N247BR

Final Painting - Preparations

Even this final paint process was NOT without some additional challenges.  First problem was the lack of adequate electrical power in the hangar. I had tried using the turbine units to apply final coats of primer to the fuselage but couldn't get the three stage turbine and the fresh air system to run at full power.  I was able to complete the application of the primer but not if I had any lights on when trying to spray.  I finished the primer application and sanded it down in preparation for final color coats.  I had made arrangements for a guy who had been painting some local planes and was a custom car painter to apply the color coats for me.  He tried using the turbine unit with the System Three Epoxy paint that I was using.  First problem was the lack of power to the turbine units.  Five minutes into the process, the circuit breaker tripped.  The circuit breaker was at the far end of the hangar on the other side of the fence.  Took 5 minutes to locate the breaker and reset it.  We cut off all other electrical except the turbines and tried again but we didn't have enough power to atomize the paint.  Add to that, my painter had never used that type of paint before and wasn't sure of how to thin it for spraying.  We gave up about 1/2 way through the first coat on the fuselage.  Yet another total failure.  Add to that, my guy said he didn't want to continue with the System Three paint.
	This is still part of the paint booth assembly in the hangar.  The side curtains are up and connected at the top but the bottoms have not been anchored to the bottom plate and the seams have not been taped.
	Still working on the paint booth.  Almost complete at this point ant the ends have been tied down with the entry zipper put in place.
	This was the completed paint booth before the exhaust fans were installed.  I was afraid that the airport management was going to come down on me for painting  in my hangar but I later found out they had zero problem with my setup since I had taken every precaution to ensure that overspray would not get out of the paint booth.
	I was concerned about both paint escaping the booth and paint getting on the floor so I covered the bottom of the paint booth with plastic sheeting.  Then I placed a cardboard covering over the plastic, not to protect the floor but to keep from having the paint form a sticky surface on the plastic.  The cardboard absorbed the paint and kept the plastic from getting torn.  This shot also shows some of the lights along the side.
	I placed inlet openings with filters on one side of the paint booth and exhaust fans on the outside side to pull the paint overspray and fumes out.  I used some cheap box fans with filters taped to the inside of the fans.  Started with two inlet filters and two exhaust fans but that wasn't enough and the filters I used would clog up too quickly.
	In addition to the inlet filters and the exhaust fans, I had bought a portable air conditioner that I used to lower the air temperature inside the paint booth.  I started the air the night before and by the next morning the temperature was down to an acceptable level for painting.  (It was SUMMER in Dallas and without the air unit, the temperature would have never gotton below 85-90 degrees.)
	The filters have been taped to the fans and all of the lights installed on both sides of the paint booth.  Everything is about ready for for starting the painting or at least I thought they were.  Next was to tape and cover everything that I didn't want paint on, final sanding, and a solvent wipedown.
	The lighting wasn't perfect but it was good enough except they drew power that we didn't have to spare.
	Now doesn't that look like the perfect setup of all time?  It was summer and the turbine units had a tendancy to get hot after a few minutes use and that wasn't great for painting in a hot environment.  The styrofoam box is filled with ice and water with the air hoses looped around several times under the ice.  It worked up to a point but the whole thing was way too much for the power available in the hangar.  The only elecrical power in the hangar is one double plug attached to a 20 amp breaker over 200 feet away at the end of the hangars.  I could get both of the turbine units running but they never got up to full capacity.  As soon as I turned on the lights the power dropped off even more and after about 5-10 minutes it tripped the circuit.
The breaker was at the far end of the hangar, outside of a fence that requied me to drive a half mile to get out of the airport and get access to the breakers.  Did a reset and tried again with some of the lights turned out.  Didn't make any difference, between the lights, fans, and air units there was just too much of a draw to get good paint coverage.
	I had better luck at home with the primer coverage but that was the only place I could use the turbine unit.  Too bad, it worked great when it had the needed power supply.
	Well, we tried with the turbine units and once again failure was an option.  We did learn a few things beyond the lack of power from the first attempt.  We learned that the fuselage needed to be elevated to allow may paint man to get under the plane to paint.  He is a big, tall dude and even with the creeper, it was impossible for him to move around under the plane thus the need to put the plane up on stands.  This did work much better but then required a stool to get to the top.