Cozy

Chapter 25 - Finishing - Part 4

Zolotone

I got "Desert Cameo" Zolotone from the local auto paint supply store. I also got the zolotone primer, clear coat and that silly little spray gun the Zolotone people sell. I masked off the nose wheel, wheel well and landing brake and dived in. First the primer. Damn - they gave me the ferrous primer instead of the multi-purpose stuff I need for fiberglass. It took two days to get this swapped. While I was at the paint shop I picked up a small oil & water filter and a pressure regulator. This was my first ever use of my new gravity feed spray gun and my first use of ANY spray gun for over 20 years. I guess you could say I was the perfect test case. The spray gun worked well on the primer for a couple of minutes, then all I got was air. After a bit of investigation I realized that the little filter built into the bottom of the bowl was clogged. I cleaned it up, sprayed for a while, then it clogged again. I removed the filter and had my surfaces primed in no time.

Next the actual Zolotone. Weird looking stuff. I stirred it up as instructed on the can and poured some into their handy little aerosol spray gun. It splattered nicely, but I wasnt getting very good coverage and the nozzel blocked up every couple of minutes. Eventually, after a lot of messing around and blowing down the nozzel (Zolotone tastes pretty bad) I was able to get a reasonable result. Somewhat dissatisfied, I put the "silly little aerosol" away. I had some paint left in the aerosol, so I decided to try the stuff in a proper spray gun. The instructions on the can say to spray in two steps. One coat at 50 - 60 PSI and a second at 2 PSI. Sounds strange, but what the hell - The first coat went on in seconds BAMM I had a light brown base coat. Now to turn the pressure down. I turned the little pressure regulator almost all the way off and sprayed again. Cool. The "splatter" coat came out perfect and the result looks great. Next day I mixed up a bit of Zolotone epoxy clear coat and sprayed it on. It seemed dry after about 6 hours so I started removing the masking tape. Oops. Too early. A bit of the paint came off with the tape. Next day the stuff was hard as a rock. The resultant finish looks very professional, if I say so myself, and I'm sure it will stand up to almost anything. Also, its smooth and easy to clean. I LIKE Zolotone.

Wing roots, aileron cut outs and other hard to reach places

My first experiment with Zolotone had been while the plane was upside down. I did the nose wheel well, landing brake and nose strut. Some months later it came time to Zolotone the rest. I prepared the aileron and rudder cut outs, the wing roots and the ends of the strakes. Then I looked at the fuselage and decided to do the inside while I was at it. This meant removing all the stuff I'd already installed in the nose - rudder pedals, brakes, nose lift etc. Removing this lot took most of a day. I masked up everything, then had to go away on business for two weeks. When I got back all the masking tape had come away and I had to mask everything again.

Finally I got to spray the Zolotone primer. There clearly wasnt enough for the inside of the main cabin, but I sprayed everything else. The nose as far as the IP, the aileron and rudder cut outs, and the wing roots. Manouvering the big gravity paint gun inside the nose was a bit tricky, but I eventually got everything covered. After a couple of hours I put the Zolotone in the gun (unthinned) and did the two stage thing. Base coat at 60 PSI followed by splatter coat at 2 PSI. The gun clogged up a few times, but cleared when I boosted the pressure. I ran out of Zolotone just after I did the nose ballast compartment. I'll need a second quart to do the rest.

Next day I got out the Zolotone clear coat. The cans were old and I couldn't read the instructions - The base and activator cans were the same size, so I figured that equal parts were required. I mixed up about 12oz of clear coat and sprayed everything that had the basic Zolotone a couple of times. There's plenty of the clear coat left (I orginally bought a quart of each). For those who follow, based on what I had left over, and what I ran out of, my estimate to do a whole Cozy is 1/2 gal of Zolotone, 1/2 gal of primer, and 1 quart each of the clear coat ingredients. This assumes that you're going to do just about every bit of fiberglass inside and out that isnt finished in gloss white. I considered leaving the areas that are hidden when the wings are on, but then again, this stuff goes on so easily I thought - what the heck.

The one problem I had was with the clear coat. I was using a paint mask, but the mist gets everywhere, and I found that my arms face and hair were sticky with the stuff after I finished painting. I used laquer thinner to clean the gun, then just carried on and washed myself in it. Uggh! In retrospect, a disposable jump suit and head covering would have been a good idea.

Desert Cameo colored wings

Zolotone is marvellous stuff. It sticks like glue and sets rock hard in no time. I found that this can be a problem when you paint the canopy. Why? Well, I put the canopy upside down on my bench supported on foam blocks, masked off the windows and set to. I love the instant results you get from painting after all the laborious prep work. I needed to stand on a chair to reach inside properly. Unfortunately my freshly painted port wing was about four feet away and a lot of overspray paint landed on the shiny gloss paint. I waited a good half hour before I discovered this, so the zolotone was nice and hard and my wing had a lovely desert cameo fleck all over the new paint. Ahhhhhggggg! I color sanded feverishly for about an hour, and eventually got all the zolotone off. Another lesson learned.

Masking

In between business trips to Colorado, Mississippi, California and New York, I finally got to use all the newspapers I hadnt had time to read. Once the Zolotone was dry I masked up the fuselage in preparation for final gloss. I'd painted, color sanded and polished the bottom while the plane was upside down, so the trick now was to blend in the two paint sessions. I decided that the best way to do this was mask the underneath of the wings. I had to prime the top surface of the strakes, and the top edges of the fuselage, plus a few spots on the nose. I ran a stip of newspaper along the leading edge, and sprayed the primer. Next I took off the masking and sanded the primer, and the join with 320 grit. The join was smooth, but still visible mainly because the white I'd used on the underside had a slightly yellow tint compared with the new top gloss I'd bought myself.

I moved the tape down a couple of inches from where I'd masked the primer, rubbed down the exposed gloss with 320 grit, then I was ready to spray gloss. I mixed up a pint of paint and added a little water to help it flow. This time I sprayed in the evening with an ambiant temperature of around 55 F. Either I'm was getting better at this painting thing, or the lower temperature helped. I got two small runs on the side of the turtleback, but otherwise the paint job looked excellent right out of the gun. Two good full coats, with no overspray and a real nice shine. I very pleased. After a couple of days I began color sanding. This time the runs came out without too much difficulty. One thing about color sanding is that you get to look closely at every square inch of the finish. I found a few embedded bugs and minor spots where it wasnt perfect, but the main problem was the "join" at the leading edge and around the fuselage. It was quite visible, even after color sanding the edge. The bugs polished out really well. First the "lump" of the body comes off and you're left with the little legs which make tiny lines in the paint. A couple of minutes with 1000 grit and the legs finally come out of the paint and the remaining finish is perfect. I'm sure any insect lovers, and my brother, who used to paint automobiles, would cringe at this, but the results were just fine - at least by my standards. I finally decided that the only way to eliminate the edge was either paint a stripe there, or give the top another coat of gloss, this time painting the whole side and the leading edge. There was no way I was going to repaint the underneath of the wings, so I decided to mask the wing undersurface and paint the whole leading edge again. There would still be a join in the color, but it wouldnt be east to spot.

Having color sanded the whole fuselage with 1000 grit, I sadly took out the 600 grit and prepared the surface for a final coat.

A note about color sanding

The Polyfiber book says to use a $50 black & decker polisher. I tried this and didnt get very far, so I did all my color sanding and polishing by hand. After about 6 months of this, in between other stuff, I noticed that my right shoulder hurt when I moved it in a certain position. I'm pretty sure I did some damage to my shoulder during all that polishing. In another life, this might have been a problem but it healed slowly, over a period of a few months. In the meantime I tried to avoid putting it in that certain position.

When it came time to color sand the bottom of the wings I tried the Black and Decker sander again, and this time it worked just fine. Duhhh!

Critique

As I polished the strake tops and bottom of the wings I noticed a few areas where the paint was too thin and the darkness of the glass or primer showed through. I rubbed it all down and painted again. This time things didnt go very well with the gloss paint. A moth flew right into the spray and got embedded in the paint. Also, just as I was finishing off, a thunderstorm popped up and blew dust all over the place. Much of it landed on the wet paint.

I had painted the bottom of the strakes while the plane was upside down. I roughed up the leading edge, then painted the top. The join was obvious, so I sanded it down and added a couple more coats. I'd had this thing about avoiding runs by painting the surfaces flat, but maybe painting all surfaces at once would have been better.

After it dried for a few days I color sanded and polished. I went through the paint again in a few places, but the finish is fairly good. Given total lack of skill and the awful working conditions I'm working in, I think this is as good a finish as I'm going to get. I consider it a 4 footer. With a little touch-up I might get it a little better. Maybe one day I'll have it repainted by a professional, but it'll definately do for now. I have the tops of the wings to finish, then it will be time to move on.

The tops of the wings

I put the wings back on the plane, masked off the strakes and turtleback and sanded the primer down again. Another two coats of primer and a little sanding got the surface "perfect". I had quite a bit of work to do on the upper and lower tips of the winglets. A few rounds of micro, sanding, micro, sand and finally I was ready to paint.

Finishing – Part Deux

There’s been discussion about whether to use HVLP, a conventional spray guns, or the paint roller approach to smooth prime. A couple of days ago I discovered a new approach – painting with a stick. You might think it would be tough to get a smooth finish with a mixing stick for a brush, but it actually works very well.

I was doing a bit of FINAL sanding on the wings, ready to paint gloss in the morning. It was dark so I got out a flashlight to help me see any minor blemishes that needed a little extra sanding. In the dark, with the light at an angle to the surface I saw a LOT of blemishes. They ranged from tiny little nicks about 1/16th deep to areas about an inch square where there was a dip about the depth of a coat of paint and sanding hadn’t quite smoothed it off. Being really really picky, I must have found about 100 little spots that needed more work. Another couple of coats of primer would have done the job, but I was almost out of primer, and I didn’t want to add the additional weight anyway. So, I dipped a mixing stick in the primer and dropped a dap of paint on each of the spots that needed more work. I didn’t bother with crosslinking or anything. In a couple of hours the primer was ready to sand. Using a piece of hardwood about 6 inches * Ľ by ľ and 320 grit I sanded all the dabs of primer flat. Next day I sprayed the gloss and all the nicks and dips were totally gone. Admittedly you can see a few very minor imperfections if you look at the finish under the wrong lighting conditions, but I don’t plan to do that and. … if I catch anyone lurking around my plane at night with a flashlight I swear I’ll show them how to use it as a suppository, so there's little chance that anyone will ever see the imperfections.

My finishing work is finally done. All I have let to do now is install a few wires, pipes and dials.

Polishing

I forgot to mention color sanding and polishing the wings. The good thing about this task is that, with a couple of days of effort, the relatively dull finish becomes showroom quality. The bad thing is that, as you work you're way around the plane you're concentrating on a very small area at a time and you see EVERY imperfection. There are a lot of imperfections in my paintwork, but you'd never know it at first glance. The main problem is that I put on too little paint and / or rubbed too much off. Look closely and you'll see the slight darkness of the undercoat and epoxy showing through here and there. My positive spin on this is that I saved a few pounds, and I can always have the plane painted professionally later. The other problem that bothers me, but no one will probably ever see, is the join between the paint on the upper surface and the lower surface. I polished the underside of the wing after painting - polishing upside down would be very hard to do - and didnt rough up the underside of leading edge enough before spraying the top surface. Result - the overspray (or should I call it underspray) didnt stick well and peeled off when color sanded. The join is going to end up visible.

Trim Paint

I looked at the many Cozy pictures on the Cozy web site for inspiration. I'd already bought some three-step spray can cameleon paint called Mirage from Dupli-Color which I'm hoping will look just as good as that $400/oz stuff I saw on a couple of planes at Sun & Fun. I bought some rolled up stripes from an auto store and scotch taped them to the side of the plane at each end to outline where my trim stripe would go. I started about 6 inches back from the nose and ended about 6 inches from the spinner. The natural sag of the long strip of paper gave me a nice downward curve that seemed to match the curve of the fuselage bottom. Char came out and looked it over, made a few adjustments and pronounced it good. At about this time I was corresponding with Nat regarding his web site (which I maintain) and I mentioned that I was busy planning where the trim paint would go. His one line reply was that I should put it "Where the sun don't shine". Hmmmm. I duplicated the angle of the fuselage stripe on the canard tips and the top and bottom of the winglets, masked everything off, roughed the paint up with 400 grit and sprayed the black mirage primer. The can was enough for two coats on everything. Next day I looked at the results from a distance. Hmmm. Black on white looks pretty good. We'd decided on gold colored trim, so I sprayed the color step (Gold/Magenta). The first coat was very dark purple. The gold color came out better each coat I added. There was enough for three coats. I was quite pleased with the results, but the can says the more coats of color, the better the color change, so I ordered a second kit of the stuff. I'll need some to do the wheel pants anyway.

Like the can says, the color change is much more dramatic when you add extra coats. I added another two coats and left it to dry for a couple of hours before adding the clear coat. The can doesnt say anything about how long to wait before adding clear coat. The paint was dry to the touch, so I dived in on one of the wingets. Agghh! The color immediately began to run. Perhaps I used the stuff too early, but I decided to dump the clear coat and do without. There's no clear coat on the white paint, and I've heard that clear coat crazes and goes milky with age. Next day I color sanded, but the winglet which got clear coat is going to need some more color when I do the wheel pants. (I ran out of paint again, so I'll have to get another kit when the winglets are ready). Once the color had dried for a couple of days I color sanded with 1500 grit, 2000 grit, medium and fine compound. Finally I used "finesse-it" to bring up a really nice shine. By the time I was ready to add the stripe the ridge between the paint surfaces was almost gone. I added a twin gold automotive stripe along the border to cover any minor slips and add effect. I'm very pleased with the result.

I can testify that the Dupli-Color Mirage paint really works. As I stand and look at the side of the plane the center of the fuselage is purple / magenta. The color changes toward the front and back to become a vivid gold. As I walk around the plane the colors seem to move with me. Very impressive. Char and I walked around the plane for 20 minutes just admiring the overall effect. The only problem is that the plane now looks as finished and ready for flight as any plane you might see on a ramp or at a fly-in. This is frustrating to say the least, because I know there is a LOT of work to do before this baby is going to see the sunlight.

After 720 hours spread over three years, my finishing functions are finally finished for the forseeable f...ing future.

PS: the following weekend found me refinishing the strakes where the fuel caps when in.

How to patch Top Gloss

Short answer: You Can't. Long Answer: I roughed up the surface for a few inches around the filler caps, then proceeded to prime the area. I'd run out of smoothprime, and didnt want to buy a whole can just for this little patch, so I got a can of sandable primer from the auto store. It seemed to work just fine, but I'll report later if it causes problems. Once the area was primed and ready for gloss I decided to call Polyfiber and ask an expert the best way to patch a highly visible area like the top of the strake. He said to mask around, rough up and paint a full coat right up to the mask. After it dries, color sand the line away. Hmmm. Sounds dubious, but I'll try it and report back. Sure beats roughing up and repainting the whole panel. I got out my can of top gloss in which I knew there was a cup or so of paint remaining. Found the crosslinker, masked off as instructed and stirred the paint. Hello. This seems a bit thick for Top Gloss. I checked the can. Damn. Smoothprime. Now I'll have to buy another can of Top Gloss. No worries. I'll need it for the wheel pants anyway.

Eventually, when I come into money, I might have the bird repainted professionally. For now it looks just fine from 4 feet, and I did it all myself. I don't think many people will notice the lines around the fuel caps, the color run on the port winglet, the thin paint on the starboard outboard leading edge etc. etc. unless Hicks puts little stickies there. I don't care if he does. They'll blow off in the slipsteam as I fly overhead HIS PROJECT at 10,000 feet while he's remaking his canopy deck... for the fifth time. I'm also thinking of painting a rude sign on the underside of the wings, just for that occasion. Hmmm. Hicks has 5 letters. What descriptive word can I put on the other wing which also has five letters and uses as many of the same letters as possible? If I did it with stencils, I think I could get away with 7 stencils.

Later note. Color sanding the join simply did not work. Top Gloss may be the best paint for the my almost laughable conditions - inexperienced, without protective apparatus, on the patio in humid conditions, with dust and bugs everywhere. I did get the job done, and it doesn't look half bad, but my overall recommendation (given the fact that Top Gloss is the only paint I've used) is to use something else. Anything else.

Finishing the wheel pants

I thought I was done with all the finishing work, but then in Sept '02 I had to do the wheel pants. I was almost out of smoothprime, so I went down to Pepboys for another can of white sandable automotive primer. Pepboys were closed, but Autozone had some gray laquer based primmer / spot filler. Hmmm. This is the experimental catgory, right? I got a couple of cans, sprayed the wheel pants, then wet sanded with 400 grit. Interesting. This is kind of similar to the recommended tecnique for finding low spots - you spray with any old colored automotive paint, then sand till the high spots go white again. Then you fill the low spots. The trouble is that you can't get a very fine feathered edge with micro or even superfil. What happens with the automotive spot filler / primer is that it fills the low spots, even the very tiny ones and feathers to nothing with no edge. If there's a bit of weave showing it fills it. When you wet sand, all you see is the gray low spots. I had a LOT of them. Tiny scratches, nicks and low areas impercetible to the hand or eye were now gray. I worked on automotive paint many years ago and I remember it being much easier to get a perfect finish than what I'd been through with the rest of the plane. These automotive people have been perfecting paintwork for a hundred years. Maybe we should be using their methods. The argument that their filler is too heavy makes sense, except that we're talking about VERY tiny amounts of filler here. I'd be amazed if there was more than 1 oz of filler on the wheel pants, and I'd have to use a lot more micro to get such a smooth surface. The remaining question is "will my Top Gloss stick to the laquer based primer". I got the answer to this question a couple of days later when I stripped the masking tape off the trim stripe... and a two inch wide strip of top gloss came with the tape. Maybe I didnt rough up the primer enough, maybe the surface wasnt clean, maybe I didnt wait long enough for it to cure. All I know is that I had to rub down the whole wheel pant and redo it.

Going Backward

While I was repaintng the wheel pant, I decided that I'd never be happy with the join around the fuel caps and I'd redo the strakes as well. I tried to sand down the join, but all I got was a gradually shrinking island where the coastline was the join between the two coats of paint. It was at this point that I posted a warning about Top Gloss. It simply does not feather. Once the top coat gets thin enough it breaks away in small chunks like ice in the artic. I sanded it as best I could and repainted, but the bump was still visible. I resigned myself to live with it and got on with something else.

Going Backward even further

Often when I decide to live with something, either it or Char bug me until I change my mind. This isnt what happened with the strakes. In Chapter 21 you'll read of my battle with fuel leaks on the right side. Once this battle was over I was left with a row of large repairs in the underside of the right strake outer skin, and I was back in finishing mode once again. After a couple of sessions of micro I had a few minor imperfections left. You know the ones - too small to fix with micro, and too big to fill with primer. I had a little top gloss left, but no smooth prime. I decided to see what the auto store had, and came home with and aerosol can of red oxide spot filler / primer. A few coats of this stuff around the repairs and a little sanding, and all my imperfections were gone. But, (this is where we went backwards again) I noticed that a few areas around the repairs showed as irregular shaped red oxide colored islands indicating that a slight valley had been filled. Interesting.

The strake wasnt perfect the first time I finished it, but it wasnt bad. Hmmmm. I was going to have to paint the whole strake anyway, and I had some spot filler and primer left. So, in the name of all that's good in the world of experimental aviation, I painted the whole damn strake with red primer / spot filler. An hour later I rubbed it all down and, sure enough, discovered some more very slight valleys. These valleys I'm talking about are about as deep as a couple of coats of paint.

There were a couple of chips out of the Top Gloss paint around the filler caps. I got my fingernail under one and peeled off a strip of Top Gloss about 3 inches by 2 inches. Oh wonderful! Without much effort I was able to remove all the Top Gloss in an area about 6 inches around the filler cap using nothing more than my fingers. When I got to the edge of my original filler cap installation repair the peeling stopped. I'd used automotive primer for the repair. Damn. I just used automotive primer over the whole strake. OK. if Smoothprime sticks to it, then I'm home free. I added a can of Smoothprime to the "Next Wicks Order" file I keep open on my computer.

When the smoothprime arrived I repainted the entire strake, rubbed it down with 320 grit and liked the result first time. That red oxide spot filler had really helped get the finish close to perfect. The Smoothprime stuck perfectly. I knew it would because I've gone over a week with the stuff on my hands despite washing and scrubing furiously until the skin was raw. Smoothprime sticks to anything. I loaded the gun with the last (and I mean LAST) of my Top Gloss. I really didnt have enough to give the whole area two full coats. I don't intend to buy another can of Top Gloss (ever) so I let it go at that. I have no doubt that the bird will need a complete repaint fairly soon after it's flying. I'll let it go until it's just too damn ugly to fly, then I'll have it repainted with proper paint. I may well use that red oxide stuff as the initial primer when I repaint. I think it'll get rid of a lot of the annoying little jiggles I can see in the gloss finish.

Spiders

I had a visit from a friend who remarked on the small brown spots all over the turtleback and strakes. Y'know what that is?, he asked. I didn't, but I had noticed that these spots had been appeared in my finished paint and seemed to be gettng worse. "Spider Sh.t", he said.

It seems that there's a breed of spiders in Florida which leaves tiny little brown droplets. Many of them seem to live in my patio roof. These spots are very hard to polish out. The good news is that they match my Desert Camoflage colored Zolotone.

Speaking of Zolotone, I did my FINAL Zolotone work today, March 29th. This time it was the area under and around the back seats. I'm really sick of cleaning the Zolotone out of the paint gun. As usual, once I got the stuff to flow by intermittently blocking the outlet with my finger, The finish looks good. A coat of Zolotone finish coat and that's it. Nothing left to paint.

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