ragedracer1977

If flight aware is accurate, he made it to SMO earlier this evening.

Do yourself a favor and tell them you want it done on 3m IJ180cv3, 3m IJ180mC-10, or Avery 1105EZRS. As a last resort (if it's FastSigns, they typically use cheap materials.. I know, I worked at one back in the day) ask for Arlon SLX. #1, it will be easier to install cleanly since it has a bubble free component to the adhesive. #2, you'll thank me when you have to remove it. It removes easily and cleanly, leaving no (or VERY little) adhesive residue. If you use one of the more inexpensive vinyls with a permanent acrylic adhesive, you'll be hating life when you try to remove it. If you're not having them printed, but rather cut out of a solid color, ask for 3m's 1080 series or Avery's SW900 series.

So, I weighed some of it today. I got an average across several colors of 4/10th of an ounce per square foot. What I'm looking to do would probably come out to somewhere around 100-125 sqft, or somewhere around 3 lbs total.

Wrapped top fuel dragster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0l7Cv_9OxY

Just for fun, here's a sandrail I did. It has a 'sparkle' lamination on it, with reflective vinyl added. At night, it really pops. https://goo.gl/photos/aYgYyfEF57bfhpCX9

On a primarily hangared plane, I can't see any reason the vinyl wouldn't last a decade, or more. I recently did the hood on a Firebird. The guy had the roof and trunk wrapped 10+ years ago and it still looks brand new. The material itself typically has a 5-7 year warranty from the manufacturer.

Some modified version of this scheme is what I'm looking at. I like how it 'flows' the windows into the fuselage making them look longer. I'll have to put something together in my design program and see what I can come up with. I have to work with the paint that's already on the rudder (a light gray) since it doesn't appear I'm allowed to do anything with that.

OK, so next question, since it seems that this would be legal. Would I make an airframe logbook entry or just not write anything down since it's not permanent?

I would not wrap the wings or control surfaces. Only the fuselage. I've been wrapping vehicles for coming up on 15 years. I've never had a piece 'rip' off, and I've wrapped NASCAR and Formula 1 cars. Remember, many of the passenger jets flying around today have vinyl applied to them. With the amount I am considering applying, we're looking at FAR less than 10lbs. Less than 5 almost assuredly. I can pretty easily calculate a per square foot weight. I'll have to do that at the shop next week. Yes, you can wax it and it is actually recommended to do so You don't want to hit it with an electric buffer as it's easy to 'burn' the UV lamination, but a hand wax is great.

Not my picture, but this is what trailer rivets look like after using a tool like the rolle pro. And trailer rivets are MUCH larger and taller than most aircraft rivets.

There's a couple. With cast air release vinyl with pressure activated adhesive (no 'memory' and micro air release channels) I do it like this: Rolle Pro For cast vinyl with pressure sensitive adhesive with no air channels, I use this around rivets to release the air, heat the vinyl, and then press it down with either a rivet brush or a rivet setting foam pad. rivet brush rivet pad Obviously, the Rolle Pro technique is orders of magnitude faster because you can do an 8' row of trailer rivets in a few seconds.

Ahh, rivets are easy. We wrap semi-trailers all the time that have hundreds upon hundreds of rivets. You just have to have the right tool and it's very very fast. The vinyl we use conforms easily and doesn't 'lift'. Also, I wouldn't be wrapping the entire plane, just adding some graphics, so I wouldn't have to hit every rivet. The loose rivet issue, I could see. I wonder if the vinyl would start failing in the area where you have a 'smoking' rivet? I guess, if it's legal, worst case is I could do it, leave it on for a few months, then remove it to see if anything was 'off'. Literally it would take me only a few hours to do the graphics I'm interested in. Here's a couple pics of stuff I've done. The Tahoe was black when we started, and as you can see, I even wrapped the wheels. The RV was tan.

What's the issue with rivets? I can see the corrosion issue, but with the plane being hangared in AZ, I don't imagine corrosion will be much of an issue.

I'll preface this with: I own a vinyl wrap shop. I've had specialized training from 3m and passed certification tests to install vehicle vinyl. I've wrapped hundreds of cars. Including some that have been featured in magazines. In other words, I know what I'm doing. I'm buying an M20C. I'd like wrap my plane to look similar to new Acclaim Ultra scheme. I just really like the looks, I know how to do it, and I can do it very inexpensively. Can I do it? Part 43 says "Refinishing decorative coating of fuselage, balloon baskets, wings tail group surfaces (excluding balanced control surfaces), fairings, cowlings, landing gear, cabin, or cockpit interior when removal or disassembly of any primary structure or operating system is not required." So, can I legally put vinyl all over the plane except for the control surfaces? Maybe not the wing itself, since the 'wings tail group surfaces' seems to maybe imply ONLY the empennage? Do I have to have anyone approve it or sign off on it?

I just picked up an xnaut case for my mini. It's about to be 105+ degrees here. I'll report how it works out.

Interesting. I hadn't noticed that. I'll have to ask if it was there and just removed when they did the panel upgrade

Pending pre buy, this baby is mine! All logs are present from day 1. Paint is probably an 8. Interior 7. Wheel wells clean as a whistle. No corrosion evident anywhere I could get to without pulling all the inspection panels. Flew like it was on rails. Put it in a bank and let everything go, it just went hands off. Trimmed for cruise at 24/24 was close to 170mph indicated at 3000msl. No play in the empennage. Speed brakes worked perfect. Did a few touch and goes. Lands nice. It just looks really good. Belly was clean and dry. No oil drips anywhere. I'm excited!

So we "complete" the sale in Arizona or Oregon or something?

The plane I'm looking at is in California, which is listed as a fly-away state. Supposedly, though, I can't fly it into or over California for 12 months after the purchase.

Fortunately, there is no use tax on items purchased via private party sales in Arizona. There is a registration fee, which is pretty minimal. Under an AMU, I think

Yup. Flying out there Saturday morning. Have a CFI lined up to go fly around with me. I'm thinking the earlier unwillingness to fly it to LASAR may be an issue of the owner not wanting to fly? He said he wasn't comfortable taking me for a ride, so he arranged the CFI. I don't know what exactly, but as long as I get to fly it.. Hell, I need 10 hours with a CFI in it anyway, for insurance, so.... Kill 2 birds with one stone.

Also, some of the paperwork says that it has an ARC300 2 axis autopilot coupled to VOR and localizer. I'm pretty sure it's only single axis, but I don't really know.

Yeah, I'm not really worried about it. #1, it sounds like he flew it home just fine and didn't even tell anyone. #2, it was replaced with factory parts. #3, if it was going to be a problem, I think it would have revealed itself in the past 50 years.

So I got all the 337's on file at the FAA. Mods it shows: All the Garmin nav stuff. EI UBG-16 with modules for EGT, CHT, OAT, Oil pressure, voltage, and fuel flow. Hartzell Plane power alternator and voltage regulator system LASAR: Nose gear steering pivot, Precise flight speed brakes, cowl closure, 201 style wingtips, 201 style windshield, dorsal fin and cuff, horizontal stabilizer root fairing, flap gap seals, aileron lower gap seals, elevator and rudder hinge covers, wheel well liners, reversed brake calipers. Brackett BA6110 air filter Whelen strobes It did have an accident in 1967. PILOT IN COMMAND ‐ FAILED TO SEE AND AVOID OBJECTS OR OBSTRUCTIONS MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS ‐ UNWARRANTED LOW FLYING REMARKS‐ WIRES BROKEN,POWER POLES DAMAGED.PLT MADE NO REPORT AND DID NOT ACKNOWLEDGE ACDNT. Sounds like he went UNDER the wires as there is an entry for replacing 'vertical fin and rudder' from about 2 months later. Factory new parts were used. I'm thinking that if it happened 50 years ago, any issues from that incident would have long since manifested...

I received the info from aerospace reports. Title is unencumbered. Registration current, etc. A big pile of 337's.