Given the reponses I’ve had about painting, I thought a few pics of some current jobs wouldn’t go amiss, so here are a few. One’s for an X-cell 46 and the other’s for a Futura SE. Both took approximately 3 hours work from opening the box to fitting.
Both are fibre-glass items which were initially given a good “Scotching” (and that doesn’t mean they were sprayed by someone pissed up either) to remove any trace of gloss, release agent of any other crap that would affect the finished product. “Scotching” is simply the use of a “Scotch-Brite” pad (similar to a pan scourer for those of you with an intimate knowledge of washing up) which is rubbed vigorously over every square millimetre of the canopy, and to leave out this vital part of the prepping process is to guarantee the paint won’t stick as well as it could.
After the Scotching comes any pin hole filling, but on these two canopies, the gods must’ve been smiling down on me, because there wasn’t a single one, so I could move swiftly onto the next part. The final prep.
This is basically to make sure nothing is stuck to the canopy immediately prior to blasting the paint on, so out came the clean cloths for a wipe down with “Panel Wipe” as described in my previous blatherings, This was followed by a wipe with the “Tack” rag. No grease, no flecks of dirt, no high spots, no NOTHING to spoil my day.
A slight damping down of the booth to stop any errant dust bugs flying around and landing on the etch primer. I use a zinc chromate based etch primer, because it REALLY grips the fibre-glass which, when you realise there’s an element of acid in the primer which eats into the surface, should come as no surpriseJ
Now primer doesn’t need to be sprayed on thickly, particularly if you’ve got a good surface before you start painting, so if you’re about to embark on a spraying safari, keep this thought in mind: primer is HEAVY paint.
2 light coats followed by a quick “nibbing” with 1200grit wet and dry. (Nibbing is removing any small airborne particles that found their way onto the job despite all your best effort) This will leave you with a beautiful surface just ripe for a masterpiece.
Choose your colour, and shoot. I chose to use yellow on both these canopies for two reasons. One is yellow is VERY easy to see in the air, and the other is yellow was in the first tin I opened.
I did KNOW it was yellow before I opened the tin though, just so you knowJ
Then I left them to dry overnight and the next day. I could’ve “baked” them, but I prefer to air dry fibre-glass to keep any possible distortion to a minimum, and sitting for an hour in an oven at 40degree C can twist even the best of canopies.
After all this whole hours worth of actual “work”, it was time to decide what scheme was going on which canopy. That’s the hard part, but after the hard part, comes the easy part which is the spraying itself. I use water soluble acrylics which come in solid colours, translucents or pearls, all of which get chucked on my canopies. These are great paints (made by Badger) and come ready to use and they’re non toxic too, so you don’t need any special equipment or spraying area. They make a pigs ear of the TV if you spray while you view though, so you’ve been warned. Don’t be a lounge sprayer J
After the scheme has been applied, it’s back into the spray booth for the clear lacquer. Necessary because it’s the lacquer that gives the gloss AND the fuel proofing, so don’t skimp on it. In the past, I’ve even taken canopies to a local body shop and asked if they’ll shoot the lacquer on for me, the next time they clear coat a job. It only takes them a few seconds and I was never refused, but don’t expect them to do any masking or prep work for you if you decide to give it a try. Give it to them FULLY prepped for lacquering. They’ll panel wipe and tack it off for you though, so that bit isn’t a concern.
Of course, spraying the lacquer on yourself isn’t impossible if you follow the obvious directions. Keep things clean, damp down your spray area SLIGHTLY (too damp and the paint IS affected), wear a PROPER air-fed mask and not just a dust mask and don’t sit in the “booth” for any longer than it takes to spray each coat. Isocyanate based lacquers are not to be breathed! A cheap airbrush or a cheap touch-up type of spray gun is all that’s needed in terms of equipment. And of course a compressorJ
Now if you’ve got unfeasibly large testicles, you’ll be glad, because after the lacquer has dried, you’re faced with two options. To sand or not to sand. If the booth is a good clean one, you could get lucky and have a canopy in your hands that’s shining brightly without a single speck of dust embedded in the shine. If you’re NOT that lucky, then the need to sand is greater, so that’s what you do. Well that’s simply. You sand off the shine (and with it the specks of cack) using progressively higher grades of sand paper (wet and dry, used wet), then polish the shine back with either your hands or a buffing machine.
I prefer the machine method myself, for two reasons. It’s quick and it’s easy. Of course you need ACCESS to a buffer is you want to use the machine method, but if you haven’t, it’s still possible to get a glass like finish using a good buffing compound, a lot of clean soft cloths and a even more elbow grease. (effort)
When you’ve done with the polishing, you’ll be looking at a canopy similar too (but obviously not as good as) mine J
Now it’s time to fit it to a helicopter and use it to dig a shiny hole in the groundJ
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