Friday 1 ~ Sunday 31
Well it was really more of the same this month. I managed to get the port side finished and the aircraft stood back up this month. I tried a different approach to applying the smooth prime and I thin it was quicker. I prepared the surface with prep wipe as usually and then gave the surface a good work over with the orbital sander loaed with 150 grit paper.
Instead of putting 6 coats on with the roller I put on three coats and then cut it back fairly heavily with 150 grit paper. This cut back much quicker, however it did leave quite a few bare spots. I then got the spray gun out and put on two coats. The theory was that the coats would go on smoothly and then a final cut back with 320 grit would go quite quickly. Well sort off. Since I am not much of a spay painter I go more than my fair share of runs, but I did find the cut back with 320 grit was much faster. What I did find though was that I should have sprayed on 3 coats because I was left with some thin spots that I had to spray over.
All in all it did turn up a better job and when I stood the aircraft up I could see the the starboard side had quite a few thin looking spots on it, so encouraged by my efforts I gave it another coat and rubbed it back. While it did consume yet another weekend I was quite pleased with the result. You might notice I modified my jig a little bit. I cut it down the center to allow better access to the surface I am working on. When I need to stand it up I simply put the other half on and bolt a plate along the bottom.
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