Mike Hi!
>
> For those that have recently finished their aircraft painting......what did
> you do about the gel coat that covers the wings and fuselage? Sand it off?
> Roughen it only?
My painting is now complete and the following actions concerned Gel-coat.
I had originally applied Polyfiber Super prime to Wings and Fuselage after
sanding back Gel coat to flat/roughened condition. When the same parts
arrived at Paint Shop (Composite Aircraft/Glider Repair and Paint Company)
they were processed again with most of the Super prime and gel-coat being
removed prior to the primer they use. Everything was primed and flattened
back and then painted on 2 pack Acrylic, in fact BMW base white. This makes
matching in at any point later much easier it seems.
The bottom half of Fuselage was painted 'flat' Silver in exactly the same
way but lacquered in some way to ensure consistency of 'silver'.
All this done with the Europa held on a 'spit' and turned as required!
The reason to attack gel-coat was to get a good paint 'key' and also to
remove any residue from original gel-coat process.
Interestingly enough the guy who owns and worked on Aircraft has more than
20 years experience of composite products and prefers that owners of Kit
built Aircraft just send them as completed without any action around
preparing for painting. His point being that he cannot rely on the process
or sometimes the products used. Saying that.... He has one or two Europa's
that were prepared in Super prime and other processes and have turned out
well over past 5 years and endured.
I filled and primed all my Control surfaces and they were processed at this
same Company and turned out very well. They were completed 4 years ago and
stored and I've seen no problems other than me dropping Tailplane and
creating a very unpleasant 'ding'. No repaired!
I'm pleased with the finish of mine. Others may judge otherwise.
I have fitted the shoulder width Mod that entails cutting out and gluing in
a replacement interior bottom Panel to each Door. I was made to sand back
the Doors skins until NO trace of sheen from Gel coat was present. The 2
interior skins took a full day to get to that condition and will be painted
using an epoxy coating/paint as used in Grob Aircraft. It comes as a two
pack and will be 'rolled' on. Extremely hard finish. The whole interior was
sanded and finished in this way too even though it will have full interior
fitment.
Hope that makes sense.
Regarding Europa supply chain.
If you haven't done so E-mail Ray Bedford at Europa: ray@europa-aircraft.com
He has always sorted things out for me. If necessary ask where it comes from
or what it is and try another Supplier in US.
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