Brief Description: Painting strategy - paint and paint supplier selec
Having decided to paint the '10 myself, the next decision was what paint to use and who to get it from.
Through the Web (including Matronics) I discovered that all the major paint producers have or have defined aviation lines of paints. And then there are people who have repackaged or engineered lines for homebuilders (Lohle). I quickly concluded that all the stuff out there is pretty darn good and I'm in no position to evaluate them knowledgeably.
Somewhere I read that an important part of your paint decision is your distributor and that a local distributor could be particularly useful. That mades some sense to me and I went out and visited a local BASF and a Dupont distributor.
Like most industrial supply places, it takes a little effort to connect and bond a bit with the folks there since they usually aren't oriented towards hobby customer. But they do have a tremendous amount of knowledge and access. Local shops are unlikely to have much experience with sport aviation applications.
Here's what I decided to do and why: 1) Went with the Dupont outlet because they were closest. Proximity is a good thing and I've found myself in there at least once or twice a week at this point.
2) While Dupont has specific aviation products and lines, my local guy doesn't really have access to them. The nearest distributor of the Dupont aviation products was in VA. However, I convinced myself that other paint lines were the very similar and could be used. I figured they would be very close in performance to the aviation line and since I'm not flying a jet at 35,000' and 400 it shouldn't be a problem. By the same token, I'm not flying at 60mph like a car so I may benefit from higher performance paints than that.). IOW, proximity won out over product availability and I'm thinking this was the right decision. Good Imron Elite write-up here: http://www.pcimag.com/CDA/Archives/f423218b1e6a7010VgnVCM100000f932a8c0____
3) I chose Dupont Imron Elite SS (Single Stage). It's a truck and bus line of 'coatin
My local Dupont and paint supply outlet - 12mins from home
