Last Modified December 17th  2001

June 2000, Like a Pig in Clover!

1st June I was going to speckle paint the inside of the roof today. That was until I did my blind finger check to see if there were any places that needed attention. As well as being an excellent method of collecting fiber glass splinters, rubbing your hands over the part you are about to paint shows up a lot of things that the eye won't see. In this case it turned out to be a rather large undercut lip where the back of the door moulding meets the fuselage. Out with the supa fil again.

2nd June Prepared the workshop for a top coat painting session. This mainly consisted oflaying down metres of plastic sheet to keep the dust hazard down.

3rd June No building. Dismantled a bathroom instead :-(

4th June Applied two top coats of paint along the underside of the aircraft.

5th June No building

6th June Sanded back some of the filler inside the aircraft. Admired my top coat work.

7th June -  9th June No building, working in Bangkok.

10th June Now the top coat fun begins. Taking a palm sander and 800 grit paper in hand I started sanding back the top coat until it was smooth. I wish I had bought a palm sander a long time ago as it also does a wonderful job of sanding back filler.

11th June Continued.. and finished sanding back the top coat. next phase is to apply two top coats to the port side of the aircraft and then, once that is sanded back, apply a top coat to the side and bottom of the aircraft.

12th - 16th June No building, too much work. :-(

17^th June Applied two top coats of paint to the port side of the aircraft.

One of my goals with this aircraft was to do as much of the work myself. Many builder’s logs have entries of “sent the plane away for painting”. To me an entry like this was not going to be acceptable - I am building it, I am going to paint it.

The challenge here though was the fact that I have never painted an aircraft before and I have never touched a paint sprayer. Having read a lot about spray painting I came to the conclusion that trying to spray paint the plane in the half garage that I have was not going to be practical and would probably end up with Carol’s car having a fine white finish over the siler paint. I had to come up with an alternative method. With the help of Poly Fiber’s book  “Flight Gloss, A Better Composite Finish” and a willingness to experiment I present….

Achieving the Composite Finish of your Dreams or, 

How to Finish and  Paint Your Composite Aircraft With a Roller

  You will need….

• Poly Fiber SuperFil Composite Filler

• Poly Fiber UV Smooth Prime

• Poly Fiber Top Gloss

• A palm sander (oscillating finish sander)

• Sand Paper in the following grits, 80, 120, 240 or 320, 600, 800,1200, 1500, 2000

• Closed foam rollers (these are white and very fine, do not use regular foam rollers)

• Tack Cloths

• Poly Fiber Alkaline Cleaner

• Poly Fiber Prep Wipe

• Paint Filters

• 3M Medium Cut polishing compound

• 3M Fine Cut polishing compound

• 3M Swirl Mark Remover

• A Power Polisher

• Carnauba Wax

Stage One – Filling

Follow the instructions in the Poly Fiber book for filling. The idea here is to achieve a smooth paintable finish. Remember, paint will not cover up bad shapes so the filled area needs to be as smooth as you want the finished aircraft to be. Use 80 grit paper to knock back any rough bits then progress onto 120 grit as soon as practical. You can reapply Supa Fil as many times as you like so if you missed a bit or haven’t quite achieved the shape that you want then mix up some more filler and fill the surface again. I primarily used 3M’s vacuum sanding splines for the sanding at this stage as it keeps the dust down in the workshop and does much towards domestic harmony though for quick work on the control surfaces I used the palm sander. Permagrit sanding splines also work wonders here but keep a vacuum cleaner handy to remove the dust. Always wear a face mask when sanding and gloves when mixing and applying filler, primer and paint.

  Stage Two – Priming

Wash the entire surface down with Alkaline cleaner, flush with water and then wipe over with Prep Wipe, using a kitchen tissue to remove any residue. Mix up a batch of unthinned UV Smooth Prime and roller it onto the surface. Leave it to dry overnight. Get out a good torch or floodlight and look along the surface. Any imperfections in your filling will now stand out dramatically. Get out the SuperFil and repeat the filling stage if required. Now that you are really sure that the surface is ready for priming, lightly sand the entire surface with 600 grit paper then vacuum off the dust.

Roll on two coats of unthinned UV Smooth Prime with an interval of two hours between the coats. Wait another two hours and apply another coat, this time thinned with 5% distilled water. Leave to dry overnight. Dig out your 240 or 320 grit sandpaper and sand the surface until you have a smooth finish. If you are very careful you can dig out the palm sander to help with this job. Adding 5% water to the final coat makes the primer sanding much easier, you should be able to sand back an entire Europa fuselage in around three hours using this technique. A lamp shone across the surface will help you identify the areas needing more attention.

Got it looking good? Great. Roll on another three coats of UV Smooth Prime at two hourly intervals, once again thinning the final coat with 5% water. Leave it for another 24 hours then it’s sanding time again – use your 240 or 320 grit paper to achieve a nice smooth finish then use the palm sander with 600 grit to ensure that you have all the speckles removed. Once again, a strong light shone across the surface will help here. By the time you have finished you’ll have a primer coat that is about the same thickness as two sprayed coats of other primers – and yours will be a UV barrier.

Vacuum the dust away and flush the entire surface with water. You now have ten minutes to observe how good the finished aircraft will look as the water creates a gloss finish over the surface. Bring your partner, children and cats into the workshop to admire your work.

  Stage Three – Painting

Vacuum the workshop and cover as much as you can with plastic sheeting. You want to keep the dust off the aircraft as much as possible but you don’t have to go overboard. Put plastic sheeting down on the floor around the part that you are painting. This keeps the floor clear of paint splatters and also keep the amount of dust down. If it is winter then dig out a couple of heaters so that you can keep the workshop warm during the painting stage but don't overdo the heating, you want to give the paint time to flow before it dries. Give yourself a clear day for the painting job as you are going to be applying two coats of paint at a minimum of six hours between coats.

Vacuum the aircraft then wash it down with alkaline cleaner, rinse with water then wipe over with Prep Wipe, removing the excess with a dry tissue. Wipe over the entire surface with a tack cloth to remove any specks of dust that remain. Wear a Tyvek painting suit or similar while painting to prevent dust from your clothes getting onto the surface. You’ll also need good light levels while you are painting.

Half an hour before the first coat is to be applied mix up the paint, apply the catalyst and strain it into your paint tray. Go and have a coffee.

Painting time. Wet out the roller with paint and roll it onto the surface. The idea here is to apply as much as practical without letting it drip. Don’t worry about the myriad of little bubbles that will appear at this stage, just concentrate on getting an area of about one to two square metres covered without any drips. Once this area is covered go back to the first bit that you rollered and, without refilling the roller, go over the surface again without any pressure being applied to the roller. Watch those little bubbles disappear before your eyes. The surface will now appear to have a satin finish but still won’t be smooth. Don’t worry, this is what you are trying to achieve as the paint will self level as it dries. Go onto the next area and repeat the process. Come back to the previously covered blocks from time to time to check for any drips. You will find that drips will occur on the lower side of any protuberance or indent (like inspection plates). Just keep rollering these out until they no longer occur. If you can’t get rid of them with rollering then leave them until later and sand them away.

  If you have any really awkward spots that you can’t get to with the roller then simply apply some paint with a paint brush and get it as smooth as practical, the next stage will fix up any imperfections. Watch out for paint building up on the lower edge of the inspection plate rims - remove any excess with a tissue before it drips over the edge.  To handle the tricky bits around door frames and the like, simply make yourself a 1” wide roller by cutting back a standard width one.

Leave the workshop for at least six hours between coats. Do not wait more than 24 hours between coats. Pot life of Top Gloss is eight hours after which it has to be dumped. If you plan it right, the initial batch can do the first two coats.

You don’t have to be a perfectionist with the painting, all you need to achieve is a reasonable job as it is the next two stages that create the sparkle. Leave the plane to dry  for at least a week before going onto the next stage. The plane will look good from about six feet away but close up the surface will look quite bumpy, do not despair.

Stage Four – Colour Sanding

In this stage you will remove all of those  bumps,  you will probably also have a few areas that aren’t quite perfect or have a few drips that you missed. This is where Top Gloss really beats other paint finishes as these imperfections are very easy to remove. Sand back the surface initially with 600 grit wet-and-dry paper and then move onto 800 grit. A small amount of water will help the sanding process.  Get the surface as smooth as practical during this stage. be careful not to oversand and go through the top coat otherwise you'll have to mix up another batch and touch up those areas with the roller.

  Stage Five – Top Coat

Mix up the top coat of paint and roller it on. Leave it for a week to dry.

  Stage Six – Finish Sanding

Go over the entire aircraft with 1200 grit wet-and-dry using your palm sander. Once the surface looks even then repeat the sanding process with 1500 grit and then again with 2000 grit. The last paper won’t even feel like it is doing anything but what it is doing is to smooth the surface out for the application of polish. You can skip the next step if you want a satin look to your aircraft.

Stage Seven – Polishing

Polishing is where the real shine comes from. Follow the instructions in the last chapter of Poly Fiber’s book to achieve as much gloss as you want.

  Stage Eight– Waxing

Apply a good quality Carnauba based car wax to the entire surface. Do not use any silicone based products on the aircraft as these are almost impossible to remove if you need to repaint – and with this finishing system you can touch up imperfections yourself.

  Catalyst Requirements for Smooth Prime and Gloss Coat  

[Addendum December 2001. Polyfiber have modified their specifications for Top Gloss. All coats now use the same amount of catalyst as shown for the Final Coat]

18^th June Sanded back the filler I had applied around the ridges in the baggage bay and then applied a coat of flat grey primer followed by a coat of speckle paint. I still needed to touch up the speckle coat when this photo was taken. I have had a few queries regarding the speckle coat system that I am using. For the record I am using PlastiKote Fleck Stone spray paint with external clear gloss for my finish.

In the afternoon I dug out my newly acquired palm sander and sanded back the filler on both stabilators, both ailerons and the one trim tab that I had filled to date. All of these need a bit more filling before I prime them. I fhished off the day by vacuuming the garage as the sanding covered everying with a fine patina of dust.  

June 19th - 21st No building, decorating :-(

June 22nd No building, but I have an excuse... took ZK-UBD, the first NZ Registered Europa into the air. A separate flying section is now online at this website, visit www.kaon.co.nz/europa/flying.html.

June 23rd No building, decorating :-(

June 24th - 30th No building, on holiday in Europe.