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We are fortunate to have our own paint shop at Redlands - nothing special, just a building with lights and an extractor. We paint all our own cars so I figured it was OK for the Exec.
There are a lot of painted parts on the Exec so I chose to paint them at whatever stage of the build was most convenient.
I had a pretty good idea of the colour scheme very early on. We once painted a friends 289 Cobra in a beautiful Lexus Silver with a Ferrari Red stripe. It looked stunning.
The Tail Boom supported on ladders. I made a fixture that bolted to the first bulkhead and bolted a piece of 16 mm studding in the centre. The tail Rotor cage at the other end made convenient 90 degree turning stages during the paint application. We first applied a light coat of Etch Primer, then the Silver Base Coat then two or three coats of Clear Lacquer. It was left to harden for a week then flatted with 2000 grit Wet & Dry and polished.
Here’s Matthew laying out the Vinyl stencils for the mandatory tail boom markings. The registration lettering should be around 6 inches tall and clearly legible but the ‘DANGER’ and arrow markings must be the specific size required by the CAA
A batch of smaller components were hung on wires for painting. The Dog House panels have been primed where I have reshaped or filled them.
Here’s another batch. They will be painted two or three at a time. The yellow paint on the doors is regular Two Pack Primer
This green stuff is sprayable stopper - a much heavier Two Pack Primer for filling and levelling repairs and deep scratches. It is sprayed on very heavily but most is flatted-off before the next stage.
This is my old mate Roger who’s been a pal for 49 of my 51 years. He pays great attention to detail and paints all our cars for us. This panel’s getting a wipe with a tack rag before lacquering.
Here’s another panel getting it’s silver basecoat.
Here are the stages of masking the doors. I masked the paint line inside and outside exactly opposite each other.
When accurate masking is required I use PVC pin-striping tape on the paint edge. It forms curves easily and makes a nice clean edge.
I then run a line of 3/4 inch masking tape just over the PVC.
Then a masking paper shield over that.
Here you can see the final application of red Acrylic Stopper in the pin holes and scratches of the primed door frame. The stopper is rubbed down and another light coat of primer applied over the first - just enough to cover the red.
This is the finished job. A couple of coats of silver basecoat and a couple of clear lacquer. Not as much as I’d usually put on a car but enough to cover and produce a blemish-free finish.
The PVC is the last masking layer to be peeled off. It’s always dodgy demasking painted acrylic because there’s a chance of the paint lifting with the tape. I always remove the tape off by pulling it back on itself parallel with the surface. I usually give the paint a couple of hours to dry first.
Here’s the repaired corner of the rear upper panel. I cut it off an inch short and had to graft an inch back on.
And here I drilled the holes for DZUS fasteners when they should have been sized for screws - Dohh! They’ve been re-glassed, redrilled and made good.
I don’t use much aerosol paint but these three are useful to have around. U-POL Etch Primer is great for aluminium, Wrinkle Plus for dashboards and instrument panels and VHT Prime Coat for just blowing over repairs to check level and smoothness.
This is the new curved surface of the instrument pod extension. It’s difficult to achieve a perfectly smooth and symmetrical curve by hand. Just by closing your eyes and feeling the surface with the flat of you hand you can detect very small surface imperfections and undulations that you can build up with a thin skim of filler. Another method, used here, is to paint the surface with a light dust coat (really just splatters) of paint in a contrasting colour. A light rub over with a soft rubber block will take the paint from the high spots leaving paint in the low spots.
Priming the seat back and footwell panels. Just a light coat - enough to see any imperfections.
I masked the screen border with PVC pinstriping tape inside and out to ensure I got a tight clean edge. Etch Primer first, then a light 2 pack primer, flat off then Silver Basecoat and Lacquer. Supporting the screen on a box enabled me to get all round both sides without turning it over.
Here’s Matthew painting a coat of Etch Primer on the Main Rotor Blades. For some reason, the leading edge had already been painted by Rotorway with (I think) Zinc Chromate. We feathered the edges of this paint with 240 grit and keyed the remaining aluminium surface with Scotchbrite.
The primer was flatted off with 800 grit and two coats of Max Meyer 2 Pack Gloss Black applied (BMW Schwartz). We’ve used this paint brand before on many cars and we’ve found it to flow - out well and provide a great finish straight from the gun. Roger set the blades on edge to paint them. This made it easier to get all round and keep a ‘wet edge’. Hanging panels and other parts vertically also minimises the horizontal surfaces for dust to settle on.
A blank canvas. All panels painted and fitted. I quite pleased with the overall end result and paint finish but I reckon it’s screaming out for some graphics. I’ve toyed with several ideas but, as yet, haven’t decided on anything.
This is 3M Stone Chip Protection Film. It’s used on many production cars to protect the paintwork in vulnerable areas. Self-adhesive and very flexible, it’ll conform to 3 - dimensional curves no problem and if applied correctly will disappear to the eye.
I’m using it in a few places like along the skids as shown here. Everyone, including me, seems to stand on them or just rest a foot on them. The film will protect the finish and can be replaced as required. I’ll also apply some strips to the upper body panels where the Dog House makes contact and around the tail boom in the TR gear cover area.
Here I’ve masked the blades and I’m airbrushing the blade ends’ Ferrari Gallo Fly’ yellow of course. The wooden end plugs are glued in but I haven’t filled the join lines. If they ever have to come out it’ll be easier to identify their edges.
GRAPHICS
I’ve tossed a few different ideas around ever since I first set my eyes on an Exec. From a draped Union Jack over the Dog House in three shades of silver to a classic Hot Rod Flame job. I also scanned the net for some inspiration until I came across N124CF. This ship had a simple, flowing design of Sabre-like curves that followed the lines of the ship so I decided to lay out something similar.
II believe it was Clint Eastwood’s ‘Harry Callaghan’ who said, ‘A man’s gotta know his limitations’ and I know that my arty design abilities are well below professional par. So, this is Matthew’s friend, Lawrence, who is a graphic designer and airbrush artist for a top Formula One Racing Team. We played around with lining tape for an hour or so and began to formulate a design.
These lines are just preliminary experiments to try and get an overall feel for the shape and position of the design.
We discussed a fairly radical (and hugely expensive) paint job but it’ll have to wait until after the flight tests.
UPDATE: October. Well, it turns out that flight tests cannot be carried out without me insuring the ship against Third Party Damage in the event of it crashing on someone’s house or worse. Problem is, I’m still a few months off getting my license so it makes no sense at all to wedge out almost £3K insurance premium just for the flight tests then have the ship sitting idle wasting months of that expensive cover.
So, I decided to press on with the Graphics. I had already decided on the rough design and layout and Lawrence had made my mouth water with a sample of a new Paint product and application Technique that he has been playing with at work
Here it is, a sprayable Chrome finish. My company sells a very shiny Chrome-like aerosol paint but this new stuff goes above and beyond anything else I’ve ever seen out of a Spray Gun. The down side is, as I mentioned, it’s naffin expensive!!!
The application procedure itself is relatively complex and time consuming (and again, expensive) but as we all know, you generally get what you pay for in this life. As the last major build job on G-CDBK, I’ll detail every stage.
Here the green lines of PVC masking tape and are finally positioned. Lawrence has fine-tuned the position by marking a dotted line with a chinagraph pencil right alongside the tape to get a reference line. He then repositioned the tape using the chinagraph line as a guide, relaying the tape and redrawing the line until he was happy with the spacing and curvature. This is a very skillful procedure. It’s one thing to have an eye for a curve and to know that it’s not quite right but it’s another thing to be able to correct it. Sometimes all it takes is a millimeter or so of repositioning to get it exactly right.
Here’s a quote from Robert Pirsig’s book ‘ Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ “The material and the Craftsman’s thoughts change together in a progression of smooth, even changes until his mind is at rest at the exact instant the material is right” How true.
The chinagraph marks can then be wiped off with a damp cloth. In the shot above, the green tape lines are finalised and Lawrence is applying some 1 inch conventional masking tape to, in effect, widen the green tape to make the next masking stage a little easier.
Drafting film is positioned over all the graphics areas and the PVC masking tape edges are traced onto the film with the chinagraph pencil.
The Chinagraph is again used to trace through all the marks onto the other side of the film. The film is then taped to the opposite side of the ship to generate an identical, but handed image. The film is taped in position using reference points, like the cross of the panel joint and the air intake vent. Fortunately, the Exec panels are remarkably symmetrical. Finally the rounded end of the Chinagraph pencil is rubbed along the lines transferring the chinagraph marks on the other side of the film to the panels.
The 1/8 in (3 mm) tape is again used to follow the marks and duplicate the pattern on the left side of the ship.
Careful masking completes this stage.
Including the blades, tail boom, my bench, tools....
and even the floor.
All the unmasked areas are keyed with Scotchbrite and a 1/2 inch wide band of Red Basecoat (Ferrari Rosso Corsa - what else?) is Airbrushed all around the masked edge.
Check out the face and flames on the masking. Lawrence painted these by hand in a few seconds!!
A 6mm wide (1/4”) strip of PVC masking is carefully laid over the red directly alongside the original 3 mm masking.
The new 6 mm Masking is over-masked with 1” tape to prevent bleed-through from the next stage.
Next comes a few coats of top quality Black Gloss applied with a regular spray gun. This layer of paint forms the base of the chrome effect so it has to be as smooth a finish as possible. It must be left untouched for a few days for the solvent to fully evaporate.
Now, the exciting bit. The special chrome paint is applied carefully in a dozen or so very light coats until this beautiful shine appears.
This is the finish -straight from the gun. Check out the reflection of the camera. I blanked off the screw holes with the regular countersunk screws - sans screwcups.
Lawrence uses a special cloth to buff the surface to it’s maximum sheen.
A light coat of black is feathered into the pointed ends of the graphic.
C’mon Dad, it’s Halloween - now do the right eye, quick!!
And the 6 mm masking is removed from the red edge.
All the masking around the edges is moved 1/2 a millimeter away from the red line so that the lacquer seals around the edge of the red.
Finally, three coats of clear lacquer are applied. This dulls the chrome effect a little but it’s a price worth paying because the finish would soon deteriorate completely without the lacquer protection
All painting done. Just waiting an hour or so for it all to flash off before demasking.
And here’s the finished job. Hope y’all like it.
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