Paint It Yourself Or Pay A Pro?

Full disclosure: I am not a professional painter. However, I have worked in the coatings industry for some 40 years, first with a major spray equipment manufacturer, followed later with a paint company supplying both the automotive and aviation industries. I have, however, painted for “fun and relaxation,”actually more to help friends finish (pun intended) their projects.

Over the years, I painted several plans-built and kit aircraft as well as a couple of antiques and classics, including my own Stinson. Several were fabric-covered as well as aluminum and fiberglass planes. Each had different issues and different coatings, dope, enamel, and urethanes. Several were new builds, and a couple were “simply” refinishing. They turned out well, confirming that I must have paid attention in the classes I taught. 

Painting an aircraft is hard work, almost as hard as writing the check to the professional that you might hire to do the work. But do get several quotes and balance them with the cost and effort of doing it yourself. Hopefully, this article will help you in deciding which direction to take. If you choose to hand your project over to professionals, understand that it will be expensive. Shops are businesses, and just like all businesses, they have overhead that must be accounted for. These include rent, shop equipment, wages, material costs, and, of course, profits. All of those factors are part of the final price. 

Another issue is the time the job will take. It can take as long as six months, as some shops may push the plane to the back of the shop to do other work. Another factor to consider is that the more complex the color scheme, the more it will cost and take longer to complete. Taping and masking take time, and time is money to any business. 

Before you make your decision one way or the other, talk to someone who has done the painting and to another who sent it to a shop. Take advantage of their experience.

Once you have recovered from the shock at the shop’s prices and the estimated completion date, it is time to figure out the cost of doing it yourself.

Let’s move on to more decisions that you have to make before diving in. You have built the plane working nights and weekends, and now it is ready for the last step before you can go flying. You are almost there. After all, you built the thing, so how hard can the painting be?

DIY painting is expensive, but there are other things to consider. Whether it is in your shop or hangar, each presents its own challenges, such as lighting, exhaust, inlet (makeup) air, and compressed air, to name a few. You will need to make a booth in your shop. Line the walls with plastic sheeting, leaving openings for the exhaust fan and inlet air. This will help keep the painting area clean and protect the rest of your shop and tools.  

It is most important to properly ventilate your shop to remove the solvents and overspray from the booth. A buildup of solvents can create a fire hazard, and you need to take all necessary steps to avoid this. All require that you adhere to a ‘good neighbor policy’, as overspray can get very expensive if it lands on your neighbour’s car or the airplane in the next bay.

Spray Equipment

• Two spray guns, one for primers and the other for topcoats. (HVLP or LVLP)
• Air regulator and moisture trap. 
• An air compressor large enough to support the guns (4 cubic feet per horsepower (CFM). For example, if your gun uses 8 CFM, you will need a 2-hp, two-stage compressor.

Consumables

• Gun wash
• Final Car Wash
• Etching Primer – metal A/C
• Sandpaper – 80 – 400 grit
• Disposable paint filters
• Tack cloths
• Making tapes – 3/4 “ as well as ¼” fineline, ¾” fineline. To save hours of masking and ensure that everything lined up correctly, stencils can be used for the registration letters.
• Masking papers – two widths
• Body filler – as/if required 

When buying consumables, go to the specialty jobber who sold you the paint and buy only his body-shop-quality products. You might pay a little more up front, but you will save yourself a lot of pain and aggravation down the road. 

Safety Equipment

• Gloves
• Dust masks
• Dual Cartridge Respirator with prefilters. These will extend the life of the more expensive cartridges.
• Air Fed Respirator – optional
• Paint Suits and booties

Disposable gloves are readily available in vinyl, latex, and nitrile and vary in cost depending on quality. These should be worn whenever you are mixing paint or fillers, sanding, painting, or, in other words, most of the time. 

Once the parts to be painted are thoroughly cleaned, it’s time to start masking. Complete masking of the interior and engine areas must be done to cover any part you don’t want exposed to overspray, such as tools and finished parts. 

As always, the actual painting takes only a small fraction of the time required to prepare for it. Someone asked how long all this took. I had tracked my time on a Zenith and logged just over 80 hours of prep and paint time. My best guess for the other two guys that helped, their time was another 140 hours for a grand total of 220 labor hours. Add in the material costs, and this will help you to understand why paint shop quotes tend to be so high.

Dust Controls 

This will be as boring as watching paint dry. But isn’t that what it is all about? After all, watching paint dry is the endgame.

Cleanliness: No shop will ever be spotless, but you have to try to get there. Commercial shops will spend large sums to purchase a pressurized down-draft spray booth to reduce the chance of getting dirt in the finish. Note: I didn’t say eliminate it; I said reduce it. 

Some of the most important tools to have on hand will be a broom and a vacuum cleaner, a dusting or blow gun, and an oil-and-water extractor for your compressed air line.

The first step in cleaning requires using the dusting gun and your air compressor to blow off the entire part, focusing on cleaning all seams and joints. Dust will hide in there. 

Wiping down parts or the entire aircraft before spraying the first coat of etching primer (for aluminum) is necessary to remove all traces of oil and dust. Using the wax and grease remover will consume a large quantity of clean white rags. Wet one with the wax and grease remover, and have a clean, dry one in the other hand to dry off the part, changing it often as it becomes contaminated by the liquid you have wiped up. Don’t forget the gloves. 

Once that is done, do it all over again with something a large paint supplier calls Final Car Wash.

Note: Rags soaked in solvents need to dry before disposal to reduce the risk of fire.

The third and last step in cleaning is done with a tack cloth. Tack cloths are available at all autobody supply stores, and I tend to buy them from paint stores, as these are the ones pros want to use. (More information on specific brands can be found on the internet.) These gauze pads are impregnated with a tacky substance, folded over many times, and need to be opened so they can readily pick up dust. Don’t press hard, as that might cause some of that tacky substance to transfer to your project. A light, gentle touch is required here. They are not expensive, so replace them frequently as they will load up with trash and dry out. If you do want to save a cloth for later use, put it in a zip-lock bag to keep it from drying out.

Sanding

Any time you are sanding primers, fillers, old paint, fiberglass, or gelcoats, you are creating dust. This is bad for a couple of reasons. 

You are releasing particles of whatever you are sanding into the air that you are breathing. Wear a dust mask. You can’t avoid the cleanup, but you can avoid breathing in that stuff. Simple disposable dust masks are available at all big-box stores, your local automotive paint supplier, or even the local drug store. They are cheap and readily available, so there is no reason not to use them.

If you are refinishing an airplane that has been previously enjoyed, it is essential that it be thoroughly cleaned with soap and water, and a quality wax and grease remover.

Paint Suits: Tyvek paint suits are a great way to keep your clothes and the shop clean. These come in a variety of sizes, and while I generally change them only when they get really dirty or torn, I have always worn a new one when starting on the finish coats. Professional painters often tape the ankles, wrists, and zippers to keep their clothes clean.

Painting 

When you have reached the point where there’s not much left to do, you’ve got all the materials and equipment, it’s time to start painting. If you’ve never done it before, the good news is that you are starting with the primer. A great place to learn, and if you run the primer, it’s no big deal, as you have to sand it anyway.

Paint and cleaning solvents and hardeners are toxic, so wearing a mask is not optional. For priming and small parts painting, I use a dual charcoal cartridge respirator. Just remember to change the cartridges and the paper prefilters often. If you can smell solvents through the mask, it is time to change. This type of mask can be more expensive, but it is a minor cost compared to the overall project cost.

For large or complete paint jobs, consider an air-fed respirator to breathe clean air. This requires the use of a separate oil-free air supply. I have a ¾ hp oilless compressor for this, along with sufficient hose to put the compressor outside the booth where it can draw clean air. It means dragging another hose into the booth, but the benefit of clean breathing air far outweighs the inconvenience. These respirators are most readily available from your local autobody shop supply house but be aware that they are not cheap.

A few reminders about dirt in the finish:

1. Wet the floor to eliminate dust from that source.
2. Tack wipe all of the masking paper as well as the surface to be painted.
3. Ground the parts to be painted to remove any static electricity that may have developed when ‘tack wiping’.
4. Use only automotive-grade masking tape and paper. 

Problems and how to avoid

1. Dirt in the finish
2. Clean the booth and the part being sprayed. Have the exhaust fan on when sweeping or blowing off the parts
3. Wet the floor just prior to painting.
4. Fisheyes 
5. Clean the part with ‘final car wash’  or a wax and grease remover before sanding or painting.
6. If you have used an automatic oiler on your compressed air line for your rivet gun or other air-powered tools, take it off and replace the air hose, as you will never get all the oil out, and trust me, it will show up as “fisheyes”.                           
7. Runs
8. Put less on – apply a ‘tack coat first and then a full wet coat.
9. Increase the air pressure
10. Orange peel
11. Increase the air pressure or add more reducer to thin the paint.

I hope this will help answer any questions you might have, and, most importantly, that you have fun whichever route you choose.