New Paint Care Suggestions

My Cherokee is in the paint shop, due out in a few weeks. Looking for
suggestions on maintaining a new Imron finish... Of course, I will
solicit input from the paintshop as well.

The plane is hangared, and only sits outside when on trips, so I
figure that is a good start.

Many people do not recommend washing/waxing new paint for several
months (to allow full curing). Is this required?

I fly IFR. Need I be concerned about flying into rain or keeping the
plane out of rain until it is 'fully cured'?

How about taking bugs off the leading edge?

Nathan, I just had a VERY expensive paint job done by one of the better
shops in the US. They recommended that it be washed often (they gave me
a bottle of their proprietary airplane detergent), and not waxed for a
YEAR! (JetGglo paint). Any good paste car wax is OK by them.

Nathan Young wrote:
My Cherokee is in the paint shop, due out in a few weeks. Looking for
suggestions on maintaining a new Imron finish... Of course, I will
solicit input from the paintshop as well.

The plane is hangared, and only sits outside when on trips, so I
figure that is a good start.

Many people do not recommend washing/waxing new paint for several
months (to allow full curing). Is this required?

I fly IFR. Need I be concerned about flying into rain or keeping the
plane out of rain until it is 'fully cured'?

How about taking bugs off the leading edge?

"Rip" wrote:
Nathan, I just had a VERY expensive paint job done by
one of the better shops in the US.

Aw Rip, now you *know* ya gotta give us details!

Shop? Airplane? Cost???
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

1950 Navion A model. First paint job since factory new. Oxford Aviation,
Oxford, Maine. All control surfaces removed, airframe stripped to bare
metal, acid etched, alodined, chromate primed. Jetglo Chrome Yellow base
color with Jetglo Black trim and leading edges. Took 11 weeks and $17K.
More of an airframe "restoration" than a simple paint job.

Dan Luke wrote:
"Rip" wrote:

Nathan, I just had a VERY expensive paint job done by
one of the better shops in the US.


Aw Rip, now you *know* ya gotta give us details!

Shop? Airplane? Cost???

On Wed, 07 Jul 2004 12:59:05 +0000, Nathan Young wrote:

My Cherokee is in the paint shop, due out in a few weeks. Looking for
suggestions on maintaining a new Imron finish... Of course, I will
solicit input from the paintshop as well.

Do not buff until after the paint has cured. I've seen people that wanted
to buff their paint to show it off. It looked like a lamprey tried to eat
their car when they were done. Keep the buffing equipment away until the
paint has curred. The shop will probably wet/hand polish before they give
the plane to you. Leave it at that until the paint has fully cured.
Unless you're a big fan of circular swirls in your paint, be patient and
wait.

Wash your plane regularly, but do not wax until your paint has completely
cured. Once cured, wash and wax. Wax several times, once the paint is
cured, over the next week or two. Afterwards, wax on a regular cycle.
For cars, it should be at least several times per year. I'm not sure
about planes, but you *may* want to consider it a little more often; then
again, you'll be hangared. Using tricks like pledge on the leading edge
may work well to allow you to maintain a car-like wax schedule. Since
you'll be hangering it, I'd bet that a wax job, several times per year, is
probably going to be plenty.

Paint natually wants to oxydize. Maintaining a good wax job will minimize
it. Just the same, you may want to consider buffing anually. Just be
careful. I've seen so many paint jobs, professionally buffed, completely
messed up. Regardless of what ayone tells you, a hand buff is always best
because it's hardest to dig into or burn the paint. Electric buffers can
be a huge time saver, but they are great for burning and scratching paint.
Ever see a car with swirls all over it? That's from a bad buff job. It
does take someone skilled at using buffing equipment to not tear up your
paint. If you will have your plane buffed with an electric buffer, check
their results on many other planes before you turn them loose on your
baby. Personally, I'd much rather pay the premium price and have it hand
buffed. It may be more expensive, but it's seriously hard to find someone
that knows how to properly use buffing equipment, and even then, accidents
happen. Worse, most joes on the street actually think they can operate
one and don't have a problem digging swirls into your paint. They
think it's supposed to be like that. In other words, do you
want people looking at your paint, or the eye catching, shiny swirls all
over your plane? Use caution. Remember, buffing is supposed to make your
paint shiny and new. Buffing is not supposed to add eye catching swirls
to your paint.

Congrats!

On Wed, 07 Jul 2004 12:59:05 GMT, Nathan Young
wrote:

My Cherokee is in the paint shop, due out in a few weeks. Looking for
suggestions on maintaining a new Imron finish... Of course, I will
solicit input from the paintshop as well.

The plane is hangared, and only sits outside when on trips, so I
figure that is a good start.

Many people do not recommend washing/waxing new paint for several
months (to allow full curing). Is this required?

I fly IFR. Need I be concerned about flying into rain or keeping the
plane out of rain until it is 'fully cured'?

How about taking bugs off the leading edge?

New question. How long is cure time?

"Rip" wrote:
Took 11 weeks and $17K.

*gulp* Holy sh--!

More of an airframe "restoration" than a simple paint job.

I should hope so!

Thanks for the details. I bet the Navion looks great.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

On Thu, 08 Jul 2004 16:05:19 +0000, Nathan Young wrote:

On Wed, 07 Jul 2004 12:59:05 GMT, Nathan Young
wrote:

My Cherokee is in the paint shop, due out in a few weeks. Looking for
suggestions on maintaining a new Imron finish... Of course, I will
solicit input from the paintshop as well.

The plane is hangared, and only sits outside when on trips, so I
figure that is a good start.

Many people do not recommend washing/waxing new paint for several
months (to allow full curing). Is this required?

I fly IFR. Need I be concerned about flying into rain or keeping the
plane out of rain until it is 'fully cured'?

How about taking bugs off the leading edge?

New question. How long is cure time?

They should be able to tell you. It will vary from paint to paint. The
chemicals that they add to the paint prior to spraying, may also make a
difference, as will humidity and temp. Make sure they tell you and
then add a week or so to it. Whatever they tell you will be an educated
guess, nothing more. Better to be safe than sorry.


Greg

You can see a photo at:
http://www.navioneer.org/riprelay/

Dan Luke wrote:

"Rip" wrote:

Took 11 weeks and $17K.


*gulp* Holy sh--!


More of an airframe "restoration" than a simple paint job.


I should hope so!

Thanks for the details. I bet the Navion looks great.

All modern aircraft paints are urethane based. They "cure" in about 24
hours (to the point where you can walk on them, and have to sand them to
apply another coat of paint). My paint shop recommended that I wait 12
months (1 full year), before applying any topical wax or coating.
However, I'm free to wash at will.

Rip


Nathan Young wrote:

On Wed, 07 Jul 2004 12:59:05 GMT, Nathan Young
wrote:


My Cherokee is in the paint shop, due out in a few weeks. Looking for
suggestions on maintaining a new Imron finish... Of course, I will
solicit input from the paintshop as well.

The plane is hangared, and only sits outside when on trips, so I
figure that is a good start.

Many people do not recommend washing/waxing new paint for several
months (to allow full curing). Is this required?

I fly IFR. Need I be concerned about flying into rain or keeping the
plane out of rain until it is 'fully cured'?

How about taking bugs off the leading edge?


New question. How long is cure time?