Our Bolkow Junior paint will need renewing soon. The logbook records the last repaint as " according to Baep350a". It’s been suggested this is a misprint for Baep3504". Or 3508, which is acrylic?
Any information on the type of paint, and especially how to remove it, would be welcome. We might do it ourselves if that was practicable, and get it sprayed by a motor shop.
BAEP 3504 is a British Aerospace specification for a Flexible Polyurethane Exterior Finish. Polyurethane is pretty tough stuff to strip but it is also used on cars so you might look in that direction for an appropriate stripper, with automotive trade paint suppliers.
I’m looking at doing the same thing on my plane some day in the foreseeable future. Its really a big job but on my plane I don’t trust aircraft paint shops to do the job in its entirety without supervision – which is often not possible. One solution might be:
1) Disassemble the plane yourself,
2) Pay an aircraft paint shop to strip the existing paint on their stripping stand and collect the plane when finished,
3) Perform and/or manage the preparation and painting at the component level using an automotive painter and collect the plane when finished,
4) Reassemble yourself with appropriate A&P etc oversight, weight and balance check, sign off etc as applicable to the individual plane.
That’s my plan, the plane/parts will be trailered around as required.
Thanks. That’s what we’re thinking of doing. I’ve edited to another suggestion, which would make it easier, as 3508 is acrylic.
Putting the paint stripper on and getting 95% of the paint off is the easy bit and only 10% of the work.
Getting that last 5% of the paint off and removing the corrosion you find is the hard work , with forty years in the aircraft maintenance business I won’t do major paint work on metal airframes myself as it is more economical to let a specialist company do it.
I once was asked by an aircraft owner who was a paint specialist in the motor trade if he could paint his aircraft and I pointed him in the right direction to investigate the job, his conclusion was that spraying his own aircraft was not a wise idea as he did not have the skills within his workshop to do a strip and spray on his aircraft.
This guy is at the top of the game in the motor trade having done a number of cars and a motorcycle for me to exacting standards but he was wise enough to know his limitations when it came to aircraft.
My issue is not meeting the standards of aircraft paint shops, it is that their standards aren’t high enough. I agree that they often do a good job of stripping, using armies of low paid labor and/or a good stripping stand, neither of which are easily attainable elsewhere. However IME it is very difficult to find an aircraft shop that will then produce better than industrial paint finish on an aircraft – on puddle jumper planes they just don’t have the hours to do it on a reasonable commercial budget, and most customers aren’t concerned. Lots of surface area to paint & polish, lots of detail shapes, lots of higher skilled work. Aircraft paint shops generally want to turn the job and move on. The best homebuilts, classic restorations etc are a lot better.
Quality of reassembly is another issue – paint shops often use marginally qualified people to reassemble the plane, and then hire an A&P IA or equivalent to inspect and do the paperwork. That works a lot better when the aircraft is a very common type that they’ve done several times before.
Every GA repaint job I have ever seen was immediately obvious as a repaint job, without even looking close-up.
I think the preparation required to do it well just takes too long.
Most, if not all, non pressurised light aircraft don’t have sealant between the lap joints in the skins. If you were doing a sheet metal repair now, you would use PS870 sealant in the lap joint. As a result paint stripper can flow in between the lap joints and linger if not removed. This is a corrosion trigger, and I’ve had two airplanes painted just before I got them and the were really messed up by this not being done correctly. I’d have doubts as to using automotive paint stripper on aircraft aluminium, and I think this caused some of the problems in past aeroplanes I had.
There is alot to be said for original paint on an aeroplane. There is also a case for a good flat and repaint job if the existing paint is thin. I’m painting most of our project airplane painted at the moment. If I were to get it all redone in a different scheme, the best jobs I’ve come across in the UK were from Mick Allen in Turweston. A good paint job makes an aircraft unrecognisable from it’s former self.
I have had two aircraft painted by Mick Allen and would not use another paint shop.
What are the views on a spray job where they spray all over everything that moves, with minimal dismantling e.g.
