Why are metallic paint schemes not the norm in GA?
Michael’s lovely new aircraft got me thinking. (See other thread called “My new ride”).
Very few people buy a car these days that don’t have metallic paint, because it just looks so much better, and lasts longer. Why isn’t it the norm in GA? Is there a downside to it? Heavier? more expensive? Few places equipped to do it?
One of the school planes at Biggin has just been repainted with a rather flashy metallic blue scheme. I agree – they look great!
Edit – this one:
I think they are harder to touch up. But they do look good, if I do say so myself!
I too wonder why plane paints seem so far “behind” car paints. But maybe car paint is not all that good? The paint has to withstand avgas, oils, high and low temps…
Also car paints are a different chemistry to aircraft paints. Factory paints are (I am told by the car paint shop under where I work) water based, and repair work is done using the highly toxic isocyanate 2K stuff (which is admittedly very very good – I use it myself and it needs very good breathing gear). Aircraft paints used in both GA and big stuff are 2-pack polyurethane for all coats (except the primer which is probably 2-pack epoxy, although the French use polyurethane for that too) whereas the 2K system has a 1-pack base (the actual colour) and a 2-pack lacquer.
My guess would be that metallics need extra skill and I think most shops don’t like to use them. Just look around at all the crappy resprays. The shops are clearly struggling with even basic stuff. There are some very good shops though.
You have to get the metallic coat (basically a clear lacquer with tiny particles in it) very even, and that’s harder to do on an assembled aircraft where you have to crawl all over it from different angles. In the factory, for example the individual wings are hung and rotated as they are sprayed, but in a refurb spray shop that isn’t going to happen unless you pay them a load more money.
Also there may be extra hassle. For example I have some of the Socata metallic (used on the GT) MAPAERO paint here. It was, like most stuff Socata use, made by a French company which is incredibly disorganised and more or less just hates selling stuff to anybody. When I had to get it (to paint up a new vertical stabiliser to replace a hangar-damaged one) it took 6 months just to get MAPAERO to sort out the correct order codes. And I still have one tin here from them, brand new, whose label is provably not what is inside the tin! Consequently no paint shop is going to buy this stuff if they are doing a whole-plane respray.
Just my guess… maybe a paint shop person can input here? I know for a fact that some read the site.
The shop who did my respray was more than happy to suggest a metallic paint, and they did a great job with it. The downside is that choosing the exact tint is tough: the colour will change dramatically with light conditions.
This one is quite… sophisticated
