If you do your homework and plan it all just right, taking delivery of your newly painted beauty can be one of the top ownership experiences.
“Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.”
Edgar Degas, French impressionist.
Obviously, Monsieur Degas was not talking about painting airplanes when he made his famous statement. But, very he well could have been.
I think we have all witnessed plenty of examples of the proverbial “20-foot paint job.” You know, the ones that look great from a distance, then when you get up close, it’s more why than wow. Before we get into all the possible pitfalls of a poorly done paint job and how to avoid them, let’s revisit why the condition and care of your aircraft’s paint scheme are so vitally important.
“The primary goal of an aircraft’s paint is corrosion protection. Aircraft are exposed to very harsh conditions, and the paint is the only barrier between them and the airframe,” explained Mike Royals, paint manager, Stevens Aerospace and Defense Systems. “If you see damage to the paint on the form of chips or dings, they become an entry point for moisture and contaminants to attack the metals underneath.”
“Moisture gets under the paint, and the damage can spread pretty fast in many conditions,” he added. “We had one customer come in here where they had let the paint chip off of the aircraft’s belly until it created a very serious problem.”
But, even with the most diligent attention to the paint’s condition, sooner or later, it’s just going to get too old. Over time, the prior-generation paints dry out and start to crack.
“The first sure sign that the paint has really oxidized beyond repair is that you can’t buff it out any longer and starts to crack and peel,” explained Yingling Aviation Paint Supervisor Walter Krolikowski. “You’ll also start to see rivets popping up where the paint has come away from those areas. People try to repair these issues, but you really can’t. When you get to that stage, it’s really time to get the airplane painted.”
Shopping for a Paint Shop
Like any element of maintaining your aircraft – and, yes, paint is considered maintenance – the first step in ensuring that the service provider you select is indeed the service provider you want is to do your homework.
“You have to research to learn the things that make a high-quality paint job different from just another paint job,” explained Stevens Aerospace and Defense Systems Paint Shop Supervisor, Billy Brown. “There is a big difference in the two ends. It takes a lot more time and effort to achieve a better end. High-quality correlates to a better-looking, much longer-lasting paint job.”
Speaking of “longer-lasting,” Brown went on to say that a quality paint finish that has been properly maintained (see “Aircraft Washing 101” story in the July issue) should last eight- to 10-years. So, what do you look for in a shop? It can be challenging. I’ve not yet seen a paint shop that didn’t say they provided the best quality finishes possible. That’s where your research comes in.
“Experience with an aircraft’s type is important, so talk to other owners of your aircraft type and see who they used,” Krolikowski said. “Knowledge of particular aircraft types is key. For example, it may not seem like much, but knowing how to work around button head rivets is critical.
“Ask if they’d recommend the shop; not just their final work, but what where they like to work with? Did they finish the job on time?” added Chis Short, Yingling Aviation’s vice president of operations. “How the shop works around rivets is a telling sign. Jets have flush rivets and are easier to fill and finish to look smooth.”
“Regular, button-head rivets are a totally different problem. It takes a lot of time to work around them removing old paint properly. We’ve seen instances where another paint shop has rushed the job and mechanically sanded the heads of the button-head rivets down flat,” he said. “You can’t do that. It impacts the integrity of the airframe,” he added. “We had to go back and replace all of those rivets. It was very costly for the owner to make those repairs.”
While we’re still on the subject of pre-work, Krolikowski pointed out another key differentiator was how the shop handles any overlapping seams in the aircraft’s skin. A quality shop will protect these areas so that any chemical stripper can’t seep into the airframe and introduce corrosion.
“Ask if the shop covers the seams. They can take the paint off of the outside of the seam mechanically, but leave the paint inside where the seams are bonded,” he said. “It adds labor time and cost, but it’s important that it is done correctly.”
You Get What You Pay For
Okay, so let’s cut to the chase: What should you expect to pay for a high-quality paint job? Well, working with well-established and highly-respected 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 “affordable” options, and I’d be the last one to suggest that you can’t get a quality paint job at a value price. Again, though, it all comes down to how much time and effort you’re going to put into researching all of your possible solutions.
“Don’t go with the cheapest option you find,” stressed Julie Voisin, marketing director, Sherwin-Williams Aerospace Coatings. “Pick someone who has a really good process. Preparation 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 model. As all of our experts agreed, each 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 conventional, single-coat types are cheaper to buy and apply,” Krolikowski explained.” 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 technologies, 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 is a lot easier to cut and buff out to a 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 flexibility gives owners a lot more options when it comes time to design their dream paint scheme.
Keeping Up Appearances
Okay, your airplane is looking pristine in its shiny new paint, and you want to keep it looking fresh from the shop as long as you can. As we mentioned 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 number, so it will match better later on,” Royals said. “We provide a kit with every paint job. Even if you don’t put paint on the area, at least use some clear coat to keep moisture out.”
If you didn’t get a touch-up kit from your aircraft’s painter, Sherwin-Williams has a simple-to-use solution for you in the form of its new JetPen.
“It’s a real easy way to do simple touch-ups and repairs on the exterior and interior surfaces,” Voisin said. “Just break the seal, shake and apply the paint to the damaged area. It’s really like a very sophisticated hobby/craft paint pen.”
According to the company, JetPen comes in a wide variety of popular colors and is available in epoxy primers, polyurethane topcoats, and clear coats. Even if you don’t have Sherwin-Williams on your airplane, it may well be something you want to check out.
One Final Stroke…
About the only thing we haven’t covered is tips on designing your paint scheme. And that, my friend, is the hardest part of the process.
Of course, while they can’t help you choose colors, our experts can give you a few guidelines on designing the final paint scheme – mainly in the form of what to avoid.
“Customers often want to put stripes across the radome, engine nacelle, or access panels – things that get removed frequently for inspections and maintenance,” Stearns said. “The paint along those edges gets chipped all the time, and it can be very difficult to fix them correctly.”
“Aircraft like the Phenom 100 and 300 seem to have very elaborate paint schemes; metallics, pearl essences, matt finishes and such. They look great when they’re freshly painted,” Royals said. “But when it comes in for phase maintenance, you may have to remove 200 or 300 fasteners to get access panels off.”
“You can bet that when all that goes back together, you will never get those seams and colors to look right again,” he continued. “Better to avoid the problem. Good planning upfront will keep the airplane looking its best a lot longer.”
No matter your ultimate design goals, an experienced team will do their best to help guide you away from pitfalls.
“There are a lot of options today. We try to educate our customers on the pros and cons of all the varying paints, paint systems and color selections selected for each project,” Brown added. “Our goal is to help them make the proper selections to achieve their desired goals while ensuring the highest quality and longest-lasting finish.”
