that was a mistake. The lower fuselage came out gorgeous, but around the windows where we scuffed and sprayed clear over it is clearly not as pretty - we should've just retaped and sprayed it as well. Live and learn, it still looks very good, but it could've been awesome. Live and learn. Also, spraying the roof is tough, so we rigged a bit of blue foam to spread our weight out, and we used a towel to keep from scuffing up the paint, and we allowed some overspray to come down the side and foul the clear. So, we'll have some clean up work there. We also had a bit of underspray on our tape, the fine line held up, but some of the standard masking tape bled, but since we were spraying clear right after the blue set, we were able to clean it up with a little thinner (the white was firmly set). By running a torpedo heater flat out we were able to keep the booth in the mid-80s so the paint would dry. A few more days of clean-up, sanding and buffing and we should be able to move the fuselage out and get the wings squared away, maybe in time for Christmas. We also masked the main gear pants.

Retaping for blue

Masked the pants

11/23/2009 Wow. I said it all in the blog, this is one of those days that you live for as a builder. Your plane suddenly becomes as pretty as you always saw her, but nobody else could see through the crude and epoxy stains. It's like watching your daughter go to the prom or someting. I couldn't be happier with how the paint is coming along.

Video walk-through of the paint job

The Fox unmasked

Painted doghouse

11/22/2009 Wow. Long day, this. It was a pretty day, but we spent it slaving in the hangar. We started by double-checking the mask (so of the tape didn't like getting wet from sanding the blue), and then spraying. We put a good coat of white on the roof, using blue foam to keep from denting the strakes while kneeling on them. Let that coat tack up, and then repray it. Then do the same with the rest of the fuselage, spraying the cowling, dog house, and cover while it tacked. Then we waited an hour (OK, we really ate lunch) and then hit it all again (within the recoat window) so we could pull the masking up tomorrow without having to sand in between.

Pant masked

Pant masked, inside

Cowling clear-coat test - Looks good

Pant masked, top

Close-up of door blue paint

Window masked

Nose masked

Cowling spraying white

Spraying fuselage

Sparying doghouse

Spraying doors

11/21/2009 Masking of the blue is now done, and a preliminary test of scuffing the blue on the cowling and spraying clear over it seems to have panned out. So, that means we spray white tomorrow, pull the masking, scuff the blue Monday, and clear coat everything on Tuesday (I'm only working Monday this wee). At least, that's how I hope it'll play out.

Nose masked

Window masked

11/18/2009 More pictures us masking the blue off in preparation for spraying the white.

Pilot side masked

Masking pilot nose

Masking the door "checkmark"

Masking the window "swoosh"

Masking the lower body-to-strake junction

11/17/2009 More pictures of the blue metallic base coat.

More Blue

11/12/2009 We finished spraying blue on everything that will remain blue, so they'll have two coats when we spray next, hopefully on Sunday. We got a couple of runs, but we should be able to sand everything out on Saturday.

More Blue

11/10/2009 We managed to spray blue tonight and it looks AWESOME. I think Jerry is getting the hang of spraying paint, and would take him seriously if he didn't come out of the booth looking like a smurf!. Seriously, the pictures don't do it justice, the lens needed cleaning, but it's sweet. We primed the pants and other odds and ends over the weekend. By popular demand, we've added some pictures and video, streaming on YouTube or a better resolution wmv for download.

More Blue

Spraying the pants

Pant primer

I should've taken the blue pill

Spraying blue

My blue babe

11/01/2009 This wasn't a great weekend for working on the airplane, though we did get some very nice weather for late October in Ohio. We had some Halloween things to do on Saturday, and Sunday was our EAA meeting. So, we elected to keep to manageable bits of work, we covered the fuselage and primed the doors and cowlings as well as a bunch of odds-n-ends. Those included the doghouse, nose cover, vortilons, spinner, and aft portions of the main gear pants. We sprayed these on Saturday and started sanding them out Sunday before the meeting. Hopefully we can get these resprayed and also the rest of the pants before the weekend so we can spray the fuselage with blue next weekend (and have everything else in primer). Also, jerry was nice enough to buff out our door handles and round the edges. Beth decided that she'd rather they be shiny rather than painted. He's our only real metal shop guy, and he also made a notched bolt that will allow us to open the doors after painting without having to install the actual handles. Hand dude, just keep him flush in Ginger Ale. ;-)

Polished door handles

Lower cowling pre primer

Door pre primer

Upper cowling pre primer

Vortilon-cylces anyone? Bright idea also by Jerry

10/26/2009 The windows are a pain in the ass. We're going to paint onto them slightly to make them look more flush than they reall are. We've hit them with about 1/8" of primer, and we'll go another 1/8" onto the window with the top coat using 3M Fine Line tape. We also sprayed chrome Krylon in the pocket for the landing light, using the rationale that it would get too hot if it were blue, but that we also didn't want to spray white in there (which might also look odd). We'll see how that works out for us. I forgot to take a picture of that before I masked it off, so I'll get one later. Also, I sprayed Krylon black "textured" paint into the strake cubby holes, and we'll put a bit of felt or carpet in the bottom. I think that's going to look sharp, and we'll clear coat it to try to keep it from getting really nasty. We're also getting the doors ready, as the final blue-white divider line will require they be in, as well as the cowling.

Strake storage pockets in "crackle"

10/21/2009 Here we're spraying the second coat. Luckily we've still been able to get the temperature up when we're spraying, and it's pretty comfortable for sanding actually. Also, we've added some (6) nice 4' double bulb flourescent light with 6500k "sunlight" blue bulbs. The lighting is much better, but still not perfect.

Spraying coat 2 of the primer

Better lighting

10/10/2009 We've finally started shooting paint. The weather was cool, but with the sun shining on the paint booth, and the gas heater was set just in front of the inlet fan, so we were able to hold the temps steady in the 70s. Elizabeth is working on the final paint scheme with Air Graphics.

Forming the duct

Paintbooth

09/18/2009 We've put the booth up. Yup, that's it. Well, we did finish up the fans and some masking off of the airplane, too. Oh, and I finally split the runners (I had to get them off to mask the engine). The new outlets will be on the sides, and the top will be permanantely affixed to the firewall.

Paintbooth

Paint Air Dryer

Inlet air fan

Nose Masking

Wheel masking

Extension cord and air hose access holes

Masking doors

Exhaust fan

Runner split line tabs

Moving aux runner air feed to the sides

ContourHD mini camera (for awesome HD flight footage!)

09/01/2009 Here we're de-oiling the belly. I'll report back once we're sure if this worked or not.

Degreasing belly

Belly prepped

Paintbooth

09/01/2009 No new pictures, but the wing-to-strake junction is good to go, and the wings will be coming back off soon. We have a little fiddling with the cowling do do yet. The new SS flex brake lines have replaced the nylaflow on the legs, and the resevoir has been moved under the nose hatch. Along the way we put the "T" in front of the canard bulkhead so there's only one line going to the resevoir, and now it's easy to fill. Also, the new cast AL toe pedals are installed. We'll start installing the Reiff preheat system once the cowling work is done. Note on the pedals that I've added an extra 5/16" nut and some washers so we can crank the pedals down and still lock the top, as well as apply spring pressure to the brake pedal. Our pedals seemed a bit high, so this slight modification was helpful.

Degassing the brake fluid

New Nose wheel

08/15/2009 No new pictures, but the wing-to-strake junction is good to go, and the wings will be coming back off soon. We have a little fiddling with the cowling do do yet. The new SS flex brake lines have replaced the nylaflow on the legs, and the resevoir has been moved under the nose hatch. Along the way we put the "T" in front of the canard bulkhead so there's only one line going to the resevoir, and now it's easy to fill. Also, the new cast AL toe pedals are installed. We'll start installing the Reiff preheat system once the cowling work is done. Note on the pedals that I've added an extra 5/16" nut and some washers so we can crank the pedals down and still lock the top, as well as apply spring pressure to the brake pedal. Our pedals seemed a bit high, so this slight modification was helpful.

New cast aluminum toe pedals

Pedals installed

New brake lines

Brake resevoir move

New nose wheel

Reiff preheater system (turbo XL)

Over engineered standoff

08/11/2009 I finally found the Nylon nut that Andy gave me at Oshkosh (it was still in my pocket, so it's nice and clean) . We'll use this to hopefully reduce our steering friction, but still maintain good anti-shimmy dampening. Also, you can see that I lost my mind, and have decided to go ahead and sand the wings back so we can properly match themt to the strakes. The copilot wing is stripped back, and the pilot is a about half done. I hope to have the filling done this week, and hope to have the wheel pants and cowling finished and ready for paint by the end of the week.

Nylon nut for nose gear

07/06/2009 We started the wheel pants last year, but never finished, what with all of the punchlist work we had during the test flight period. But, if we're going to paint, they need to be done. Today we cut a vent above the brake rotor and built the NACA on the pilot side. We should bond the gear fairing to the pant tomorrow (I've decided to split it vertically just like the pants, and wrap the gearleg with rubber to avoid the typical paint-scraping vibration problem so common on fixed gear Velocitys). .

Copilot Wheel pant before finishing

Wheel pant vent

Wheel pant axle bolt pad

Wheel pant Naca

07/05/2009 Thanks a lot, Andy, I'm in love with "icing" because of you. Over the long weekend I used it everywhere. The engine NACA scoops seemed a little uneven, ice them. The door lips wanted their weave filled, ice them. The strakes have some sanding scratches, ice them. The speed brake door and opening want thier weave filled, ice them.

Speed brake fill

Speed brake opening fill

Filling engine NACAs

Filling lower strake

Filling upper strake

Filling door seals

06/30/2009 We've picked our blue, at least for this coat (we may go a different direction with the pro paint job later). I'll be picking up some Nason Blue Metallic (400-44) tonight for the belly of our fuselage, and maybe some winglet highlights (the rest is "snow white 471-44"). Our paint scheme features this sort of blue long term, and having a little color will make the Fox seem more finished for the (couple?) years she flys in temporary colors. I'm told that the metallic shouldn't be much harder to spray, except that we should go very light and plan on at least four coats. This is the only stock dark blue in the Nason line, and buying stock is cheaper, so it's a good fit. Also, spraying the bottom a different color makes the process easier since we don't have to pick it up, put it down, and try to keep a wet line.We might even get our mascot for the nose in vinyl.

Nason Metallic Blue (400-40)

"Victor Fox" Mascot

Our proposed paint scheme

06/28/2009 So we're finally putting material back ONTO the fuselage. It feels good to have finally made the turn. Here we're fitting and filling around the doors and nosecover. The doors should be done moving, having cured in the heat and sun all of last flying year, so I expect to get good mileage out of this finishing work. The doors are looking really nice.

Fitting doors

More filling around the doors

Fitting the Nose Cover

06/22/2009 Here's a quick picture of the fuselage sanding continuing. We're fixing some other odds and ends, like my door key lock froze up, so Bob replaced it this weekend, and I bonded the rudder conduit down more firmly, as I'd done it every foot or so, and we think it might have allowed too much slop. Also this weekend, we started preparing the NACA runners for an extension from the fuselage into the runners, because we were losing a screw from the pilot side last year, and it would bow down and cause high temps on those cylinders. Just some stuff that needs fixing before we prime.

Sanding the Fuselage

Tacking down rudder cable

Preparing the NACA runners

06/13/2009 So, here we are in the home stretch, the fuselage. I kind of dreading this, because everything comes together at the fuselage, and you have to gap it all so you can get paint in there without rubbing it off at the doors and other openings. But, there's nothing for it but to get to it. Oh, and there are a lot of nooks and crannys to sand, and a lot of working over your head or standing on ladders. Oh joy.

Door interior

Door exterior

06/01/2009 Here are the doors stripped down. I need to redo the lock on the pilot door, it's jambed up and not working properly. We'll probably hold painting them until the fuselage is good to go.

Door interior

Door exterior

05/31/2009 So, you get the idea at this point. This wing was in pretty good shape, but there were several "dimples" that needed filling (most of which actually got filled), and a couple of spots on the outboard end that needed some real (not a ton, but a fair amount of) fill. We filled it, and sanded it out, and then sprayed. I officially think we need to wet sand with 400 prior to spraying primer, because we again struggled with getting the primer layer smooth, and ended up respraying that layer. We're finally painted, though, and hopefully can sand it out this week and be completely done with the wings!

Pilot wing prep

Painted pilot wing Bottom

Painted pilot wing Top

05/06/2009 So, we sanded, filled, and re-primed the canard. That took a couple of days, but tonight we sprayed color finally. We'll see when it cures out, but it seems we're starting to get the hang of this. We hit it with a light tack coat, and then 1 full color coat, 1 final heavy coat, and then a light coating with double reducer to flow it out and shine it up. It looks good, really good in fact, with the exception of 1 run. Look for post-cure pictures

Painted Canard

04/26/2009 Today primed the canard. We spent most of last weekend getting the EIS wiring up to snuff, but it's not very photogenic. This week was sand and fill (and grinding off some canard-tip layups I did a *long* time ago before I knew better-they were as thick as battleship armor). So, today was the day, after a few quick fill-sand-fill-sand cycles with the body filler "Icing" (thanks Andy!- that stuff cures in 30 minutes!), we were ready to shoot. It looks good, some pinholes will get some more icing, but we're a few nights of sanding, repriming, and sanding from hitting it with color. Maybe next weekend we'll be ready to swap these two for the pilot side wing?

Sanding the Canard

Spraying the Canard

Primed Canard

04/06/2009 Today we built a "tilting frame" for the wing so we can paint basically on 45 degree inclines instead of directly up and down. It's basically an A frame with a tie-off point so we can stop the rotation. We also put a 1"x3" in the aileron well and rested it on a sawhorse. We had Mark Taylor from the chapter come over and help us with our first big color spray. It came out surprisingly well, more than good enough for our purposes. Once it cures we'll start stripping the canard and get her in paint!

Rolling frame tilted towards topside

Rolling frame tilted towards topside (other side)

Painted copilot wing

Buffed copilot wing

04/04/2009 Our top coat is Nason 2k Ful-thane, the factory recommended paint, in "snow white". Here are a couple of shots of the copilot aileron curing. Jerry is starting to get a feel for it now. By the time we get to paining his plane it should be old hat.

Painted Aileron (copilot) note the reflections, it's pretty glossy

Painted Aileron (copilot) top side

Painted Aileron (copilot) note the bucket of water balancing the weight so we can paint both sides at once

03/08/2009 Painting has begun in earnest. Here's a shot or two from building the paintbooth in the garage, and the first shots of us spraying the Nason 2k primer. Jerry was good enough to bring the copilot wing (repaired) and the canard over to our place where we had more room to erect the booth.

Building Paint Booth

Supply Blower

Priming the Aileron

Priming the top wing surface (copilot)

Priming the tipsail (copilot)

Priming the lower wing surface (copilot)