Paint Weight?

Discuss painting, polishing, or painting vs polishing.

Paint Weight?

Postby MichaelFarley56 » Mon May 04, 2015 9:11 pm

For those of you who have painted your airplanes, I'm curious how much weight it added to the airframe. I know there can be quite a difference between a one color, single stage paint and a multi color base/clear, so I'm curious what actual reports are. I've heard numbers anywhere from 15-50 lbs so I'm just curious.

Thank you!
Mike Farley
Waiex #0056 - N569KM
Jabiru 3300A #1706
MGL Panel
MichaelFarley56
 
Posts: 1470
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2011 11:38 pm
Location: Columbus, Ohio

Re: Paint Weight?

Postby kmacht » Mon May 04, 2015 9:30 pm

I painted mine with a three color base coat / clear coat and my best guess is around 25 pounds. It is going to be tough to get had numbers because many people don't weigh their plane before painting. My finished weight was 667 lbs.

Keith
#554
kmacht
 
Posts: 755
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:30 am

Re: Paint Weight?

Postby Bryan Cotton » Mon May 04, 2015 9:44 pm

You going to the dark side Mike?
Bryan Cotton
Poplar Grove, IL C77
Waiex 191 N191YX
Taildragger, Aerovee, acro ailerons
dual sticks with sport trainer controls
Prebuilt spars and machined angle kit
Year 2 flying and approaching 200 hours December 23
User avatar
Bryan Cotton
 
Posts: 4957
Joined: Mon Jul 01, 2013 9:54 pm
Location: C77

Re: Paint Weight?

Postby MichaelFarley56 » Mon May 04, 2015 10:01 pm

Thanks Keith. I sort of guessed it would be a bit of a challenge for the reason you listed. I was just curious.

Good question Bryan; I haven't decided yet. I'm starting to think about it. I've got several tiny dings on my skins and it drives me nuts that I can't hide them. I've also come to the realization that no matter how many hours I spend polishing, I'll never be done. After a long winter my entire airplane was covered with light oxidization which is requiring going all the way back to Nuvite F9 to get rid of. I love the polished look, not to mention the weight savings, but the amount of time it takes to keep the finish up is getting excessive.

If I knew a PPG single stage polyurethane would only add 15-20 lbs I'd seriously consider it. We shall see...
Mike Farley
Waiex #0056 - N569KM
Jabiru 3300A #1706
MGL Panel
MichaelFarley56
 
Posts: 1470
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2011 11:38 pm
Location: Columbus, Ohio

Re: Paint Weight?

Postby fastj22 » Mon May 04, 2015 10:07 pm

15 to 20 lbs seems about right. I painted my plane before final assembly and did the W/B after so I really don't know.

We are finishing wrapping Mike Neidenthals plane this weekend with vinyl wrap and will do another W/B and have some good numbers from that.

John Gillis
SEL Private, Comm Glider, Tow pilot (Pawnee Driver)
Waiex N116YX, Jabiru 3300, Tail dragger,
First flight, 3/16/2013. 403 hours and climbing.
Home: CO15. KOSH x 5
Flying a B-Model Conversion (Super Bee Baby!)
User avatar
fastj22
 
Posts: 1594
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2011 5:56 pm
Location: Mile High

Postby rbarber » Sun May 24, 2015 11:43 pm

Mine weighed 14lbs or nearly so. But I didn't put the clear coat on, which I suspect would add at least another 5lbs.
User avatar
rbarber
 
Posts: 103
Joined: Sat Mar 10, 2012 5:47 pm

Re: Paint Weight?

Postby rizzz » Mon May 25, 2015 12:33 am

MichaelFarley56 wrote:Good question Bryan; I haven't decided yet. I'm starting to think about it. I've got several tiny dings on my skins and it drives me nuts that I can't hide them. I've also come to the realization that no matter how many hours I spend polishing, I'll never be done. After a long winter my entire airplane was covered with light oxidization which is requiring going all the way back to Nuvite F9 to get rid of. I love the polished look, not to mention the weight savings, but the amount of time it takes to keep the finish up is getting excessive.


I feel your pain (and my plane is not even finished yet).

I started off polishing, I had completed the V-tail, H-tail, rudder, elevators, ailerons and flaps. They were polished to a near mirror like finish, I was very happy with the results at the time.
I wrapped them in blankets for storage when I moved onto building the fuselage.
A year or so later (maybe 2, time flies when building an airplane), I unpacked the tail again in order to match drill it to the fuselage, I was shocked at how much my polish work had deteriorated already even though the parts had been nicely stored away.
During fitting of the tail I scratched the polish work even further just by handling it, it was going to need a full second polish job already!
That's when I said, NO WAY! I am not willing to keep polishing the plane over and over and over again. Hence I decided to paint from then on.
Also, Since I made the decision to paint I have made a few dents here and there along the way (plus a major oops dropping an aileron recently), such mishaps are easily hidden with some bondo on a painted plane :-)

My paint is a 2 pack polyurethane, 1-2 coats primer, 1 topcoat (at least for white paint on white primer). No clear coat, so I hope the result is pretty lightweight considering.
I get great shine when I'm handling the spray gun well (not always the case but getting better at it).
Michael
Sonex #145 from scratch (mostly)
Taildragger, 2.4L VW engine, AeroInjector, Prince 54x48 P-Tip
VH-MND, CofA issued 2nd of November 2015
First flight 7th of November 2015
Phase I Completed, 11th of February 2016
http://www.mykitlog.com/rizzz/
rizzz
 
Posts: 869
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:07 am
Location: Wollongong, NSW, Australia

Paint Weight?

Postby Tmdarkansas » Thu Sep 03, 2015 12:06 am

I am really thinking about vinyl wrap. I read somewhere that it was lighter than paint.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Tmdarkansas
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2014 1:20 am

Re: Paint Weight?

Postby vigilant104 » Thu Sep 03, 2015 7:38 am

Tmdarkansas wrote:I am really thinking about vinyl wrap. I read somewhere that it was lighter than paint.

Are they still saying it lasts about 5 years? That would be a dealbreaker for me, esp at the prices it typically costs.
Mark Waldron
Sonex 1230 (Builder: Jay Gibbs)
Aerovee, Trigear
vigilant104
 
Posts: 265
Joined: Wed Nov 09, 2011 3:34 pm
Location: Near Dayton, OH

Re: Paint Weight?

Postby gcm52 » Thu Sep 03, 2015 9:36 am

How much does vinyl wrap cost? I was thinking about that as an option for my Onex...
George Mueller
Onex Trigear
Rotax 912 ULS
gcm52
 
Posts: 88
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2015 12:23 pm

Next

Return to Finish methods

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests