advise on re-painting an all-wooden airplane.

OK -- You can wet sand the Imron (not Emron) down to roughen the surface
and take out any poor spots. White is a great base coat, as some colors
(especially reds) tend to show through.

Now -- a second thought: Have you tried to polish the old paint? All of
the polyurethanes (Imron is one) are extremely durable, but will oxidize
somewhat over time. If you use a power buffer (I use a Makita) and visit
your local automotive paint store, you will find some high-quality
finishing compounds (3M Perfect-It is a good one). These work very well
at restoring old paint, but are messy, as you need a fair amount of
water in the process. The buffer will sling the goop around, so masking
is a good idea.


The idea of buffing it out had crossed my mind, but the paint scheme
is un-attractive and needs to be totally changed. Not uncommon on
homebuilts. I think a lot of homebuilts end up with ugly paint schemes
due to the fact the painting is done at the end of the project, and
some builders just want to get it painted and go fly. So shortcuts and
lack of imagination are used.