N247BR

Final Painting - Fuselage

It the painting had gone on like the original System Three Primer this plane would have been completed 3 years ago but after two attempts to use the System Three Epoxy paint, the last with the sprayer I had to finally give up, sand it down and find a new paint to use.  Finally went with the PTI paint from Aircraft Spruce and even though the guy doing the spraying didn't likestuff, it went on clean and covered well with a good finish.
	I rented a gasoline powered compressor and sit it at one end of the hangar.  Sanded off the last failed paint and cleaned up the fuselage yet again.  Started at 6am in the morning because it was so hot and I couldn't keep the booth cool while we were spraying.  We wiped it down with thinner just before starting the painting operation and got busy.  I had placed two exhaust fans with filters on the one side but they proved to be ineffective in pulling the air through and keeping the overspray down enough to see. After the first coat, which you can see being applied below, I cut openings and added two additional exhaust fans before starting the second coat.  It worked better but I had to make a run to Home Depot to get more filters since they were clogging up by half way through the process.  Painting the fuselage in one process is a lot of paint to be applying at one time.
	The first coat can be seen on the left and it was looking pretty good for just one coat.  Below are shots following the final coats.  Finally, after three years of trying I got a good looking final color coat on the fuselage.
	The following photos show the completed paint on all sides and surfaces.  It really looks good.
	In order to get the fuselage out of the paint booth I had to partially disassemble the one side of the paint booth, weight the tail down with sand bags, and pull the plane out tail first with the tail dropped to clear the upper steel rod.  It was just wide enough to get the horizontal stabilizer and wheels through the opening.
	Finally, moved it outside into the light of day and did a complete examination and while there ae flaws in the paint, you will only see them if you are up close and looking for them. I am happy with the results and time to move on to the wings and control surfaces.