Temp Paint

davidm767

davidm767

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Jun 18, 2012
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Aventura, FL
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Davidm767
Okay...Risk of creating backlash.

I do not have the funds to get a full repaint of my aircraft (or partial) as I just bought it and plowed lots of money on the necessary need to be addressed first squawks (avionics and magnetos).

I have a line (literally looks like someone taped a nice pretty masking line across the horizontal stab (both sides, equal distance). Needless to say there is bare metal where the assumed tape had been.

With me being on the florida coast, and hangar space costing as much as mortgages (literally). What type of "temp" paint can I use to at least make it to the paint job (sometime late 2013/early 2014)? Any aerosol varieties? or should I just use constant coats of wax?

I actually have horizontal stab covers for the aircraft (lucky me) to at least keep the rain and dew (aka salt fog) off the bare metal.

Suggestions, other than the obvious pro paint job?
 
90% of a paint job is the prep work.

I've used rattle cans quite a few times where people thought it was painted professionally.

Owners are permitted to do cosmetic work like refinishing paint, except for control surfaces that must be balanced by a certified mechanic.
 
davidm767 said:
Okay...Risk of creating backlash.

I do not have the funds to get a full repaint of my aircraft (or partial) as I just bought it and plowed lots of money on the necessary need to be addressed first squawks (avionics and magnetos).

I have a line (literally looks like someone taped a nice pretty masking line across the horizontal stab (both sides, equal distance). Needless to say there is bare metal where the assumed tape had been.

With me being on the florida coast, and hangar space costing as much as mortgages (literally). What type of "temp" paint can I use to at least make it to the paint job (sometime late 2013/early 2014)? Any aerosol varieties? or should I just use constant coats of wax?

I actually have horizontal stab covers for the aircraft (lucky me) to at least keep the rain and dew (aka salt fog) off the bare metal.

Suggestions, other than the obvious pro paint job?
Click to expand...

There is no FAR rule that dictates what paint you must use.

use anything you choose.
 
davidm767 said:
Okay...Risk of creating backlash.

I do not have the funds to get a full repaint of my aircraft (or partial) as I just bought it and plowed lots of money on the necessary need to be addressed first squawks (avionics and magnetos).

I have a line (literally looks like someone taped a nice pretty masking line across the horizontal stab (both sides, equal distance). Needless to say there is bare metal where the assumed tape had been.

With me being on the florida coast, and hangar space costing as much as mortgages (literally). What type of "temp" paint can I use to at least make it to the paint job (sometime late 2013/early 2014)? Any aerosol varieties? or should I just use constant coats of wax?

I actually have horizontal stab covers for the aircraft (lucky me) to at least keep the rain and dew (aka salt fog) off the bare metal.

Suggestions, other than the obvious pro paint job?
Click to expand...

find a auto paint supply talk to them. doesn't need be expensive.
 
Tom-D said:
Show me that reference
Click to expand...

Okay, I'm thinking Bonanza ruddervators. Maybe it is legal for a non-mechanic to paint them, but they cannot be returned to service without being re-balanced, which is not an approved owner-accomplished maintenance item.
 
Non Compos Mentis said:
Okay, I'm thinking Bonanza ruddervators. Maybe it is legal for a non-mechanic to paint them, but they cannot be returned to service without being re-balanced, which is not an approved owner-accomplished maintenance item.
Click to expand...

Control surfaces on piston engines don't generally need to be rebalanced after painting that I'm aware of. I've painted several planes in professional shops and no one ever balanced them when they were done. Jets for sure due to speed, but not normally piston engine stuff.

I'm not saying it isn't a bad idea, but I don't think it is a requirement. Paint it and go.
 
Non Compos Mentis said:
Okay, I'm thinking Bonanza ruddervators. Maybe it is legal for a non-mechanic to paint them, but they cannot be returned to service without being re-balanced, which is not an approved owner-accomplished maintenance item.
Click to expand...

That is a great reference, as far as return to service is concerned.

I believe that Beech has a repair manual that is the controlling data that requires re-balance after repair, but painting? I'm not sure.
 
So say one has a $50k airplane stored outside near Baltimore with 3/10 paint, and it will take three years to accumulate the $8k for a proper strip and paint (or, perhaps, get rid of the plane in an upgrade process). Is it worth the effort to sand and spray the several 3 to 6 square inch areas that the aluminum is starting to show through?
 
catmandu said:
So say one has a $50k airplane stored outside near Baltimore with 3/10 paint, and it will take three years to accumulate the $8k for a proper strip and paint (or, perhaps, get rid of the plane in an upgrade process). Is it worth the effort to sand and spray the several 3 to 6 square inch areas that the aluminum is starting to show through?
Click to expand...

Sanding bare aluminumn would be a good way to convert your $50k airplane to scrap.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Sanding bare aluminumn would be a good way to convert your $50k airplane to scrap.
Click to expand...

I've been told that too, I'll likely clean, stool wool buff, clean..then spray with a good white spray paint to match and make it at least until the paint job.

I've read (cant specifically cite off the top of my head) that the Grumman Tiger MX Manual requires re balance (requires removal to balance per manual...ergo A&P territory) after paint as well. My area is about 8-12 inches in front of the elevator, so no big deal there.
 
Dave Wortofsky could usually be found on a nice day out with a couple of cans of green krylon touching up his 337. I hear he's finally had it professionally repainted.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Sanding bare aluminumn would be a good way to convert your $50k airplane to scrap.
Click to expand...

Thank you, Capt. Obvious to Extremes. :rolleyes:

What the fighter meant to say was "properly prepare the bare aluminum surface and surrounding area, and then paint said small area."

My interrogative was mostly to see if even that much of an effort was a waste of effort and resources, the historical actions of the FRZ Czar notwithstanding.
 
davidm767 said:
I've been told that too, I'll likely clean, stool wool buff, clean..then spray with a good white spray paint to match and make it at least until the paint job.

I've read (cant specifically cite off the top of my head) that the Grumman Tiger MX Manual requires re balance (requires removal to balance per manual...ergo A&P territory) after paint as well. My area is about 8-12 inches in front of the elevator, so no big deal there.
Click to expand...

Service manual sez: "After repair or repainting of any control surface, it is necessary to check the balance and adjust the mass balanced weight as required to bring it in tolerance as follows: (Table of tolerances for each surface follows)"

BTW, if your paint job is a Grumman original, the white cross-references to GM Code 12 / WA5111 / "Corporate White". Dupli-Color's GM-387 touch up paint from Autozone works fine.
 
Don't steel wool it either.

simply keep the area clean, you will be OK.
 
catmandu said:
So say one has a $50k airplane stored outside near Baltimore with 3/10 paint, and it will take three years to accumulate the $8k for a proper strip and paint (or, perhaps, get rid of the plane in an upgrade process). Is it worth the effort to sand and spray the several 3 to 6 square inch areas that the aluminum is starting to show through?
Click to expand...

you can remove it with chemicals or baking soda blasting with a few hundred dollars equipment from harbor freight.
 
Non Compos Mentis said:
Owners are permitted to do cosmetic work like refinishing paint, except for control surfaces that must be balanced by a certified mechanic.
Click to expand...

Part 43, Appendix A:
Refinishing decorative coating of fuselage, balloon baskets, wings tail group surfaces (excluding balanced control surfaces), fairings, cowlings, landing gear, cabin, or cockpit interior when removal or disassembly of any primary structure or operating system is not required.
-----------------------------------------------------------

The descriptor is not "control surfaces", it's "balanced control surfaces".

It seems to me that means that if a control surface is balanced, then it has to be returned to service by a mechanic. It doesn't say that control surfaces have to be balanced, but that "balanced control surfaces" are outside the scope.
If the control surface is not balanced, then the owner can do it.
 
Which is why I originally said:

"...control surfaces that must be balanced....."
 
PilotAlan said:
Part 43, Appendix A:
Refinishing decorative coating of fuselage, balloon baskets, wings tail group surfaces (excluding balanced control surfaces), fairings, cowlings, landing gear, cabin, or cockpit interior when removal or disassembly of any primary structure or operating system is not required.
Click to expand...

Are you saying they stripped and painted it in place? or did they simply touch it up?

If they removed the control surface that is not included in FAR 43-A (c)
 
Tom-D said:
Are you saying they stripped and painted it in place? or did they simply touch it up?

If they removed the control surface that is not included in FAR 43-A (c)
Click to expand...

Agreed. If the control surface is removed, that's plainly not preventative maintenance.
Although someone will say "But, but..... you have to remove the aileron to paint it, so it's within the scope of preventative maintenance."
 
PilotAlan said:
Agreed. If the control surface is removed, that's plainly not preventative maintenance.
Although someone will say "But, but..... you have to remove the aileron to paint it, so it's within the scope of preventative maintenance."
Click to expand...

Sorry No, that won't meet the rule.
 
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