Cost for commercial airplane painting - Zenith Aircraft Builders and Flyers2024-03-29T08:30:01Zhttps://zenith.aero/forum/topics/cost-for-commercial-airplane-painting?id=2606393%3ATopic%3A639724&feed=yes&xn_auth=noJohn Austin mentioned in a pa…tag:zenith.aero,2018-09-16:2606393:Comment:6455462018-09-16T17:21:19.849ZOliver Reikhttps://zenith.aero/profile/OliverReik
<p>John Austin mentioned in a paint thread that somebody used a paste that makes scuffinig easier, and particularly helps avoiding halos around the rivet heads.</p>
<p>3M makes a similar product to the one he mentioned, which however seems to have better reviews. Since it is also made to work in conjunction with the 3M Scotch Brite pad, which were are using anyways, I will order the 3M product.…</p>
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<p>John Austin mentioned in a paint thread that somebody used a paste that makes scuffinig easier, and particularly helps avoiding halos around the rivet heads.</p>
<p>3M makes a similar product to the one he mentioned, which however seems to have better reviews. Since it is also made to work in conjunction with the 3M Scotch Brite pad, which were are using anyways, I will order the 3M product.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000PF1A9A/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">3M 06013 Scuff-It Paint Prep Gel - 24 oz.</a></p>
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<p>Watching some videos, it appears as whether it indeed makes scuffing much easier, what might be useful if you're going for a brushed aluminum look.</p> Some time ago a builder in th…tag:zenith.aero,2018-09-16:2606393:Comment:6456442018-09-16T17:01:35.449ZBob Pustellhttps://zenith.aero/profile/BobPustell
<p>Some time ago a builder in this group mentioned that he wanted the weight advantages of no paint but did not want the bother and effort of a full-on buffed aluminum job. He decided to rub the exterior aluminum down with scothbrite pads to give a scuffed satin kind of look to the surface. The swirl marks and such from the scuffing hid any scratches and marks in the aluminum and the overall look, he reported, was kind of interesting. It would also be very light (any amount of paint adds…</p>
<p>Some time ago a builder in this group mentioned that he wanted the weight advantages of no paint but did not want the bother and effort of a full-on buffed aluminum job. He decided to rub the exterior aluminum down with scothbrite pads to give a scuffed satin kind of look to the surface. The swirl marks and such from the scuffing hid any scratches and marks in the aluminum and the overall look, he reported, was kind of interesting. It would also be very light (any amount of paint adds weight) and very easy to "touch up" if needed, just scrub the area down with a scotchbrite pad again if needed.</p>
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<p>I do not recall seeing any pictures from the chap who posted his scuffing idea but I am personally intrigued by it. I am thinking I will scuff up a hunk of aluminum and get an idea of the "look" of it. A professional paint job is way expensive and even a homemade paint job using top notch materials is not cheap, plus it usually looks homemade. A full blown polish job takes a lot of time and effort and has to be re-done every few years. 6061-T6 aluminum is inherently corrosion resistant so all we need to do is make it look decent in some manner, it does not demand protection from the elements.</p>
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<p>My friend's 601XLB (now sold) went even further in the lack of effort department - he flew the plane with absolutely no polish or paint or effort of any kind, the metal was as installed on the plane, as removed from the Zenith kit packaging. Outside of thirty or forty feet it looked surprisingly good, just a dull grey airplane. Close up it was ugly as heck but the plane did not care, it flew just perfectly!</p> In Alaska some very good bush…tag:zenith.aero,2018-09-14:2606393:Comment:6457602018-09-14T18:29:53.860ZBob Joneshttps://zenith.aero/profile/BobJones
<p>In Alaska some very good bush pilots, questioned painting, with the argument that it is added weight and would rather have gas, if you are not building a "HANGER QUEEN "the aluminum will out live you , so why not just fly it as is ...BOB</p>
<p>In Alaska some very good bush pilots, questioned painting, with the argument that it is added weight and would rather have gas, if you are not building a "HANGER QUEEN "the aluminum will out live you , so why not just fly it as is ...BOB</p> I just posted in the painting…tag:zenith.aero,2018-09-13:2606393:Comment:6456582018-09-13T02:27:17.350ZOliver Reikhttps://zenith.aero/profile/OliverReik
<p>I just posted in the painting section a link to a pretty well done painting video, that might be useful for those how wonder if they could / should paint their planes themselves: <a href="http://www.zenith.aero/forum/topics/video-how-to-paint-an-airplane" target="_blank">http://www.zenith.aero/forum/topics/video-how-to-paint-an-airplane</a></p>
<p>I just posted in the painting section a link to a pretty well done painting video, that might be useful for those how wonder if they could / should paint their planes themselves: <a href="http://www.zenith.aero/forum/topics/video-how-to-paint-an-airplane" target="_blank">http://www.zenith.aero/forum/topics/video-how-to-paint-an-airplane</a></p> I painted my 750 Cruzer this…tag:zenith.aero,2018-09-11:2606393:Comment:6451272018-09-11T19:22:52.172ZRonald LeBlanchttps://zenith.aero/profile/RonaldLeBlanc
<p>I painted my 750 Cruzer this year. My wife helped and we cleaned the wings, tail and fuselage with a pressure cleaner, then scotch pad with alodine, then Bonderite. After it was dry I sprayed everything with Gripper primer from Home Depot using a $10 Harbor Freight spray gun and a $350 compressor from same.</p>
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<p>Next we sprayed Home Depot Behr gloss white.</p>
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<p>The Airport office called and instructed me to cease and desist all painting. We put paper down and felt that…</p>
<p>I painted my 750 Cruzer this year. My wife helped and we cleaned the wings, tail and fuselage with a pressure cleaner, then scotch pad with alodine, then Bonderite. After it was dry I sprayed everything with Gripper primer from Home Depot using a $10 Harbor Freight spray gun and a $350 compressor from same.</p>
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<p>Next we sprayed Home Depot Behr gloss white.</p>
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<p>The Airport office called and instructed me to cease and desist all painting. We put paper down and felt that using rollers would be ok. I guess there will be dust from overspray no matter what type of pain.I explained it was water based paint. They insisted.</p>
<p>We continued with more coats by using 6 inch woven rollers from Home depot. The paint was thinned with 90% water/10% denatured alcohol. This allowed the rolled paint to flow. The paint has a little to medium orange peel. I think this happened because it has been terribly hot since April here in Florida. The Cruzer is still in the finishing stage. The engine cowl, and front wheel fairing are fiberglass. These will be painted with 2 part primer and topcoat (white) from Eastman (online) This is expensive high quality urethane. The car shows on TV use this and they color sand rarely to smooth any orange peal. My Cruzer has a Viking 130, and their front suspension.</p>
<p>Finally, My stylist wife insisted that the wing, elevator and fuselage will benefit from 1 inch and 12 inch 3M red film stripes. I thought that will be good to do while awaiting the FAA do show up. I am told to expect 3 weeks after I call.</p>
<p>This is what we did over the past 8 months part time.</p>
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<p>If I build another I intend to powder coat everything. We both think that planning and selection of a spectacular colors that are part of the powder coating industry will produce a spectacular bird!</p> I know that asking how much d…tag:zenith.aero,2018-08-05:2606393:Comment:6401142018-08-05T12:53:06.192ZJohn Austinhttps://zenith.aero/profile/JohnLAustin
<p><em>I know that asking how much does painting cost is like asking how much a house costs.</em></p>
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<p>I think the responses so far have given you an idea of the low end of the spectrum where you're simply purchasing materials and DIY'ing it.</p>
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<p>Likely a true "pro" (someone who actually paints airplanes for a living!), turn-key job( where you don't lift a finger!), and using aviation quality paint (epoxy primer, catalysed urethane, etc.) will cost at least $7-$8K and could…</p>
<p><em>I know that asking how much does painting cost is like asking how much a house costs.</em></p>
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<p>I think the responses so far have given you an idea of the low end of the spectrum where you're simply purchasing materials and DIY'ing it.</p>
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<p>Likely a true "pro" (someone who actually paints airplanes for a living!), turn-key job( where you don't lift a finger!), and using aviation quality paint (epoxy primer, catalysed urethane, etc.) will cost at least $7-$8K and could be as high as $10K!</p>
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<p>I would highly recommend completely assembling the plane prior to painting as you will nearly always find something that has to be altered, trimmed, or tweaked! It would be a shame to have spent big bucks on a nice paint job and then have to touch it up due to alterations after painting. I was concerned I might need some cooling tweaks to my cowl during Phase I and also concerned about the potential of leaking fuel senders. So, I completely assembled my STOL 750, then broke it down and had wings, slats, flaperons, struts, fuselage, rudder, and HS painted separately. I had the top wing root skins also painted separately and did not install them until after final assembly so the plane could be fueled and observed for a couple of days for sender leaks (there were none and none since!) and then the skins were riveted and the rivets touched-up.</p>
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<p>I did not paint the cowl initially, waiting until well into Phase I to be sure it wouldn't have to be modified. Since it is easily detachable, it was no problem to take it back later and have it painted. I have minimal paint in my interior and tended to powder coat pieces like the panel and sub-panels, tunnel covers, etc. for durability. What little of the interior that is painted I did during the build process and it was no problem to mask this off for the exterior paint. The exterior painting was done with the windshield and doors removed (exterior door trim painted separately). The only thing I wish I had done differently was to not have installed the windows in the fuselage - despite leaving the protective film on them and masking, a little overspray got on one or two, but it was very minimal and really not noticeable except to picky people - like EAB builders! Ha!</p>
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<p>My paint job was about $8500 (two colors and a separating fuselage stripe), but it was a total turn-key cost - all I did was take the pieces off the plane and re-assemble them - the painter even transported the pieces and fuselage back and forth to his shop! I briefly considered doing it myself, but having zero experience, I realized I really didn't want to learn to paint on <em>my</em> plane - after all, the paint job is the first thing most people see! Ha! Costly, yes, but it was worth it for the huge convenience factor - I'm in a remote, rural area and a retired custom painter/old car restoration expert with a professional spray booth just happened to live less than 3 miles from me! On top of that, he is a pilot and has painted planes before and was very knowledgeable about managing paint weight, etc. He was so picky that when I offered to help do the masking ... he said, "I don't want to hurt your feelings, but knowing me, if I let you mask, when you leave I'll probably just re-do it all!" ;>)</p>
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<p>You do sometimes get what you pay for, however, 6+ years later, most people look at the paint and think it was just done yesterday! I actually got<em> more</em> than I paid for: The painter and I became good friends and he wound up painting an '84 Honda NightHawk restoration for me and the front and rear of an '82 Porsche 911SC and didn't charge one cent of labor - just materials. He also tutored me on the bike and car restorations and started letting me actually help! :>)</p>
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<p>John</p>
<p>N750A</p>
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<p></p> I polished my airplane, which…tag:zenith.aero,2018-08-03:2606393:Comment:6398162018-08-03T15:08:46.118ZPatrick Hoythttps://zenith.aero/profile/PatrickHoyt
<p>I polished my airplane, which is not as much work as people seem to think it is, and doesn't cost much or add any weight. </p>
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<p>Although I have not "re-polished" it in 3 years, it's still shiny, and I still get a kick out of seeing people walk right past rows of RV's (some with very expensive paint jobs) to look at my polished plane.</p>
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<p>I polished my airplane, which is not as much work as people seem to think it is, and doesn't cost much or add any weight. </p>
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<p>Although I have not "re-polished" it in 3 years, it's still shiny, and I still get a kick out of seeing people walk right past rows of RV's (some with very expensive paint jobs) to look at my polished plane.</p>
<p></p> ordered the polisher from Ama…tag:zenith.aero,2018-08-03:2606393:Comment:6399562018-08-03T13:53:41.046ZRussell Johnsonhttps://zenith.aero/profile/RJohnson
<p>ordered the polisher from Amazon, and the white diamond polish is carried by O'Rileys auto parts.</p>
<p>I didn't keep track of the time involved, but probably between 100 and 200 hours.</p>
<p>Since I hadn't planned on polishing it, I wasn't too careful about protecting the surface while I was building it. That plus almost 20 years of building and moving the parts in and out of storage, there were a lot of small surface scratches. These were somewhat eliminated by wet sanding with 800 thru…</p>
<p>ordered the polisher from Amazon, and the white diamond polish is carried by O'Rileys auto parts.</p>
<p>I didn't keep track of the time involved, but probably between 100 and 200 hours.</p>
<p>Since I hadn't planned on polishing it, I wasn't too careful about protecting the surface while I was building it. That plus almost 20 years of building and moving the parts in and out of storage, there were a lot of small surface scratches. These were somewhat eliminated by wet sanding with 800 thru 2000 grit sand paper. </p>
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<p>It is a messy job, and requires a lot of old rags for wiping off the polish.</p>
<p></p> Do you have a link to the pol…tag:zenith.aero,2018-08-03:2606393:Comment:6398582018-08-03T05:18:47.715ZJonathan Fayhttps://zenith.aero/profile/JonathanFay
<p>Do you have a link to the polisher you used?</p>
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<p>Do you have a link to the polisher you used?</p>
<p></p> That is pretty!
I like it! I…tag:zenith.aero,2018-08-03:2606393:Comment:6398052018-08-03T05:18:18.563ZJonathan Fayhttps://zenith.aero/profile/JonathanFay
<p>That is pretty!</p>
<p>I like it! I would have thought polishing would have been a huge trouble given what other talked about.</p>
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<p>How long did it take to get this far?</p>
<p>Jonathan</p>
<p>That is pretty!</p>
<p>I like it! I would have thought polishing would have been a huge trouble given what other talked about.</p>
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<p>How long did it take to get this far?</p>
<p>Jonathan</p>