Painting - Day 2

June 16, 2009

I was not happy with the way the spray-on metallic came out, so I went back to Ace Hardware and found a brush on/roller metallic/chrome. I bought three cans because they were small, but I should have only bought one (maybe two but one covered everything). I opted to not spray primer back over everything, and it worked out well. I tried both a brush and a roller, and the roller application was by far more even and no brush strokes. I went over everything with this and the results were fantastic.

I was satisfied with the tail and went ahead with the black rudder and stripes on the horizontal stab. I opted to NOT paint the bottom since it should not be seen anyway.

I attached the windscreen today. Following the pictures supplied with the plans, it was a pretty easy process. I do not like that there is slack in the window on the sides, but I did my best. I went ahead and glued the "C" shaped wood on, then put the vinyl windscreen ontop, followed bu the metal pieces, this was straight forward and unremarkable.

I also screwed the aluminum panels on today. I did use the Dremel on some of the holes, but for the most part I just screwed the panels in without, knowing that it could cause the wood to split. Fortunately, it did not.

I was concerned that the top panel did not fit well towards the nose, but I think overall it will be ok. One suggestion on the bottom nose cowling, work from the front to the back with the screws.

The wing instillation is straight forward, and I did need to do some trimming for the wing to fit. since the seat was right there and somewhat impeding the process.

I noticed today that this weights at least 10 lbs at this point, and I know it's only going to get heavier.

Tomorrow I plan to start the painting.