Recovering/respraying a fuselage

[Terry Lee]

I'm planning to recover my Terrier's fuselage next Spring, excluding the tailplane, elevators,doors and the aluminium front end.

"I wonder,has anyone here undertaken this job", and if so could you give me an estimate as to how much paint I should budget to use, the finish coats will be polyurethane 2k assuming 2 coats. My best guess would be about 3 ltrs, plus the flexible additive.activator and reducer, but that is really just a guess. If anyone could offer any practical advice it would be most appreciated.

[Brian Hope]

Hi Terry, a couple of things spring to mind. Firstly when you say a two pack poly, are you meaning an aircraft type such as the Polyfiber system, or an automotive system? Even with a plasticiser an auto system will not have the longevity of a designed for aviation product and if you intend keeping the aircraft it could turn out to be false economy. I've seen 20 year plus Polyfiber systems that look as good as the day they were painted, and six to ten year auto-paint finished aircraft that are cracked and ring-wormed and the only solution is a complete re-cover. Yes automotive poly is flexible, but not enough long term on unsupported fabric.
Check out the aircraft covering manufacturers’ websites and literature, they generally have materials estimates for different sized aircraft. Better still come to the Rally at the end of the month and have a chat with Aircraft Coverings and try your hand at some fabric work.

[Terry Lee]

Thanks Brian, in answer to your query, It's going to be a good quality automotive 2k with flexible additive mixed in, applied directly on top of Silver Nitrate dope, the fabric will be Ceconite. The wings, I'm told, were done this way circa 10 years ago and still look great.

The main concern for me is matching the rest of the aircraft, i.e. wings and tail, in terms of colour and glossiness, I have recovered and painted the doors using this method and am very satisfied with the result and as yet are showing no sign of cracking or deteriorating. If I was stripping and recovering the whole airframe, yes, I would undoubtedly follow your advice and employ either Polyfibre or Ceconite products throughout.

Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to make the rally this year.

[John Dean]

Can I emphasise Brian's suggestion NOT to use car paint even with a flex additive if you expect to keep the aeroplane more than 7 years or so.

My experience is that it's not up to the job, long term, of a constantly flexing surface such as an aircraft wing.