Paint it or don't.

[CDF219]

Just a quick inquiry guys. Can I paint the fiberglass antenna on top of my 66E? The plane shines nice I keep her clean and waxed but the antenna on top is oxidized and when it has rained it leaves the chalky lines where it has washed the oxidation down the side of the aircraft. Unlike my gps antenna that says do not paint, I just wanted to ask your opinions.

[jetdriven]

You could, technically it's just fiberglass. But here's the problem, many paints have titanium dioxide for the white color and that can block the radio signal. The only way I know to verify your paint of choice is safe is to paint some paper with it real good and then cover the antenna completely with it and see if it transmits the same as without.

[TTaylor]

You might consider polishing it and then follow with a clear coat to seal it.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[N601RX]

If you do decide to be sure to check the VSWR before and after paint so you know how it affected it.  If it is too high, in addition to poor performance it can damage the radio

[orionflt]

Depending on the antenna you may save a lot of trouble just replacing it. Comm antennas start out around $130 fot the basic stick type, if you have a blade type then it gets more expensive.

[PTK]

You may want to get the opinion of a radio shop and also that of a paint shop.

 

There are special paints for antennae.

[rob47v]

Antennas if I'm not mistaken a fiberglass, or  composite base covering thus they have a thin coat of what's called gelcoat. Its a tough  thin acrylic coating. Gelcoat will get destroyed by the sun eventually. Its best to keep clean and waxed. It can be painted the problem is type of paint and mill thickness. We paint them at work.     

[Steve65E-NC]

Do not paint it.  When last I had my Mooney painted, I had them paint a top blade with Aero Gloss white.  Out of the paint shop I noticed badly degraded radio performance.  Their was an aircraft Salvage Yard nearby and I picked up a replacement pretty cheap.  I painted that one myself - smart huh.  It failed in the same way.  I talked the Salvage Yard into replacing it with another and then the radio worked fine.  I think it is the pigment in some paints.  The antenna manufacturers gel coat is pretty thick, unless it is worn through (something other than white showing), a careful cleaning/polishing with something like 400/600 grit or compound, followed by  wax should produce good results.   

[tomn]

Read this last night - I have always thought my radios should perform better than they do.  Looked at the antenna today - Its painted white.  It is the same as the rest of the plane so it was done years ago by the previous owner.  Anyone had any luck stripping the paint off or is it better to just get a new one?  Spruce shows the blade type for $335.  Any other suggestions?

 

Tom

[rob47v]

If your having issues, you could try carefully sanding the paint off and re-applying just a thin coat. When we do this at work, keep in mind these are airliners we use specified paint, which is provided for us and follow written instruction from the manufacture or our engineering dept. The factory gelcoat on these antennas is very thin and can't take paint application without removing some mill thickness. Thus returning the antenna to the specified thickness once more.