Painting a plane

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flyingsixofus

Filing Flight Plan
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Flying Six of us
Why not have a plane "wrapped" instead of full paint job?
 
Weight, complexity, etc


Local heli operator did it for a radio station contest though
 
I'm pretty sure the "Let's Fly" AOPA sweepstakes Cirrus was wrapped.
 
flyingsixofus said:
Why not have a plane "wrapped" instead of full paint job?
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Well, depends exactly what you mean.

Last paint job my club did, we got a paint shop to strip and then paint the whole thing plain, glossy white and then had Air Graphics create and apply the swoopy stripe-y stuff to the fuselage and tail. Looked pretty darn good, and cheaper than having the paint shop do everything. You also gain some flexibility, you can change the graphics pretty easily if the paint's still in good shape for about 1/10th of the cost of doing a new paint job.
 
Kiddo's Driver said:
Last time I heard all of the Bristells coming into the US were white. Once assembled here in the states they have decals applied.

Jim
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Many planes are done this way.

I watched a white Cirrus have a wrap and decals put on at the EAA hangar at OSH last year. The guys doing the work were kind enough to let me watch, and even help a little!
 
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Like this?
DUCTTAPE2.jpg
 
Great question! Can the wrap stick to old paint or aluminum? My very uneducated guess is you'd have to put a slick paint on it first to have something to apply the wrap too. But again I have no idea. It is an interesting thought though.
 
I'd do a wrap for anything temporary, but my concern would be spotting things like smoking rivets or minor corrosion before they became big issues. These present well through paint, but I can imagine they would show as readily under a wrap.
 
AdamZ said:
Great question! Can the wrap stick to old paint or aluminum? My very uneducated guess is you'd have to put a slick paint on it first to have something to apply the wrap too. But again I have no idea. It is an interesting thought though.
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Paint actually can't be too new or the wrap will bubble as the paint finishes its curing.
 
No way. The Free Bird has vinyl stripes. Paint gets a chip or scratch, you paint over or fill in. Vinyl gets a chip, good luck. No way would I cover an aircraft with that stuff.
 
I don't think I would wrap the entire plane either, but certainly paint with a base color, then use vinyl for everything else.
 
Vinyl has a greater weight and it hides corrosion developing under it.

Boeing has gone back to painting using stencils.
 
The advantage to to wrap is you can change designs easily and frequently if you want. The disadvantage to wrap is that you have to replace it comparatively frequently to allow for inspection. Personally I don't see how an aluminum plane can pass an annual inspection with wrap on it unless it was clear but it seems to happen.:dunno:
 
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