After quickly finishing the last little bit of work on the armrest reinforcements it was time to wash and degrease the last of the parts. Some of these parts were so big they had to go outside to be degreased.
And rinsed…
As before, I knew when the parts were grease free when the water sheet off the parts. The dog thought it was party time.
Eventually all the parts were washed and degreased and it was time to spray it all with etch (wash) primer.
Once the etch had dried I then sprayed the cabin parts with acrylic 2k paint in my chosen colour – RAL7001.
Anything that was not going to be visible in the cabin I sprayed with PR143 primer.
I also primed any parts of the outer fuselage that overlapped other parts.
I did the same on the massive longerons. The aft section was primed with PR143 and the forward part was painted with RAL7001.
I also realised that there were a bunch of parts I had primed previously – like the firewall and F-706 bulkhead that needed to be painted so I gave those a shot of RAL7001.
and the uprights for the mid section.
Finally I took the big F-770 skins outside and sprayed them with RAL7001 too. The first one sat there and dried within an hour or so. I swapped it out with the second one and gave that a coat of grey.
As soon as I’d finished spraying the second skin I was done painting. Yay! So I started tidying up the workshop.
After about 10 minutes into the tidy up I heard an almighty clang coming from what I thought was a neighbours house. Until it dawned on me…
NO it can’t be!!!! Please no!…
Yes, it was my skin! A gust of wind had caught it and slammed it to the ground!
After a moment of staring in disbelief, I grabbed the skin as carefully as I could and put it back on the table. While I waited for a break in the breeze so I could safely run into the workshop and grab a piece of wire to tie the skin to the table to stop it happening again I examined the damage.
and
and
There was nothing I can do while it was wet so I left it to dry.
After about 4 hours I came back to the skin and decided to sand off the affected areas. The paint was only 4 hours old so it should come off pretty easily.
I started with some maroon scotchbrite pads. Useless! Didn’t even mark the paint.
So I used some 400 grit emery paper. A very light mark but it wasn’t making any headway!
So the good news is this paint is tough! Perfect for high wear area like the cockpit.
In the end I used 200 grit sandpaper and smoothed as much of the damage as possible and worked back to the emery and then the scotchbrite.
I then took the skin outside, set it up on the table (tied of course) and then sprayed over the sanded areas.
What a week but I’m glad the painting is all done!