Paint on Blade Style Nav Antenna's

[pjsny78]

Does anyone know of the manufacturer who makes the blade style antennas on the tails of Mooneys? I cannot see a name on the antenna. The reason I am asking is that the paint is chipping off and the paint shop refused to paint them. So I’d like to call and see what can be done or if anyone has successfully painted yours I would like to hear about that as well. As always I really appreciate any information.

[cbarry]

I believe they are made by Comant and the part number is CI-120-400.

[Steve65E-NC]

Be careful on this.  My paint shop painted the vertical blade with the rest of the white.  It came out dead.  I found a replacement at a salvage yard and dutifully painted it with some of the same paint.  It came out dead.  The salvage yard supplied a replacement and I installed it without paint.  Still working fine after twenty years.   I also suggest a call direct to Comant.  If there is a paint that you want to use, I would have the details on it on hand to discuss with them.  I bet they know the good and the bad.

[pjsny78]

Thank you for all of your help. I wound up calling comant and they said it would be around $600 for them to repaint the antennas when a new set is $1k.

I think I will just leave them alone.

Thank you guys so much.

 

[Steve65E-NC]

Sounds like a business opportunity to me.

[jetdriven]

The antenna manufacturrs paint them with urethane.  Similar to Imron or PPG Deltron.    Some paint has radically different RF transparency however.  The guy who overhauled my KX170B said he paints a piece of PVC pipe, then keys the mike and measures the SWR with and without the pipe over the antenna.  If the SWR doesnt change, the paint is safe.

[Piloto]

None of the plastic antenna housings that I have seen is actually painted. The housing color is embedded (mixed) with the material before the injection molding process. If you cut the housing the color is the same inside and outside. Most injection molding products are manufactured this way.

José

[David Mazer]

I had two blade type antennas painted blue.  No problems.  I had to replace one of them and decided to paint them white to prevent a problem.  Turned out the white paint used a metal to enhance the opacity and killed the antennas until they were stripped off and repainted with another white that didn't have the metal.  I should have left them blue to match the plane but it can be done if you use the right white paint.

[jetdriven]

White paint is usually tinted with titanium dioxide.  So is your "whitening" toothpaste.

[jetdriven]

Dp

[carusoam]

JD,

TiO2 is the most popular white pigment for paint, plastics, pharma and food.  It is low cost and highly efficient at the same time.  I worked compounding plastics for a few years.  The TiO2 was used in the range of 1 - 3% (weight) throughout the compound (as José described).

I guess metal oxides interfere with radio transmissions.

That's the extent of my current polymer background......

Look for paints that don't use TiO2?

I would expect that someone sells antenna paints

Best regards,

-a-