Painting Competition Numbers
Ray L.
on a fiberglass glider?
What did you use for a stencil?
Did you use AutoCad or MicroStation to draft the text? If so, which
font?
What type of paint did you use?
What type of surface preparation did you do?
Any helpful hints or "lessons learned" are appreciated.
Ray Lovinggood,
Carrboro, NC, USA,
Wanting to paint (or buy the vinyl if I screw up the paint) "W8" on my
LS-1d
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Dan Marotta
Last time I painted on numbers, I used no stencil. I just carefully "drew" the
numbers using masking tape. After setting up the tape outline, I protected the
area with news papers. Cleanup was simply a good cleaning with acetone to
remove wax.
Use lacquer *not* enamel. Lacquer can be wiped off with acetone but it lasted
for years after being waxed over. Enamel must be sanded off. After the paint
dries, feather the edges and smooth the whole area with progressively finer
grades of wet paper, finishing with 1200 or 1500 grit. Wax after sanding is
complete and good luck.
Dan
Ls-6a
Nolaminar
Use Kim Neffingers as advertised in Soaring.......
Unless you want cruddy/unprofessional looking numbers .
If you insist on painting, she will provide "stencil" style and you can paint
'em on.
R.E.Gaines, Marietta, GA
Mark Navarre
>on a fiberglass glider?
Just finished changing the comp #'s
on my ASW-20. Removal of the old number was a real pain, I think it was
painted with some kind of two-part paint.
I tried a couple different paint removers, that both yellowed the gelcoat when
left on too long (5 minutes!! thanks "Home Depot"!) This resulted in the need
to wet sand the yellowed areas clean.
This was a good thing anyway, because the paint would not stick to the gelcoat
no matter what I used to clean the surface (I tried MEK, Naphtha, lacquer
thinner, and acetone) The first time I painted, the paint peeled off with the
masking film almost like a vinyl sticker. The wet sanded areas (600 grit)
stuck great. For masking the numbers I used transfer paper from a vinyl sign
shop, just stuck it right to the plane, and drew the numbers on it with pencil,
then cut out with an "Exacto" type knife (scalpel). With light pressure and
careful technique, this barely penetrates the gelcoat. I also tried "Frisket
Film" which is used by airbrush artists, but it was harder to cut smoothly. I
made the stencils by printing the numbers from my computer printer as large as
I could, then had them enlarged to the right size at Kinkos (a commercial copy
center) They have a printer that uses 36"
wide paper on a roll, so even the 24" tall wing numbers were no problem. For
fonts I used Arial narrow bold for the wing, and Jaures condensed bold for the
tail. The Jaures font has nice thick strokes, with subtle serifs on some of
the letters, looks cool, and meets the SSA specs, too!
I took the masking off after about 20 minutes, so the paint was still soft, and
seperated easily from the masking material.
After the paint cured for a few days, I feathered the raised edges of the
numbers
with wet 600 grit paper, then finished it all off with polishing compound. I
spent about
20 hours on the whole project, but that includes mucho "on the job training".
I'm sure it will take half as long next time!
Important Hints:
*use "Staz-Wett" paint remover from Wings & Wheels
*use plenty of water when wet sanding, I used a trigger spray bottle A LOT.
*use a sanding block ALWAYS, mine is a hard foam, about like shoe sole rubber.
*surface prep is very important, polished gelcote does not have much of an
affinity for paint.
*finally, much patience and "elbow grease" will be rewarded with results in
kind.
PS:
If I wasn't REALLY ANAL about tripping the airflow over my glider, I would
definitely consider vinyl contest numbers.......
See my results at Santa Ynez, California this weekend, or Cal City this wave
season.
Mark Navarre
ASW-20 Oscar Delta
-
Robert Goubitz
> Does anyone have good or bad experiences painting competition numbers
> on a fiberglass glider?
No, no......no paint.... please..... use the stick-ons. Thinner, lighter, easier
to apply and much better looking.
--
Robert Goubitz
SZD-59 "17X"
Robert Goubitz
Jim Vause
I thought the issue was disruption to boundary layer especially on wings and
that a painted number: with a feathered edge would be better than
stickons... same problems we have on yachts
Jim Vause
Robert Goubitz <bir...@attglobal.net> wrote in message
news:383DAD21...@attglobal.net...
Kilo Kilo
contest numbers disappeared. I simply filled in with black waterproof
marker, which seemed to be visible enough for contest gates. Since I'm
redoing wings completely, I was thinking about using a marker to create
the entire number ... film thickness is just about zero so laminar flow
disruption is not much of an issue ... application is quick ... just
have to make sure they are contrasty enough to work at contests. GPS
starts and finishes seem to lessen the need for wing numbers ...
regards,
Ken Kochanski
SRA Secretary
Schleicher ASW-20B "KK"
Honda VFR750F
Donald Ingraham
For the best "look", yes, those two-mil vinyl letters do go
on easy and look great. Nice crisp edges. But if you are trying
to get that last couple % of performance out of your ship...well...
you won't find Dick Johnson putting them on his ship! As I recall,
he picked up a couple points on one ship he was testing (SZD 55?)
by removing them. I suppose vinyl "N" numbers are OK, tail numbers
a little worse...but the bottom of the wing where the chord is fat
trips the boundry layer and really hurts. Even though it is only 2
mil thick, it must be because the vinyl edge is very "sharp".
I've done it both ways. Here's how I did lacquer:
I went to a sign shop (they're everywhere) and asked for a 24 inch
"reverse-weed" contest letter pair (you can even pick your font).
Don't pay extra for better vinyl, reverse-weed means you want the
"template" of the letters, so who cares about the vinyl quality?.
Ask fir the actual letters/numbers too (that they "weeded" out) so you
can tape them where you want them and stand back and position them.
And reposition them. For about an hour. OK. Now take a pencil and
lightly trace around the letters. Remove the letters. Sand just the
pencil line gently with 1000 grit (after removing wax, etc.). Now
position your reverse-weed template over the exact same spot. Sand
the interior of the contest ID with 1000 grit. The reason you sanded
the pencil line first is because *now* you cannot get the sandpaper
into the tiny crevice along the inside edge of the template and this
is the most likely point for paint to chip and peel.
Tape newspaper, or whatever, to protect everything from paint fog. Have
a fan next to the area blowing away from the ship (lacquer-fog dries
very
fast in the air). Wipe everything down with alcohol. Now, go to your
local
auto parts store and buy a nice spray can, or six, of lacquer. GM has a
nice rack of colors. Return home. Fog the area lightly, repeat, repeat,
repeat. Don't put it on too think, there's no reason to risk running or
sagging because next you're going to wet-sand it with 600 then 1000 then
1500 grit (with the template still in place). Be sure to sand the top of
the template right at the letter's edge. This will "break" the paint
coat
and allow you to peel off the template without lifting the paint off the
surface of the ship (you can use 400 grit to speed this step up). Remove
the template. There may be a sticky residue from the vinyl adhesive that
will drive you crazy during the final wet-sanding/buffing phase. Use
"denatured alcohol" to remove it. Anything else either won't remove it,
or will remove the lacquer too and screw up your nice, crisp edge (don't
ask how I know)!
Wet-sand the edges lightly, using a rubber sanding block, carefully,
starting on the letter/number itself and stopping your stroke just past
the letters edge. Gel coat is way-harder than lacquer so try not to
scratch
it too much. When there's just a faint edge left to the letter, use
rubbing
compound (see KK's thread on 3M stuff, I heartily agree) with a wool
buffing pad on an electric buffer to make the edge completely melt into
the surface. Stand back and have a beer. Look great And no edge. Hmmmmm,
but...is it straight?
Just my opinion. Worked well for me. Comments welcome.
Good luck,
Don
Discus -XS-
Ray L.
Thank you very much! Now, if I can convince myself that on any
upcoming weekend when the weather is nice enough to be outside (I don't
have anywhere inside to work), I will not assemble and fly, I will work
on getting "PC" off of the wing and "W8" on.
Thanks!!
Ray Lovinggood,
Carrboro, NC, USA