Airplane Paniting 101
 

k, i'm learning this as i go along but for the last 2 weeks i've been sanding a cessna 172 getting it ready to paint which should be done today. lemmetellya it is arduous work. what really sucks is sanding under the wings, holding the sander above your head in 100 degree heat. we are almost finished and i can't wait! i now know and understand why it costs so much to do this type of work. we're pretty much half-assing it though due to rental time constraints. still though, it'll look a lot better than it did. more pics tonight.....sory the pics are a little big but i don't have a resizer at the moment....

primed and ready for the new coat:

Somewhere in my head is a story of a Beechcraft Bonanza that was painted "wrong" and then failed to generate enough lift and crashed?

It's right there behind the Mayo

Cool pics. I always use IrfanView. Here's a link from cnet download.com (a trusted source) http://download.cnet.com/IrfanView/3...-10021962.html

I understand about being in the heat holding your arms above your head for extended periods, i.e. in a framed-out house standing on a ladder soldering up the 2nd floor plumbing.

not sure about that. you do have to adjust the weight & balance calculations though. that guy's plane probably was re-rigged wrong (cables to the ailerons were probably reversed or possible static port &/or pitot tube blockage......sucks for him tho. hope he wasn't late for dinner....

Yeah, hard to swallow that story. Adding enough paint to overload or change the aerodynamics of that plane would be neigh impossible. And if they painted the flap hinges enough to render them inoperable, they'd discover that before leaving the ground.

more...

i'm trying to resize, bear with me...

That Werked

Much more gooder.:thumb:

k, fingered out resizing....
obviously we finished painting today and for the most part she looks good. there are a bunch of touch up areas that need to get done but in reality they probably wont. it's a trainer - they get used and abused....anyway the last thing is to put the "N" number on the plane and when i left the office my boss was trying to figure out the plotter/cutter we have to cut the registration numbers to stick on the plane...
(oh, and thanks flint for the link!)

almost the last. i will take pics with the "N" number on there tomorrow.

Red ASS Air lines !!

hey at least i have a job! doesn't pay worth a crap but i get airtime for my labor!

I was thinking this thread would be this sort of thing. Can you do this to the cessna?

Nice job! It looks much better.

I guess you wouldn't want to fill all those low spots on the wings with heavy bondo, would you?

i'm not that artistic! that would be cool though!

actually there is bondo on the empanage and the top of the wings from hail damage. you just can't cake the stuff on, er, it wouldn't be smart to do that.

thankya sir!:D

Well done, fair skys bro.

well there she goes. she's flying right now.....

well it's been a pretty productive day. the guys came and picked up the 172 and also a 152. the BPA (Black Pilots Association) is renting them for 2 weeks for a flying acadamy type deal to introduce kids to the joys of flying and possible career choices. pretty good deal. then after they left we fixed a cowl latch on one of our tomahawks, changed a battery on our warrior and fixed the idle adjustment on our arrow. actually it's been a real tiring albeit productive week. not only did we get the 172 painted but friday i had to trouble shoot the 152's tail beacon light. took half the day to troubleshoot and find the problem which was a bad flasher (aka power supply) in the tail of the aircraft. it takes the 24/28 volts from the aircrafts' electrical system and jumps it to umpteen million volts for the beacon light. anyway i had to scavenge one out of a 152 that's not airworthy right now but all said and done it is fixed. what a week. i deserve a beer.

thankyasir!

And all in a Texas July. :sweat:

Damn right. :beer:

I bet you had more fun than at my place. All we did was build barn doors for my garage, cleaned the yard, had A/C installed, repaired all the damage the electrician did when he lit up the house ground, replaced the wall a/c he blew up, the deep freezer he blew up, the cable box he blew up, the newly bad TV isn't fixed, may never be and drank several cases of beer, ate a few dozen franks, burgers and steaks plus trimmings and etc.

It was HOT that week!

yikes! yeah, i'd rather tinker on planes!

the electrician lit up your ground?!?!:eek: what a moron! he's paying for your replacements right?

yep, plus installation and/or replacement and a discount on wiring my garage.