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The JetPen by Sherwin-Williams is an option for touch-ups and repairs.
aircraft type has its own peculiarities when it comes to the proper way to prep and paint the airframe. You don’t want to be the airplane that the shop “goes to school on.”
Will That Be One Coat or Two?
Another factor that will impact the final cost of your aircraft’s repaint is what type of paint you want to use. Yes, you do have choices.
“You need to ask which type of paint the shop is going to use: the conven- tional, single-coat types are cheaper to buy and apply,” Krolikowski ex- plained.” Those are good paints, but you can’t buff out scratches very well, and it doesn’t last as long as the new, two-stage, high-solid paints do.”
Of course, when he talks about two- stage paints, he’s referring to the base coat/clear coat paints that have been standard in the automotive industry for a long time.
“With the base coat/clear coat tech- nologies, the base has the color and resins to adhere to the airplane. It dries very fast when compared to the old single-stage paints,” Voisin said. “Then you wrap the entire airplane with the clear coat. It’s applied a bit thicker and improved, longer protection for the base color coat.”
“There are a lot of advantages, but the biggest is the ease of maintaining the finish,” she added. “If you get a scratch or slight ding, the clear layer isaloteasiertocutandbuffouttoa smooth finish.”
Another benefit of the base/clear process is because the base coat dries so fast, it’s easier for painters to add multiple layers of different colors and graphics. That f lexibility gives owners a lot more options when it comes time to design their dream paint scheme.
Keeping Up Appearances
Okay, your airplane is looking pris- tine in its shiny new paint, and you want to keep it looking fresh from the shop as long as you can. As we men- tioned earlier, airplanes live in very harsh environments. Dings happen.
“Make sure to get a touch-up kit when you take delivery of the airplane. It’s the same color part and batch
A freshly painted Cessna 421.
well-established and highly-respect- ed brands like Stevens Aerospace and Defense or Yingling Aviation does come with a premium price tag. But, of course, you are getting a top-of-the- line finish. Do you want anything less than the best for your airplane?
Anyway, according to Stevens Aerospace and Defense’s Director of Sales and Marketing, Phil Stearns, painting a King Air C90 will run you about $60,000, and an Embraer Phenom 100 will set you back around $75,000. Nothing to trifle at, but again, you know going in that you have to pay for the best.
Sure, there are much more “af- fordable” options, and I’d be the last one to suggest that you can’t get a
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quality paint job at a value price. Again, though, it all comes down to how much time and effort you’re go- ing to put into researching all of your possible solutions.
“Don’t go with the cheapest option you find,” stressed Julie Voisin, mar- keting director, Sherwin-Williams Aerospace Coatings. “Pick someone who has a really good process. Prepara- tion of the aircraft is the key to a great finish, and if they’re going to cut any corners to save money, it will be in the preparation.”
Oh, and another “don’t” is DO NOT put your airplane in the hands of a paint shop that has no prior experience with your make and mod- el. As all of our experts agreed, each
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SHERWIN-WILLIAMS AEROSPACE COATINGS