Picking up from paint shop, what should I look for?

[thomas1142]

I will be picking up my J from the paint shop next week. What should I be looking at when I pick it up?

[N204TA]

Everything.  To the paint job itself, look for runs, overspray, and forgotten masking tape.  Then, do the most meticulous preflight that you have ever done.  Be sure that everything that was or could have been removed in the process is securely reattached and look for missing screws or screws that aren’t fully tightened.  Be sure that your pitot and static ports aren’t blocked.  Check the operation of all control surfaces, the condition of door seals, etc.

When I had my airplane painted, the overhead vent leaked and the carpet in the baggage compartment was soaked in water and paint stripper.  They also did some light corrosion removal in the wings and destroyed the PC servo boots.

[Fritz1]

This is serious stuff since control surfaces have been removed, I took my AP/IA with me and we spent several hours verifying the attachment of everything that had been removed.

Then it depends what you ordered, was the stripper vaporized or not, how has the stripper been removed, have transition lines been sanded, is there a clear coat over everything, are any windows crazed from solvent vapor?

Last not least get some insurance against what you cannot check, i.e. adhesion, thus stuff blowing off a couple of years down the road, let them guarantee adhesion for a couple of years in writing

I keep fingers crossed, this is a big moment. I had one paint job done 25 years ago by Modworks in Punta Gorda, Perfect job, another one by somebody else 5 years ago, lots of trouble that I did not see coming because the first job long ago had been so perfect 

[glbtrottr]

- Burn on the glass from stripper.
- No detailing / careless preparation around tape lines.
- Overspray from poor taping
- Orange peeled paint from too heavy an application
- Dry spots from not enough paint
- Too thin an application showing thru to the primer
- Runs from heavy application
- Failing to cover steel parts during strip causing oxidation and damage in places like expensive bearings
- Painting the airplane while instead of painting the airplane with the cowling off.
- . Heavy sanding of the airframe never feathered, showing sanding lines through the paint
- unpainted or incomplete jambs if paid for
- landing gear wells take a lot of time and are greasy - check for quality of paint and finish
- dirt , contamination
- fisheye on the paint or solvent pop
- removal of navigational lights and other plexi for paint as cheap can leave tell tales

I cheated on creating the list - I own an airplane paint shop


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[Fly Boomer]

5 hours ago, glbtrottr said:

I cheated on creating the list - I own an airplane paint shop

Nice list.  I'll bet half of us don't know what all those things look like.  A good argument for taking the airplane to a pro.

[Marc_B]

@thomas1142 keep us posted on how things turned out! Has to be exciting to pick er up!

[Marc_B]

@thomas1142 BUMP.  Pirep on process, time, and after thoughts?