Sunday, September 16, 2007
Housework
The poor girl is in the shop and the prognosis is that she'll be there for at least a month, possibly two. Since I can't fly her, I might as well clean her up a bit while she's dissembled. A couple of years ago, I painted the top cowl during a long winter weekend. I now have access to the engine cooling baffles, prop spinner and bulkhead, and other assorted airplane parts that were removed when the engine was pulled. I also have a new apartment with a smaller Bachelor Kitchen. It's too small for airplane work, but I have a nice airy balcony that will provide plenty of room and much better ventilation.
A bathtub full of baffles. They're pretty dingy, all covered with baked on gunk and patches of surface corrosion. The first step is to give them a good cleaning with Simple Green (the aircraft-friendly formulation). This stuff does wonders towards removing anything that hasn't yet fossilized.
Clean and dry, but still pretty messy. Next, we'll give them a soak in Alumiprep, a phosphoric based acidic cleaner used for cleaning, brightening and etching aluminum. This is pretty nasty stuff, so the job gets done outside on the balcony.
The prop spinner and bulkhead also get treated. I stripped the spinner last year and primed the inside while leaving the outside unpainted. I could never get it polished enough to look shiny, so I might as well paint it. After a good scrub with the Alumiprep, they look almost new again.
Next, a coat of Alodine is applied to give some resistance to corrosion. This leaves a nice golden brown coloring to the treated surfaces. Again, this is best done outdoors and with appropriate personal protection from exposure to the chemicals.
Everything gets a few coats of self-etching primer. I could leave it like this for that military surplus look. I'd change her name to Camobird.
There's nothing more exciting than watching paint dry, but I took a few extra minutes to clean the carb heat shroud and alternator bracket. Love those nice shiny airplane parts!
Here's my custom support rig for painting the spinner. It doubles as a stool and home gym.
After dragging the repaired nosewheel pant around for a year, it's time to paint it also.
All finished for now, The baffles are done in high temperature aluminum, with satin black for the parts visible through the cowl openings. Now I need to find a match for Yellowbird Yellow to finish the nosewheel pant.
