SOP for a freshly painted airplane

[ArtVandelay]

On a newly painted airplane there is going to be screws that are now painted over (inspection plates). To minimize paint damage what is the preferred method of unscrewing painted screws?  Razor blade? Although that sounds tedious task given all the inspection plates?

[carusoam]

There are paint cutting tools for that...

Best regards,

-a-

[MooneyMitch]

My experience, 3 times now...........if you have not had the plane painted yet......my advice...... remove any fuselage/wing item that is secured with a screw.

That includes inspection plates, belly panels, fairings, etc.  These items are painted separately.

This method allows two things to happen:  1.  all new screws to be installed after paint. 2. eliminates the need for future paint seam seal breaking.

 

[ArtVandelay]

Already painted, they did remove the battery panel, the tail/fuselage pieces/plates, etc. But for example the screws to get access to circuit breakers they didn’t, the panel to get to the electric fuel pump, etc


Tom

[LANCECASPER]

If they painted the inspection panels while they were on the airplane I would be very concerned about how many more corners they cut, like rebalancing the control surfaces correctly.

At this point I’d remove the panels, knowing that you’re damaging the paint and then ask them to re-paint them off of the airplane and then I'd re-install them with new stainless screws.

[chriscalandro]

Sounds like that’s the paint shops problem to figure out. What shop Is it so I know where not to go?

Edited May 29, 2020 by chriscalandro

[ArtVandelay]

If they painted the inspection panels while they were on the airplane I would be very concerned about how many more corners they cut, like rebalancing the control surfaces correctly.
At this point I’d remove the panels, knowing that you’re damaging the paint and then ask them to re-paint them off of the airplane and then re-install them with new stainless screws.

They did rebalancing , all were centered and no new weights were required, and as I said some they definitely removed with new shiny screws, the fuel inspection panels were painted over which I would expect, but some of the others on the bottom of the wing look like they weren’t. I will let my AP figure it out next annual, and have them touch it up at the same time, as they are both on the same field.

[MooneyMitch]

10 hours ago, carusoam said:

There are paint cutting tools for that...

Best regards,

-a-

Anthony’s suggestion appears worth investigating.  I’m curious too.

[ArtVandelay]

Anthony’s suggestion appears worth investigating.  I’m curious too.

Here you go:

[MooneyMitch]

6 minutes ago, ArtVandelay said:

Here you go:

Excellent!! Might need the angle piece in order to access the fuel pump, and right side curved fairings.

[chriscalandro]

1 hour ago, ArtVandelay said:

 the fuel inspection panels were painted over which I would expect, 

I would not expect that, I would expect them to be removed and properly painted. 
 

1 hour ago, ArtVandelay said:

I will let my AP figure it out next annual, and have them touch it up at the same time, as they are both on the same field.

I would encourage you to make the paint shop figure it out now so touch ups aren’t required. Touch ups will not adhere like the new coat. Also, you want to pay your a&p to cut through the painters mistake?
 

[MooneyMitch]

16 minutes ago, chriscalandro said:

I would not expect that, I would expect them to be removed and properly painted. 
 

I would encourage you to make the paint shop figure it out now so touch ups aren’t required. Touch ups will not adhere like the new coat. Also, you want to pay your a&p to cut through the painters mistake?
 

My opinion, it's not necessarily the paint shops mistake, as it is a choice for them.  Removing all things with screws, as we know [lol] is quite time consuming.  Time equals money.  Understanding that, along with knowing my paint shop, I chose to remove most everything prior to sending the planes in for the process.  Some items I removed after stripping for the sake of not letting stripping material/water into certain areas of the plane.

After all items were painted, with pre-permission from the shop, I reinstalled all.......no labor time for the shop.

[Hank]

Fuel panels should not be removed for painting. Mine weren't even all removed when my tanks were stripped and sealed.

Chemical stripping and tank resealing is often done prior to painting, since the stripper can damage the paint. Removing these panels to paint them would be foolish, as they would require resealing to install.

Other inspection panels are often removed and painted separately. I've seen rows of screws punched into cardboard and painted so they would both match and be removable afterwards. 

But having stainless screws in panels that are removed for inspection is nice, because you don't have to check at annual time, just remove the stainless screws.

[chriscalandro]

I didn't read this carefully enough I guess and thought this was around the belly panels and  gascolator for some reason.  I guess I wasn't paying attention.  You are correct about the panels.

 

 

Edited May 29, 2020 by chriscalandro

[bradp]

9 hours ago, LANCECASPER said:

If they painted the inspection panels while they were on the airplane I would be very concerned about how many more corners they cut, like rebalancing the control surfaces correctly.

At this point I’d remove the panels, knowing that you’re damaging the paint and then ask them to re-paint them off of the airplane and then I'd re-install them with new stainless screws.

That also implies that there is corrosive stripper sitting under any panel that was not removed and masked 

Hank is correct that fuel panels should not be touched during repaint.  Often fuel leaks present after repaint due to the same stripper working its way through 

[ArtVandelay]

That also implies that there is corrosive stripper sitting under any panel that was not removed and masked 

Hank is correct that fuel panels should not be touched during repaint.  Often fuel leaks present after repaint due to the same stripper working its way through 

This happened to me, my AP thought the old paint was acting as a sealant. And once removed it started to leak. We patched it before starting the paint process.

I think if it was the stripper, then all the panels would leak.

[MooneyMitch]

2 hours ago, bradp said:

That also implies that there is corrosive stripper sitting under any panel that was not removed and masked 

Hank is correct that fuel panels should not be touched during repaint.  Often fuel leaks present after repaint due to the same stripper working its way through 

My experience...... 3 Mooneys I sent through full strip/repaint, none resulted in fuel leaks.

I’m not aware of any Mooney that went through Artcraft paint shop that experienced a fuel leak from stripping.