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Painting
Our Stinson
Managing the shop and all the pieces to be painted was a real science in itself. Setting up or garage to paint, hanging the parts, keeping paint off the thing we didn't want yellow, then storing all the painted items until final assembly, and there's lots of parts. Each and every piece was stripped of previous paint, treated with alumaprep and alodine, rinsed with lots of water, dried overnight then primed with randoplate epoxy primer... and then we painted.
I have quite a collection of bent welding rods that I used to hang parts with.
We used Air Tech polyurethane on all surfaces. Polyurethane contains isocyanates and requires the use of a hood and alternate air source. The paint goes on quite thin and flows for up to 20 minutes so patient application is required. I've painted a few aircraft before but this was the first time I used poly. I made a few correctable mistakes and now that I'm done, I can say I'm quite pleased with the finish. I'd certainly use it again. Only time will tell how well it stands up to weather, but I've heard good thing.
Two or three coats of primer filler were applied, sanding only to remove trash or drips. If ANY pinholes exist coat it again as the topcoat is too thin to fill them.
If you apply your colour coat within 6 days you don't have to sand the primer coat. I would suggest using light coloured primer on metal surfaces to get the best match in your finish as the topcoat, at least AN yellow, is somewhat translucent.
I covered the fabric with 3 coats of colour. The metal surfaces required 5 coats to hide the dark green primer.
We waited a few days before applying our trim colours. We only purchased two colours, yellow and black, and I mixed the two together to get a third tint. I was pleasantly surprised when I mixed the two together and got... GREEN? And, yes, I stole the idea for the stripping from the new, dare I say Cessna's! I did modify it though, and hope I haven't offended any Stinson purests.
I think the flare helps soften the low belly line of the Stinson.
Painting the wings was time consuming but a no-brainer. I appreciated not having to lie on the floor or stand on a ladder.
Primed and ready to paint.
Application of our registration.
Checking the spelling one more time. Dave Miller
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