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Permalink Reply by Joe Hopwood on November 11, 2017 at 6:36am

Looks good Brad! 

A member of our local EAA chapter and his son attempted to wrap their plane and they said it was so difficult they gave up and had it painted.  I saw plane before painting and it was meticulous.  It also had hand controls for rudder and nose wheel steering as his son is a paraplegic.  Pretty nifty engineering.

I had my rudder wrapped professionally and it looked so bad I pulled it off.  You must really be good at this.  I am having mine painted a piece at a time and all is completed except for wings and they are in paint shop now.  It is solid white and I hope to use decals to add color.  I will be putting more in here or perhaps a separate post about the particulars of the paint and the decals when complete.

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Permalink Reply by Brad Rawls on November 11, 2017 at 6:17pm

Joe - it's really not that hard. Make sure you use the automotive film and not the commercial film - and way different stuff. You just tack one end down and strech out the other end and squeege it down to the surface. You can pull it up if you don't like the sway it went down. You can stretch it where needed, the hard part in when you have to much material.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Stevens on March 18, 2018 at 7:04pm

I am getting ready to paint my 601XL also.  I’m going to use the Stewart Systems paint.  It is aircraft paint and they have great instructional videos online.  Just bought my HVLP sprayer today.  Will be going to Sun n Fun is a couple of weeks and will stop at their booth and get expert advice regarding amount of paint.  I’ll keep you posted.  By the way, I checked into Plane Vinyl to have my plane wrapped and they told me they don’t do it anymore because there was problems with it coming off the control surfaces.  They would do a partial wrap but it was way too expensive.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Stevens on March 18, 2018 at 7:07pm

One more thing, the Stewart Systems paint is a water based primer and a water borne top coat.  No toxic fumes or special respirators needed.  The polyurethane paints I was looking at required a separate fresh air breathing system.

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Permalink Reply by Ernest Christley on March 18, 2018 at 7:26pm

I've had N167EZ painted for a few weeks now, but I've just got the N numbers applied and my beautiful wife was kind enough to take pictures today.  I used metallic silver enamel over a gray primer.  I hear I might have to repaint in 5 years if I leave it outside, but I have a hangar, and at the cost difference between enamel and polyurethanes, I can afford a new coat every now and then.  The whole job cost me under $300, which I think is appropriate for a $15,000 airplane.

I was able to cover the whole plane with one gallon (paint plus hardner) of primer and one gallon of enamel (paint plus hardner).  I use the maximum amount of thinner to get the minimum coat thickness. 

The N numbers are from a local sign shop.  Cost me around $100 and took about an hour to apply.

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