Warbird Information Exchange

Hey All,
I bought a T-41A recently, and I am getting it ready for Air Force colors.


I am stripping the reflective vinyl letters off that were part of the Sheriff dept. paint scheme. Here is the first section I removed with WD40 and a credit card. That took about 1.5 hours.

I am hoping for something like this at the end:


To get the airplane into the "airshow invite" world ASAP. I plan to remove the vinyl, paint over the black with matching grey, and then shoot the top of the fuselage and nose black like the above pictures. I will then put on the appropriate stars and bars and USAF and N number in the right spots, and look for formation partners that can fly as slow as me. I will keep you posted.
Tom

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=53031

Talk to Steve. Couldn't hope for a better resource.

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Taylor Stevenson

I couldn't agree more!
Steves restoration is a stunner.
He'd probably be able to answer any questions just off the top of his head.

BTW, try using a heat gun to remove the vinyl. It works a treat.

Best of luck with your project. Please keep us posted.

Andy

I agree that Steve's bird is unbelievable and a goal to shoot for, but I know my limits! I have chatted a bit with Steve on this and also on the Cessna forum. Anything take off adhesive better than WD40?

3M makes a dedicated adhesive remover that is the cat's meow. Straight naptha is almost as good, but much much cheaper.

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Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.

Tom. looking forward to following your progress. Let me know if there is anything I can help you with.

Steve

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Since I am new to this, how do I get the markings on? I can order the stars and bars, but how do I get the stencils for the U S Air Force, USAF, and the info next to the engine? I got the info sheet from Wright Pat on the size etc, but do I get the lettering painted on? Vinyl?
Tom

I would say that's up to you. If you want to do it accurately, you'll need oil-board stencils made with the proper typesetting (which isn't hard to find since it seems almost every major aviation museum and most CAF Wings have one. ) and then spray it or roll it with flat-black paint. This would be the most satisfying (to me) way to do it as well since you can do it yourself with little training. If you choose to do Vinyl, then make sure the company you get to make them can make the entire info block as a single piece (i.e. all on the same backing). This isn't a problem for most, but make sure. That block is fairly large, so having to apply it as individual lines would lead to misalignment simply because there's too many chances for problems. I had to do decal application of a similar design on a company truck and we had the company that did the decals do the application and they didn't even get it straight on the first truck. After that, we changed to a company that could do the entire decal as a single piece and that solved the issue.

N3Njeff is here on this forum and he did my oilboard stencils. They were really nice, crisp and well done. I would highly recommend him.

You can order vinyl spray masks from several companies for the insignia and markings.

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You might want to try a product called "Goof Off". Its available at Wally World or most hardware stores.

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If God had wanted man to fly behind a flat motor, Pratt Whitney would've built one.

Thanks Steve,
I Pm'ed him.

I've got the 3M product coming by mail and I also tried "Goo Gone" the citrus based product that is not harmful to paint.


I am afraid to use the Goof Off, because I read somewhere it may soften the paint underneath because of the acetone.

Now, for the paint questions.
1. Can I just mask off the black imron, give it a scuff and paint the matching imron on top? Do I need to prime between coats of imron? I realize I will leave a line somewhere, but I am OK with that for the next few years.

2. What is the etiquette of painting in a row of t hangars? I do not want any overspray on anyone else's airplane, but it seems like a lot of painting goes on in those hangars.

3. It turns out the gray paint used was the correct 16437 from the TO 1-1-4, and I have an old can with the code. Just use some fineline and tape off the old, and spray the new?

Try using a fairly heavy plastic tarp suspended from the open door frame. A friend had very good results sealing off a section of his hanger to paint a project. No overspray got on his other aircraft. With a single T-hangar, you're even better off. In addition to preventing overspray, you'll be preventing dirt/dust/bugs from sticking to your fresh paint. And before you paint, get rid of as much dust in there as possible.

And of course, wear a mask...
One of the editors for a classic car magazine I get recently announced he had cancer (now in remission) , likely caused by the stuff in the new paints.

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.
Note political free signature.
I figure if you wanted my opinion on items unrelated to this forum, you'd ask for it.

Tom: Best advice is stay as far away from shooting IMRON in any form as you can. It's highly toxic, drys slow and you have to shoot with a filtered, supplied air respirator system. On top of that and that it will cost you in the hundreds of dollars per gallon for the 2000 series and 5000 series bases, federal law precludes most people from being able to purchase it. The prohibition includes individuals, schools and votechs. There are much better paints out there for doing the job and are much more forgiving and safer for the average person. Read and heed the MSDS of what ever you end up using.


As to decals vs painting stars and bars and all the stencils, we've found that decals are nice for a couple of flights then they start having problems. They are finicky to put on and will build up dirt and grunge around the edges and eventually lift. The F-16 SPO had a single F-16 coated for color via decals in an experiment to try and cut down on repaint time and added weight. While it cut the weight down slightly, the time for application exceeded that for paint, and any surface damage to the decals required significant work to repair.

If you have all the formulas and layout information for the stars and bars, and have all the stencils precut, you should be able to mark out the entire plane in just a few days of dedicated work. The prep and layout is what takes the time to do correctly and look right and last a long time.