August 30, 2008 - Prep the Feathers

With the wings, ailerons, flaps and empennage components gone, I re-arranged and cleaned up the basement. 

I did a round of sanding on the canopy fairing. 

 
Then I headed out to paint booth. 
 
This is the paint booth.  As you can see, it's pretty big.  That's an old VW bus Bruce is restoring in the right hand corner.  The paint booth has filters at both ends.  It has a fan system which sucks air from the front and exhausts it out the rear (by the van). 
 
A closer look at the wing stand and van. 
 
The plan is to prep, prime and paint the ailerons, flaps and empennage components first.  After they are done, I'll do the wings. 
 
I started with the rudder.  Since the entire rudder gets painted, all I had to do was wipe it down with acetone and do a little masking at the bottom. 
 
Next was one of the ailerons.  I pulled the blue plastic off the bottom, masked the top, and cleaned the bottom.
 
And the second aileron is done. 
 
Here is one of the flaps.  I used plastic to mask the top instead of paper.  I was afraid paper would get wet during the acid etch and alodyning. 
 
Here is the bottom portion of the same flap. 
 
My technique for cutting the plastic was to lay it on on my hard surface wallboard, and use the pizza cutter knife.
 
And the second flap is done. 
 
Next session I'll clean and mask the vertical and horizontal stabs and elevators.  Next step after that is to acid etch and alumdyne the surfaces to be painted.  Then Bruce is going to spray the primer/filler for me. 
 
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