Painting a Cessna 206, 5Y-CMA

This week, we have been focused on painting 5Y-CMA.  We did one day of painting on Tuesday, which consisted of the fuselage and some other parts and pieces.  We will do another batch tomorrow, which will hopefully be the last group of things to be painted.  Painting is always a long and tedious process, as experienced painters know.  Probably 90% of the time is spent doing prep work, getting the metal cleaned and treated properly, taped off, paint mixed correctly, etc.  Then the other 10% is the part where all that good work done before can be either completed successfully or poorly.  If the prep work is done poorly, then no matter how well the paint is sprayed, it won't look nice.  However, even if the prep work is done very well, the painter can either mess it all up, or do a good job.  :)  See how difficult it is to paint airplanes?!  It takes a special breed of people with the patience to really focus themselves to become proficient at painting.  Me?  I think I'll stick to my sheetmetal work. :) Anyways, enjoy the pictures! 

 

At the front of the hangar, ready for prep work. 

Marko and Joseph getting things ready to start etching the fuselage. 

Joseph putting etch on the fuselage while Justine (from the parts room) watches. 

What the other guys were doing while we were working. :)  Gotta take tea!

Marko decided to drink the etch instead of the tea...not cool!

Etched and alodined, sitting in the warm sun to dry a little bit. 

David cleaning up our mess while CMA dries in the sun. 

I shot the green primer in the morning. 

Green...good thing we don't paint it this color...it would blend in with all the broccoli we fly over. 

Jose doing the dirty job of painting the belly...what a pain.  Thanks, Jose!

Moving up around the fuselage.  I thought this was a neat picture because you can see the green and the white in the same shot. 

Some finishing touches on the nose portion. 

 And all done!  Beautiful!

 We've been hanging the smaller stuff in a small room off to the side to keep them safe while they dry, dry, dry, and dry some more. 

 She's out in the hangar now!

And an empty paint booth.  I swept it out this morning, and we're already hanging the next parts to be painted tomorrow.