Covering

[Jbeck]

Howdy y'all,
I'm getting ready to do my first covering which will be the right wing. Any tips or advice would be appreciated.
Also I'm doing research on sprayers and wanted to see what people's opinions are on the 3M Accuspray paint sprayer and to see if anyone has any experience with the sprayer.

Thanks.

[PapuaPilot]

When I was ready to cover I decided to do the rudder before doing a wing. It is a much smaller part that you can "practice" on, if something doesn't go right you can redo it with less time and material invested.

Maybe some others will chip in on that particular sprayer, but when all is said and done you need good preparation, position, lighting, mixing, environment, ventilation and application. I did all of my spraying in my company's paint booth using a $15 Harbor Freight spray gun. All of the little mistakes I experienced (debris, orange peel & runs) were not due to the HF spray gun.

[jmodguy]

I concur with Papua.
Start small, much you will learn...

[jrevens]

When I took a Polyfiber workshop class, the guys at Colorado Aerotech said that they had excellent experiences with the inexpensive Harbor Freight HVLP gun, Item 66222. That's what we used in the class and it worked very well. Although I covered with Oratex, I bought one of those guns, even though I had a good Binks knock-off that I painted my first airplane with. The Harbor Freight gun has been real nice to use on the few things I have had to paint on the Fox.

[jmodguy]

gotta find my 25% off coupon...

[avidflyer]

I've covered 1 plane and 3 other wings this year with the polyfiber system. Used a Harbor Freight spray gun for all the painting. It works good. I did do all the painting flat however. That helps to avoid runs. I would say for advice, "FOLLOW THE BOOK" the manual is your friend and your best guide. One other bit of advice I will pass along is don't be cheap with the brushed on coat of poly brush. If you get to light on it, especially where you are going over a surface underneath the fabric, make sure you fill the weave with the poly brush. Other wise you can get pin holes real easy. On the Avid Flyer I recovered, it uses an aluminum sheet over the false ribs and also the fabric sticks down onto the fuel tanks. Both are real good places to get pinholes if you go light on the poly brush. And the pin holes are a devil to deal with and get rid of. Don't ask me how I know! ;-) JImChuk

[jiott]

What kind of an air compressor do you need with the Harbor Freight HVLP gun? Will a regular compressor work, or do you need a special HVLP compressor? What size-cfm? As you can tell I know nothing about spray painting but am thinking about getting an inexpensive outfit to learn with.

[Jbeck]

First day of covering went really well. Thanks for all the input.

[avidflyer]

I've done quite a bit of airplane painting with a 30 gallon upright Craftsman oilless compressor. More recently I've been using a 60 gallon 7 HP model. It's way bigger than you need. Probably any compressor that will supply 40 PSI to the spray gun will work. Don't have the specs handy for the air requirements for the Harbor Freight spray gun. You should be able to find them online. It's also good to have a water/oil filter in the airline before the spray gun as well. JImChuk

[efwd]

I have a Harbor Freight spray gun. The small purple one that cost me $10. Not certain but I believe its a HVLP. Anyhow, I just applied the epoxy primer on the metal in the wings and it worked beautifully. Man, it took me all day though. Makes me really want to spend the money on Oratex.

[Dave S]

On the Harbor "Fright" HVLP gun, I also used one on our kitfox. The definition of HVLP includes more than one design - the cheap HF ones reduce overspray by having the paint cup on top of the gun so it gravity feeds rather than to rely on suction feed from below like a "standard" gun which drastically increases the air flow and subsequent overspray. I have a real nice Binks suction feed I use for lacquer work but didn't use that on the Kitfox because slow dry paint and overspray just don't mix.

Years gone by I had some bad luck with cheap spray guns (which is why I got the Binks back then) The problem at the time was poor spray patterns due to the fluid needle not being centered so you ended up with a lop sided spray pattern no matter what adjustments were made. I am still flabbergasted by the cheap HF HVPL gun as it has always done good spray patterns and I can't figure out how they made it work so well and be cheap:confused:

I am sure the high tec turbine HVLP guns are really nice - but it's a lot of money too.

[Geowitz]

One more vote for the Harbor Freight HVLP gun. Can't remember which tip size mine had, but I used it with the very tricky Stewart System 2 part paint and was thoroughly happy with it's performance. In the middle of the paint job when I got tired of cleaning it and it started to gum up a little I just bought a new one. I think it was like $17 at the time. And I used an old 5 gallon craftsman air compressor. Not ideal, but not a single person has ever had anything bad to say about my paint job. It's all mostly in the prep!