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There is something to be said about “yup, I painted her too!”
In the hangar down the road at our airport that had more room. It was a blowup paint booth held by positive pressure. Massive filtration system - when you’re done with it you turn off the switch and it collapses down to the ground, but in his case, he built a small wooden frame on the inside that it would fall down on allowing him to still go in and out.
Here is another option. Before we assembled our 4, we brought all the pieces to a reputable body shop and had him paint them. He even did a good bit of work on the fiberglass parts for us. Prep, primer, base coat and clear coat.... all for $5850. Add in another $1300 for vinyl graphics that we applied and we have the satisfaction of a nice paint job for well under 10 grand !
And you really don’t even need a booth. I painted both ny planes in my garage with just a tarp protecting tools and equipment from overspray. The cost of this approach unfortunately is a need to color sand and buff due to dust. But a side benefit of that is a smooth as glass finish on the clear. But you would be surprised how little dust there really is if you wet the floor down, ground the plane and use a full tyvek suit. Most of the dust comes from the painer not the environment.
Matt,
I have always used base clear for car projects, but tried red single stage on the 6. I keep the garage door up about 1/4 with fans. The top section of my garage door still has a pink hue 12 years later from the overspray. Needless to say i never used SS again.
I found a mail order paint supply in Mississippi. Very reasonable prices and pretty quick delivery. https://www.thecoatingstore.com/
One thing I didn't count on was the fact that epoxy primer (DP50) was not air tight. Rust bloomed though on steel. Just sharing something I learned the hard way. Have to seal it up.
Can't speak to DP50, as I use SPI, but ep;oxy primer is generally considered impermeable unles submerged under water for long periods if time. I do know that if you leave any rust on the metal before application, it can continue to grow. Don't understand the chemistry behind it, but do know that painters go to great lengths to get rid of it, even the very light stuff, before primer. Pretty well known that if you don't fully sand or chemically prepare steel (things like ospho) before application, what you experienced can happen.
Back in the dark ages, when I was in High School and college, I earned my way through school (and paid for my flying) working at a dive shop. This was in the days of steel tanks, and some bright marketing folks came up with the idea of coating the insides to “prevent” corrosion. Unfortunately, the epoxy they used back then was brittle and developed micro-cracks - moisture got in and corroded the tanks, but now you couldn’t see it…. Have never been a fan of permanent steel coatings where you can’t inspect the steel ever since…
Love Bugs in SE Texas... It's weird. They come to the fresh paint like the walking dead.
yeah, never really undertood why bugs are so attracted to aromatic solvents. the attraction seems quite strong though.
It was so bad at times, I would have to put a WHY trap INSIDE my garage when I was running the booth and painting. I had to leave the door cracked open for the mass airflow created when I turned on the booth fans. The yellow jackets would just pour in through the door opening. Really a big pain in the neck when you are trying to mix paint and get everything prepped. I guess that's why professional shops all have bug screens on their louvers. LOL
