Category Archives: Painting

Painting, Registration

Friday 19th July 2019

Leave a comment

Music: Gerry Cinnamon

Applying the registration marks looks to be quite simple but like so many of the jobs I’ve done during this project it’s something I’ve not done before so it needs a bit of thinking about before I attempt it. I’ve watched a couple of Youtube videos that has helped.

The registration has been cut and is already spaced but Ian noticed that the hyphen spacing was much bigger than it needed to be so I needed to re-space the G, -, and M which will make it a little more difficult.

One of the first things that needs to be done is to polish the surface and degrease it will Panel wipe. During the polishing I found a number of flaws with the paint. Noticeably runs, areas where the paint is quite thin, a slight wobble in the paint line and some orange peeling. There’s not a lot of it but it’s a bit disappointing when you pay so much for a ‘professional’.
After the polishing and degreasing the surface the registration is laid out on the wing, aligned and taped down.
The paper is lifted to reveal the registration and the backing paper is cut away. It’s then laid back on the wing and…
… pressed down. I used a plastic card to press the letters into place and remove any air bubbles.
Once the adhesive has been given a bit of time to set the top backing paper is carefully removed.
Now the MLSY part has been done I need to re-space the Hyphen and the G to eliminate the extra space.
Job done. It looks quite good. What you can’t see from this picture is that there are air bubbles around each of the rivets so I’ll need to deal with them at a later date. Now I can refit the wings for the final time, I hope!
Electrics, Ian Daniels, Painting, Registration, Sensors, Wiring

Tuesday 16th July 2019

Leave a comment

Music: Gerry Cinnamon, Doves, George Ezra

Getting close to finishing now so some small outstanding jobs to do including wiring starter solenoid protection, a stuck starter indicator connection and external level button on each stick top hat. I also trial fitted the registration and polished the fuselage ready to apply it.

I received the registration vinyls on Friday so today I need to ready the fuselage for them to be applied. Just a case to working out the best placing for them. Along the line of paintwork line or along the rivet line? that’s the question!
I’ve bought a polishing machine to make the job easier with some G6 cutting liquid cutting compound. It takes a bit of getting used to using it but it makes a good job it. The paintwork needs to be de-greased before I can apply the registration letters.
When I sent the aircraft for spraying they noticed that one rivet hadn’t been squeezed on the trailing edge of the wing. So Ian brought his rivet squeezers in with a special head for this type of rivet.
A little more wiring to do. A diode is placed from the starter solenoid to earth to kill any spikes caused from the contacts releasing when starting the engine. Also I’ve wired up a contact on the Dynon screens to that will show a ‘stuck starter’ situation. I was a little worried that a higher voltage may find it’s way back to the EFIS so I’ve protected the connection with a diode to prevent spikes and a 1 amp fuse.
Painting

Sunday 16th December 2018

Leave a comment

I asked Farry to send some pictures over of the progress of the spraying. These were send showing the insides being painted and the underside of the fuselage in white.

With the white underside complete the metallic blue has now been applied to the top of the fuselage.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 8feb0ca4-4db1-4b1d-a102-a2352a3de3b5.jpg
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is d5c78ca3-7d78-49c4-80b0-db456a5f17c6.jpg
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is c6480f46-3c82-4699-a7a2-5f0348e01a95.jpg

With the fuselage complete the wings are next but with Christmas looming it probably won’t be done until the New Year.