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This week some goodies arrived for the plane. The most expensive one is a Garmin GNS-430. Yeah, I hear you, I am not even close to putting this puppy in. Well, I wanted to get one in order to put my serial number on the WAAS upgrade list before Garmin ups it from $1500 to $3000. So I see it as saving me $1500. The unit is in great shape, except the anti-glare coating is a little thin. I need to do some R&D to figure out how best to make it look better.  Also, I was able to find a pic of the airplane that the unit came out of. Gotta love google.  Another goodie that showed up was the PCU-5000X prop governor. I got this at a rockin' price from one of Captain Johns famous group buys. This puppy is less weight that the M&T guv that Van's sells, and I got it for less than Van's price. Win/win in my book.  I needed to get some more spray can primer today to do give the JetFlex topcoat something to stick to. I have usually been using SW's GBP-988, but their automotive paint stores aren't open on the weekends. I bought out the supply of the 2 NAPA's in a 4 mile radius from my house of their NAPA-7220 self etching primer. I think someone said this stuff is identical to the SW GBP-988. Who knows. All I know is I payed upwards of 9 bucks per can! I heard this primer goes on sale occasionally for around 3 bucks a can. I will definitely keep my eyes open for that opportunity.  Middle of august and look at the temp and humidity. Perfect painting weather.  I then spent all kinds of time priming with AKZO. I am especially happy with how good of a job my overlaps came out.  The floor bottoms got a coat too. I put a thick layer on here, because I can just see all kinds of moisture accumulating here from peoples shoes. Especially in the winter time with some snow on the shoes.  Here is my anal retentive AKZO spraying of the side skins.  ....and the longerons. The primer line is where the aft fuse ends and the forward fuse begins.  I decided to retire my AKZO paint stirrer. I never clean the thing because it takes up too much acetone.  OK, jetflex testing time. The JetFlex I am using is water reducible, which is really nice because I don't need to get involved with acetone for cleanup. This what the can looks like when I cracked it open.  And after stirring, I get a nice, consistent "Sandy Beige"  This is a cleanup bucked I decided to use to keep my driveway from becoming sandy color. If I lived at the beach, this would be the perfect color paint to use. No cleanup, no disposal!  Believe it or not, this is the stirring rod I used to stir the paint up with! The thing cleaned up in no time by swirling it in the bucking and blasting water on it with the hose. Oh yeah.  This is my test sample. At one time in its life, it was one of my 3 bad trim tab skins. Finally time to put it to good use. I scratched it up with a scotchbrite pad and cleaned the grease and dust off with an acetone soaked rag.  Next I put a light coat of GBP-988 primer on it. I let it sit for about 5-10 minutes. Next I mixed up the JetFlex. I meant to dilute it with 10% water, but I only put in 5% by accident. Man, was it thick to paint with. The finish was OK, but I couldn't get the width any more than 1-2". It really sucked. I thought to myself what did I get myself into? It looked dry after about 10 minutes, but after touching it, I realized it wasn't (splotch mark on the upper right hand side). After 30-60 minutes, it was dry enough to touch.  Here is the first try. The color is a little lighter than the sample indicated. However, it does look great.  Later on, I mixed up another batch of JetFlex, this time diluted 10%. What a difference it made. The gun worked much much better. I am going to wait until tomorrow to check out the finish since it is still wet. I am really digging the JetFlex. It is pricey, but application is a walk in the part, and cleanup with the water based version is a joke. Just spray everything off with water and run some acetone through the gun to absorb any water left behind. The only way I can see this being easier is with a spray can top coat.
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Last Modified: October 5, 2024 |