Paint fabric problem and maule parts

edgepicker · Post by **edgepicker** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 5:39 am

Hi,
I need some parts for my M 4. Now for a legitimate problem!!!
The paint on the skin is all cracked in diagrams some what straight lines from the size of a dime to three or four inches. I was able to chip off some of the worst area, and my AME put on a protective UV paint to protect for the ultra violet rays which will as you know ruin the fabric.
I'm thinking of chipping off the rest of what I can ( incidently when I chip it off with a jack knife the paint lifts right clear of the fabric, so obviously some body painted it with bad paint) and then using paint remover ( the certified aviation type) to take off the rest then put on a proper protective sealent and paint. Or should I just take and strip all the old fabric off and put new fabric. Has anyone run in to this same problem? If so how did you solve it?
Edgepicker

montana maule · Post by **montana maule** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 6:15 am

I just finished a project like yours. Most of the paint came off easily, but the 10% that didn't took for ever to remove. Several different layers, patches and types of paint had been applied over the years so no one method of removal worked. Now because of all the subsurface contamination will my coatings last? I would have been way ahead to have stripped it off and recovered.

edgepicker · Post by **edgepicker** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:11 am

Thanks for the info, but to explain my problem a little better, the fabric under the paint seems to be very good condition, except maybe for the elevator. It seems like there is a couple of layers of paint there, for sure several layers of trim paint. Not to many patches 3 or 4 (very small) over the whole fuselage. I used a paint remover as a test in a small area called Methyl Ethyl Ketone, it seemed to work pretty good. Does anybody have any information on this stuff? There is nothing in my Poly Fiber book on this and I have been on the computer I can't really get a straight answer.

My plan is to use what ever it takes of MEK to get rid of the rest of the paint. It seems easier plan and not so costly as to refabric to whole plane. My AME said to would cost $20 to $30 Thousand to get the pros to refabric it.

crbnunit · Post by **crbnunit** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:44 am

MEK is pretty toxic stuff. Be sure to wear protection and have lots of ventilation!

montana maule · Post by **montana maule** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 6:04 pm

My fabric was good also and only ten years old. That's why I decided to just remove the paint and start over. But the time I spent stripping the paint would more than covered the time to put new fabric on. It's not that hard of a process and the materials aren't that expensive. I found that impurities on the old cover caused me problems when laying down the new coatings. You need to have your AME sign off the work either way. If you were going to do the painting yourself you have the ability to do the fabric work. You would be surprised on how easy it is to apply.

The real question should be how long has the fabric been on the aircraft? What type of enviroment has the aircraft been setting in? Steel tubing can rust away under perfectly good fabric. The wood stringers can rot and welds in the tailpost can fatigue after years of hard landings. The only way to inspect and take care of these problems is to tear the fabric off.

As far as the cost. This fall a friend had his M7 covered through silver for $8500.

aero101 · Post by **aero101** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 9:28 am

I had same problem and used steam cleaner to remove the paint, re-taped several areas and repainted several years ago... It has held up well since and the high pressure steam did good job of getting under original paint and cleaning off.... MEK doesn't work very well on Poly Urethane paint and was much easier, less messy then stripping...

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 3:10 pm

I have a 1985 MX7-235 that has original fabric. I had horizontal feathers recovered befor I picked up when bought in 2005. My intention was to sand the hell out of the rest of fuse as fab is good as are tubes and paint. I found that the paint as iit sounds in your case would come off in bloody great flakes with gentle coaxing of putty knife. In a weekend I had entire fuse stripped . I reglued / replaced tapes and made nice patches where necessary. I started with polyfiber silver , sprayed on several coats wet sanded etc.. then sprayed U-Tech 3.8 (or 3.5) cant remeber but will check. this is the paint that is currently used at factory. the plane looks new. I will post some pics or you can email me at ian@knowktonhouseltd.com and I will forward pics of whole prcess. I recovered rudder myself sandblasting structure and epoxy primer poly fiber process looks great. I did the rudder as I bought a whelen tail/pos strobe ubit that requires alot of wires.

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 3:13 pm

regarding MEK - I dont think you should use any sort of liquid stripper. If you cant pry paint off with thin putty knife the it is prety well stuck and all to do is sand and feathere as best you can, it will disappear fairly well when done painting.

kakkenmc · Post by **kakkenmc** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 6:42 pm

Does anyone know if the wings have to come off to recover the fuselage?

maules.com · Post by **maules.com** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:33 pm

You can re-cover with wings on, though not as easily

a64pilot · Post by **a64pilot** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 8:52 am

Wings remove easily

kakkenmc · Post by **kakkenmc** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 1:18 pm

Thanks, Jeremy and a64. At this point I'm trying to learn to like flaking paint.

edgepicker · Post by **edgepicker** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 3:57 pm

Thanks everybody for your input, in to my paint chipping headache. I would much appreciate anymore information anybody has on the subject. My plan is in May to chip off what I can and use the paint remover to finish the rest and some I won't even do at all just sand down like Ian said. Incidentally, I'm working in the open air, lots of ventilation for the toxic fumes.

Does anybody know where I can get a gas cap or what type that would fit and I could modify it.

This happened to me, we were deep bush flying no services in Northwest Territories, Canada. We stopped for fuel, the guy attending the place was in a hurry, so we paid him for the fuel and he left us on our own, we put the fuel in the plane with jerry cans. My pilot dropped the cap in the pond we fished for 4 hours, no luck, conclusion was widdle out a wooden stopper. so I did and a pretty good one I might add. The plan was, which we did drain the left tank first because we might had run into a little rain later on and we don't want none of that sucking up. We drained the left tank and we were on to the right tank we had calculated that to reach our destination we would have about 45 minutes of fuel to spare. After a while I watching the fuel gage and so was the pilot and we weren't saying anything to each other, it seemed like the left tank had a little fuel in it and the right tank was dangerously low according to the gauge, but we had measured it with a stick on the last stop and were positive no fuel shortage.

Then, there was a little hiccup in the motor which really gave me a heart jump, and then maybe 30 seconds later the motor quit and the nose dropped. The pilot quick switch tanks, she picked up and quick started with the wind rotation of the prop. We landed 5 minutes later on a lake and both out and checking the fuel with a stick, sure enough the right tank was dry, left tank had regained its fuel. Of course, we know the reason because the tank I put the cap on was too tight and the fuel transferred itself from one tank to the other. So we haven't flown her since and I'm in a bad need of a proper fuel cap.

Edgepicker

TomD · Post by **TomD** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 6:40 pm

Maule has them in stock. There are two versions, so be sure to talk to parts about which one is right for your bird.

TD