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Dave's RV-7A Builder's Log
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Date:  2-25-2017
Number of Hours:  3.00
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Panel labeling attempt #1

Today’s session was a complete mess. I have been putting off attempting to label the panel for a couple of reasons, not the least of which was the possibility of an epic failure, and epic failure was the final outcome of the day.

I started by lightly wet sanding the panel with 800 grit sandpaper to ensure that follow on clear coats would adhere after I applied the dry transfer decals. After cleaning the panel and drying it thoroughly, I started by transferring the “passenger warning” decal (sounds ominous, but required by the FAA to let people know that they didn’t have as much control of building this airplane as they’d like). It was then that I realized this might not work. Part of the challenge was that the total transfer area is about 1” x 3” in size, and rubbing the backing (a Mylar-like material) caused it to expand slightly, which over the length of the transfer, started moving letters away from their intended location by a fairly significant amount. It was even worse with the thin border around the text, which came off in blotchy sections. When I removed the backing to check the work, it looked like the letters had melted.

After trying smaller sections, I started getting better results, but then noticed that quite a few of the letters were not transferring…but it was totally random. The net effect was like having to read the following statement: Yo r resul s may va y, but I’m n t go ng to use dry tran fer deca s

I took the panel out to the hangar, sanded everything down and reshot the base and clear coats to start over.
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