I was able to get all 4 top wing skins primed tonight. They’re ready for dimpling, and then riveting! It looks like my pitot mast should be here in a day or so, which is pretty good timing, as thats about when I’ll need to get it installed. I grabbed a couple of time lapses for this build session. The first one is the entire session, the other is a shorter on thats close up of me scuffing and cleaning the skins.
I started out by scuffing the 4 top wing skins. I had a bright idea of borrowing my wifes orbital sander and seeing if a scotchbrite pad would stick to the velccro attachment…..AND IT DID!!!
This made is SOOOOOOO much easier to scuff these skins! Just check that timelapse. Each skin was very nicely scuffed in a few minutes with very little work. I did go back over them with the pad in my hands to touch up a few spots, but the sander left a very nice and uniform scuffed surface for priming. After that, I cleaned the skins with MEK and acetone, using a clean paper towel on each wipe till it came up clean. Then off to the paint booth they went. Heres a timelapse and closeup of this work:
And here’s what a skin looks like from using the scotchbrite pad on a sander:
I mixed up 8 ounces of AKZO primer, which seemed to be a little more than I needed for the 4 skins. Not much excess though, maybe 1 ounce? As the AKZO was doing its 30 minute kick off, I setup the paint booth, and then donned my bunny suit. I wound up making some covers for my shoes with paper towels and masking tape. It worked better than I thought!
Heres my obligatory selfie in a bunny suit to show I am doing the work 🙂 I need to replace the dust filters on the respirator chemical cartridges. This bunny suit is also a little worn. I might be able to get the rest of the priming sessions for the wings done with it though.
Then, I sprayed the skins with AKZO in the booth, and did my clean up. I need to spend some time on this paint gun, as my nozzles are getting a bit clogged causing an uneven spray pattern. This is of course a $10 spray gun, so it might be worth trashing and buying new? I have sprayed with this thing a bunch so far, and its give great service up till now. Here’s how the skins turned out:
Thats it for tonight. I’ll let these cure for a day or so, then start the work of dimpling them. After that, they’ll be ready to go on the wing skeleton for final riveting!
Google Photos Link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/oXxBseB8UpVbXRKYA
Hours Worked: 2.5