On Jan 27, 12:18*pm, Tim Murphy wrote:
On Jan 26, 3:05*pm, km wrote:







Dear Group,
I was talking to a paint guy who paints airplanes. He is going to
paint my glider in PU or AU (After I do all the prep work of course).
He ask if I would like to use a clear coat. Someone else with an
aviation background ask if a clear coat would work better than a
single stage. I know that 2 stage paint jobs are common on power
planes but I have never heard of this on a glass sailplane. One could
probably clear the wings fuse and horizontal but I think the control
surfaces would be too heavy (On the AS products I understand it is
difficult to keep them within limits).
My question is has anyone ever used a two stage paint job on a modern
composite sailplane? Or seen it done? Thanks
Single stage is the best way.Just finished up a LS-1f and now
starting on a ASW-20.We put down a epoxy primer to seal the gelcoat
then sprayed PU concept white all PPG brand.Wet sanded and puffed
it well worth the extra work,looks and performance wise.

Today I asked a painter about this. He was trained in auto paint and
now does sailplane painting. He is excellent. According to him, it is
easy to sand and buff the clearcoat as smooth as we do with our AU
method.

Two base coats and two or three clear coats and sand the orange peel.

BTW a guy at PPG, told me that what we do by painting and then
sanding to get rid of orange peel and not clear coating is not optimal
in terms of durability. When we sand we are sanding through the resin
and that leaves the pigment bare causing it to age more rapidly.
According to him wax does not protect as well as the pigment being
encapsulated by the resin that is sanded away. Our sailplanes though,
are not left out much like an auto, so that part doesn't seem like
such a big deal.