Daughter needs a new(er) car

[Olaf Hart]

12’ skiff on a mini...

[Charlie]

I'd think painting an airplane is easier/cheaper than painting a boat. No antifouling needed. Do you need fancy 2-part LP?

Unless there's some special lighter-than-air paint required.

I think painting planes is the worst.

A proper job starts with stripping ALL the old paint off. This must be done with chemical strippers as coarse sanding will destroy (button head) rivets and thin the skins. Abrasive blasting is impossible as the thin metal tends to "walk" or deform. Chemical stripping is a snap on old single part lacquers and enamels but more resent paint is likely to be 2-part. This stuff requires multiple applications of stripper and endless scraping and brushing around umpteen zillion rivet heads.

Once the paint has been removed, you now have to (somehow) clean all the stripper that has migrated in to the lapped sheet metal seams. I actually do not know how to do this effectively, only that very often it is not done properly. The result is the slow failure (bubbling) of the paint near seams.

Now that the paint is stripped and the stripper is COMPLETELY removed, the metal needs to be prepped for paint. Again, blasting (the absolute best prep for aluminum) is forbidden so chemical cleaning/etching is required (alumaprep/alodine). This must be done very thoroughly followed by immediate drying of the entire plane, followed by immediate application of a primer coat (before the aluminum oxidizes. (The EPA frowns upon Alodine being rinsed into nature so this step has to be done on the sly, or over a proper waste water catchment).

The actual painting is just like automobile finishing (spraying) except for the need to shoot the "bottom" of everything (spraying "up"), the goddamn rivets which tend to cause runs, and the near universal use of multiple colors.

Oh ya, I forgot to mention that to do a truly premium job, numerous parts should be removed, stripped, prepped, and painted separately: Doors, wing tips, tail cone, ailerons, flaps, elevators, rudders, trim tabs, gear doors, antennas, lights, engine cowlings, spinners, wheel pants, many fairings, and dozens of access/inspection covers. In addition to being very time consuming, this is problematic if stripes or color transitions occur on a removed part. If you have gone to the trouble of doing all that you might as well pull all the Plexiglas, rubber seals and chafe guard stripping, and replace

Steve

Steve,

Thanks for the detailed education. Like all painting, the real work is in the prep. For airplanes even more so.

[Tim Ford]

18'6" tandem sea kayak on a diesel VW Golf, 3 days in Montreal, the out the Gaspé Peninsula to Percé and back down through Maine for some time in Deer Isle. God I miss doing things like that, how did the wife and I find the time?

oh yeah...pre-kids

[Panope]

Steve,

Thanks for the detailed education. Like all painting, the real work is in the prep. For airplanes even more so.

No problem, Charlie.

I forgot to mention one other factor about airplanes: They are deceptively large with perhaps 3 or 4 times as much surface area as a comparable automobile

Let's Look at the ubiquitous, 2 seat Cessna 150:

(Rough numbers)
Wingspan - 33.5' X Wing cord 4.7' = 157 square feet X 2 (top and bottom) = 314 square feet.
Tailspan - 10' X Tail cord 3 = 30 square feet X 2 = 60 square feet.
Vertical tail height - 5' X cord 3 = 15 square feet X 2 = 30 square feet.
Fuselage length 20' X circumference 7 = 140 square feet.

Total 544 square feet.

Now lest look at a compact car:

For simplicity, we will pretend there is no glass. Just a simple rectangular box 14' X 5.5' X 2'

Adding up the top, ends, and sides, I get 155 square feet or 28% of the Cessna's painted surface area.

Steve

[Tucky]

Submitted with out comment-

onroof.jpg

http://turtleislands.net/tmc/

[Panope]

[Ish]

So did you manage to get the truck off the ground once it was all assembled?

[BeauV]

Ish, that's the Ford Landing Gear Option.

[Panope]

So did you manage to get the truck off the ground once it was all assembled?

No such luck. Trees and telephone poles kept trimming the wings.

[Ish]

So did you manage to get the truck off the ground once it was all assembled?

No such luck. Trees and telephone poles kept trimming the wings.

Probably should have waited until you got to the airport to put the wings on. Or at least reasonably clear prairie.

[Ish]

Ish, that's the Ford Landing Gear Option.

Looks like the plane has the Chrysler paint option.

[floating dutchman]

Ish, that's the Ford Landing Gear Option.

Excuse my ignorance, But.
If you were going to land a plane in a Ford, wouldn't you just put floats on it?

[Panope]

Ish, that's the Ford Landing Gear Option.

Looks like the plane has the Chrysler paint option.

Nope, that is a ford paint scheme

[Ish]

Ish, that's the Ford Landing Gear Option.

Looks like the plane has the Chrysler paint option.

Nope, that is a ford paint scheme

I was talking about the fading and flaking aspect of the paint job. I don't know how Chrysler managed to have the worst paint quality for so many years running.

[Tim Ford]

Ish, that's the Ford Landing Gear Option.

Looks like the plane has the Chrysler paint option.

I thought you meant the colors.

Cries Ler OB.jpg

[Ish]

Ish, that's the Ford Landing Gear Option.

Looks like the plane has the Chrysler paint option.

I thought you meant the colors.

Cries Ler OB.jpg

I hated that era. Leisure suits and weirdly coloured appliances and uncomfortable furniture.

[Panope]

.......and bell-bottomed jeans always getting caught in my bicycle chain.

[BeauV]

.......and bell-bottomed jeans always getting caught in my bicycle chain.

Well, yes, but......

The ladies looked awfully nice in some of the cloths from that era:

[Tim Ford]

Heavy Star Trek infuence in that top photo...nowadays it's more like:

check yours.jpg

[BeauV]

Heavy Star Trek infuence in that top photo...nowadays it's more like:

check yours.jpg

ROTFLMAO!!!!

[derekb]

Steve,

It was not that hard to paint my plane, I flew the plane to Pane Field at the Start of December and returned about 6 weeks later and it was all done!

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[BeauV]

There is something just CRAZY about a device that you have to disassemble just to paint it!

(Having said that, I have to take the fenders off and remove the doors to paint the Morgan.)

[Audrey]

So did she get a new car yet?

[Tim Ford]

Yah, great deal on a corporate trade-in with only 7k on it, Nissan Rogue with all the bells and whistles, like brand new -- deeply, deeply discounted.

Not wild about the CVT (as you mentioned) but she's happy and she isn't in a 14 year old Jetta with 120+ K on it (in defense of the VW, it never failed to get her home safely over 10s of thousands of miles in the wilds of St Marys County and elsewhere)

Wife sleeps easier, too!

[Rob McAlpine]

We went through the same thing recently, but my daughter created her own solution: she borrowed her mother's 2 year old Acura MDX and simply refused to return it, forcing me to buy Beth a new one.

[LarryHoward]

We went through the same thing recently, but my daughter created her own solution: she borrowed her mother's 2 year old Acura MDX and simply refused to return it, forcing me to buy Beth a new one.

I solved that issue by having older and more boring cars than my kids want to be seen in. My car and Lynne’s minivan get borrowed for hauling duties only. Chris does occasionally take the S2000 for a run but is lusting after and looking for a used 911 that fits both his expectations and his budget, a narrow solution set.

I figure with 170k miles, my Lexus is only good for another 4-5 years before I have to donate it to a charity and buy another car.

[Tim Ford]

We went through the same thing recently, but my daughter created her own solution: she borrowed her mother's 2 year old Acura MDX and simply refused to return it, forcing me to buy Beth a new one.

HAH! that's hilarious. Beth is nice person...my wife would have pressed charges!

[BeauV]

We went through the same thing recently, but my daughter created her own solution: she borrowed her mother's 2 year old Acura MDX and simply refused to return it, forcing me to buy Beth a new one.

I like that girl. Great strategy - grand theft from Mom.

[Rob McAlpine]

That's the same girl who, looking at a photo of me, Larry, Orestes and Tim racing to Bermuda asked "So these races are like make-a-wish for old guys?"

She needs to be in a good car, to keep her keen sense of observation safe.

[kdh]

That's the same girl who, looking at a photo of me, Larry, Orestes and Tim racing to Bermuda asked "So these races are like make-a-wish for old guys?"

That's funny, but brutal. Ah, youth. If only it really did last forever.