After sanding off about $700 worth of new paint, I sent my plane to a local body shop. The interesting thing was getting a plane with a 17 foot gear width onto a 16 foot trailer. It went well and we didn't have too far to go.
They mixed a single gallon of paint and used the base coat/clear coat method - standard for automotive paint shops. We brought it home and everything seemed great - until...
Until I put the cowling on. Lo and behold, the cowling was darker than the rest of the fuselage! A closer look revealed that the flight controls, spinner, wheel cover pants were also off color.
I brought Sandy out to the airport to look at it. I thought maybe she might suggest that I live with it, but she was disappointed, too.
I had the guys come out and look at it but they couldn't figure out what happened, since it was all painted from a single gallon. They called the DuPont specialist to take a look and even he couldn't figure it out.
So, how to make it right? The DuPont guy brought a nifty scanner which he placed on the fuselage, just aft of the firewall. This device calibrates the color of the existing paint. They took it back to the body shop and plugged it into the paint mixing computer. Just like that, the computer mixes the paint to match the scan.
Today I dropped off the flight controls and some other odds & ends, to be repainted. If they look right, we'll do the cowling. The good news is that the tail cone and canopy match. I know it will be fine when we're done.
On another not
e, I'm starting to plumb the high pressure fuel system for the electronic fuel injection.
No comments:
Post a Comment