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Steves S-20 Build Site.
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Date: 9-4-2016
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Number of Hours: 12.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Painting the Stabilizers.
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The last day of my first paint marathon!!
I was very pleased with the way the elevators came out, and my confidence as a painter is building.
Today it was the color coats for the stabilizers. I started by temporarily attaching the newly painted elevators and lining up the templates watching to make sure I had straight lines across the panels and that the taper transitions to the leading edge correctly.
With the first template in place and taped off, I sprayed red. I used the drop-off portion of the template that represents the black area to locate the remaining template covering the red I do not want to get paint on, and taped it off and the rest is a matter of procedure.
The biggest issue I had with the stabilizers was the bugs. By the time I was applying the clear coat it was after midnight and I had my shop door open most of the evening to allow paint fumes to exit, but this also lets the bugs in. I originally had furnace filters on my paint booth outlet, but they plugged up pretty fast so I replaced them with a fine window screen material that is supposed to prevent even gnats from entering. Other than that my paint booth is pretty tight, and I thought it would be all but impossible for a bug to fly into the fans and get through the screen, but apparently some bugs can get in. I spent about a half hour trying to find and swat them all, but I still ended up spraying clear with one hand and grabbing bugs out of the air with the other.... One did get into the clear, but I got him removed right away, and thankfully none ended up in the final product....
So, I have my first major painted parts and I can't be more excited. They are not perfect, and a painting professional will be able to find some orange peel, some trash, and even a bug carcass in one of the elevators, but for a first time painter in a makeshift paint booth I am ecstatic about the results so far (firmly knocking on wood right now...).
On to the rudder!
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Locating the templates to match the elevators.
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Ready for the red.
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The results of my memorial day weekend! Yee Haw!
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