"Charles Talleyrand" wrote in message
...
On Jun 26, 10:45 pm, "Mike" wrote:
"Charles Talleyrand" wrote in message

...

My kid and I just washed the plane. Even after washing it, there are
still chips of paint missing, a bit of rust, a drip-stain of fuel, and
so on. The panel looks like it has been modified every once in a
while since 1966. My plane is relatively nice compared to the other
ones on the field, but it's still in worse cosmetic condition than my
car.

None of these problems is a safety issue, and none of them could be
fixed without spending significant time and/or money.

One of the reasons we own airplanes is pride of ownership.

This makes me sad. Makes me want to sell and rent.

It's possible to restore old paint. You'd be surprised what you can
polish
out. Older planes were actually painted with very high quality paint
that
can be restored. Chips can be polished and filled with paint. There's
not
much you can do with rust spots other than remove it and have the paint
matched, but it should at least be tended to before it gets worse. You
can
either have all that done professionally or you can do it yourself. The
following web site would be a great place to start:


It's not old paint. The paint is probably only six years old. My car
is also six years old, but I know I can replace my car when ever I get
sick of it. Planes are not so easy to exchange, and I would just get
another old plane anyway. At least this one has very few non-cosmetic
squawks (dang nose wheel shimmy).

If the paint is only 6 years old, it probably used a clear coat system. It
can still be restored as it probably isn't old enough to have lost the clear
coat finish. Oxidation is fairly easy to deal with, it just takes a bit of
work. A good quality mechanical polisher and the no-how to use it can make
a tremendous difference.