Priming

Once everthing is deburred and cleaned, now comes the priming. I have put together a series a photos to describe the preparation and priming process that I am using for my airplane. One thing that you realize when you start this seemingly monstrous project is that the preparation is what takes up about 95% of your time. Setting up to paint and prime involves many steps, but once you repeat them a couple of times it becomes a routine. In fact, each time I go out to the garage to work on the plane I go through what has now become a bit of a ritual to turn on the lights, move things out of the way, setup my work bench, position the parts and materials, and so on. Priming also has its own relatively large set of steps, but, as with everything else, they are repeatable and routine after a while.

First comes the prep. I am doing all of this in my 2 car garage, using a small touch up spray gun from Harbor Freight, my compressor, and a self etching primer solution from NAPA/Martin Senour paints, part numbers TE504 (primer) and TER 514 (Reducer/Catalyst). This is the spray gun. It holds 7 ounces in the cup.

Here is the compressor and the 3/8 inch pvc/rubber combination hose. I use brass fittings and make certain the the gun, the line, and the compressor are not leaking, as this can make the difference between a nice paint job and a botched one.

This was the old hose that I was using. After having some problems with applying the primer, inspection of the hose revealed numerous cracks and general decay of the hose. Time for a new one, so I bought the lime green one you see above to elimate this as a source of the problem.

Now on to the materials. I use the acetone for cleaning (Home Depot) and the TE 504 and TER 514 self-etching primer and reducer shown at center and the right of this photo.