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Sand a repair job or strip it?

riobison

Well Known Member
My plane was vandalized in a hanger and now needs some painting on the one wing. There are some scratches on the one wing from where they set some boxes on and dragged them off. I had a local hobby A/C painter look at it and he feels that a light sanding with 320 or 400 grit, some paint and then clear to fix it.

I was always under the impression that we don't sand aluminium, only strip it, etch, prime then the paint?

Or is sanding acceptable some cases?

Thanks

Tim
 
My plane was vandalized in a hanger and now needs some painting on the one wing. There are some scratches on the one wing from where they set some boxes on and dragged them off. I had a local hobby A/C painter look at it and he feels that a light sanding with 320 or 400 grit, some paint and then clear to fix it.

I was always under the impression that we don't sand aluminium, only strip it, etch, prime then the paint?

Or is sanding acceptable some cases?

Thanks

Tim


Are you sure it was vandals?

A couple years ago I was getting ready for a flight and everything looked weird...

My plane seemed to be a little off cente from how I park it. Then when I looked at the prop it hand muddy hand prints all over it! I then looked at the bottom of my wheel pants and they were all scratched up! I need a rubber ramp at the threshold to avoid that from happening and the person who moved it did not use them.

I contacted the airport and they said, yes, we moved your airplane to check the fire system.

From there on out I place a do not move sign with my cell number.

The airport apoligized and paid me for the damage...in hangar rent since I fixed it myself.

Hope you find out who did it.
 
Paint prep

Sanding the paint is fine if you are careful to not put heavy scratches in the aluminum skin. We have a big advantage here with flush rivets. Saw a case where some guys sanded their bonanza before paint and removed most of the AN470 rivet heads in the process. Tab was almost $30K to fix.


Don Broussard

RV-9 Rebuild in Progress
 
I wonder, if you sand the rivet heads off of a Bonanza, would it be able to keep up with an RV-10? :D For a little while maybe.
 
I wonder, if you sand the rivet heads off of a Bonanza, would it be able to keep up with an RV-10? :D For a little while maybe.

Sand it for scratches, strip for panel painting/refinishing (larger areas of aged paint). You should be fine with sanding based on your description.

Funny comment about the Bo's. I was checking the OSH traffic from home and used planefinder w/limited by cruise speeds of the rv7. It thinned the US population considerably. Some Bonanzas, Cirrus, and a few Mooneys - - lots of RV's. Who knows, maybe some of them were turbos. Certainly not RV's.

Not many Bo's faster.
 
Are you sure it was vandals?

A couple years ago I was getting ready for a flight and everything looked weird...

My plane seemed to be a little off cente from how I park it. Then when I looked at the prop it hand muddy hand prints all over it! I then looked at the bottom of my wheel pants and they were all scratched up! I need a rubber ramp at the threshold to avoid that from happening and the person who moved it did not use them.

I contacted the airport and they said, yes, we moved your airplane to check the fire system.

From there on out I place a do not move sign with my cell number.

The airport apoligized and paid me for the damage...in hangar rent since I fixed it myself.

Hope you find out who did it.

Hey John,

Pretty sure as the hanger door was cut off with an angle grinder, my Dodge Viper was stolen, hanger was trashed, fuel samplers were removed from the wings and the fuel drained, oil door was open and something added to the oil, tools missing etc.

Pretty sure of vandalism.

Tim
 
Without pictures an opinion will be hard but here goes. The term is scuff and paint. You do not sand or scuff down to aluminum or the rivets. Your creating something for the paint to adhere to. If this is a clear coat paint job it will be difficult to completely hide but if done right you will be the only one that notices it.
 
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