Final Paint at Last (???)

Well, after 8 months of various misadventures, the end of the year is finally here and so is my latest slot on the schedule at Lancaster Aero at Smoketown Airport. I loaded up a Santa sized sack of tools in the plane and flew over to drop off my plane for final paint. I'm hoping that the third time is a charm.

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They pulled out the 1977 Piper Archer that had just been refinished to put my plane in the shop. Click on the picture and check it out- it looks brand new and gorgeous. The blue and gold are very similar to the colors in my scheme. I'm getting excited, but several hours of grueling disassembly await.


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The good news is that I can now assemble and disassemble my plane very quickly, having done it so many times. I really hope that this is the last time.

Here it is all disassembled, with the small parts in labeled Ziploc bags and larger parts on shelves. I went over the plane in detail with the painter, Dave. It will be sanded down and reblocked before painting to catch all of the minor imperfections that didn't show up until it had shiny primer.

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The shop is no stranger to experimentals. Look behind my plane and you'll notice a newly completed RV awaiting paint. The "Honeybee" RV painted by Dave actually took the award at Oshkosh for best finish a couple years ago.

Given everything that has gone wrong over the past few months, I was actually on pins and needles today. I kept thinking something would go wrong on the flight, that a jet would taxi over me or some other ridiculous event would set me back again. Surprisingly, everything went well and the plane is tucked away in the paint shop with people actually working on it. This could actually be the finish line at long last.

I'll likely sneakout for progress checks and will try to post photos of the work in process. When it is finished in a few weeks, I will absolutely post (way too many) pictures.

Stay tuned and wish me luck.

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