'68 Citabria 7ECA Milman Spar Conversion

[Bartman]

Brought the old girl home last week, abandoned the idea of using the equally old Mustang for the tow vehicle, and she's safe at home as we get started prepping for paint.

 

[Bartman]

Degreased, let the sanding and fabric repairs begin!!


Brake cylinders are leaking


New chocks, fancy!


Lower tail tubes look ok

 

[Bartman]

N numbers are on there thick! Which digit did I just spend 15 min and two sheets of sandpaper on?

 

[Bob Turner]

I had numbers like that. Wet sanded them off, shot new dope. They came back. Wet-sanded again and shot new dope. Better, but you can still see them. Hire some kid to sand down to silver.

 

[Bartman]

I had numbers like that. Wet sanded them off, shot new dope. They came back. Wet-sanded again and shot new dope. Better, but you can still see them. Hire some kid to sand down to silver.

Hi Bob,
If I sand it smooth and cover it with white, I can then mask over them when I paint the top half of the area red. Some blue vinyl tape where the blue is now and I'll have white numbers with blue outline which I can live with! So I'm still going to sand the numbers out to a smooth edge but the new digits will have to be exactly the same size and shape in the same place. Still have to figure out how to sand and cover over the stripes.

 

[Bartman]

I was using 320 dry paper because that was all I had last night. What grit wet paper were you using Bob?

 

[Bartman]

Happiness is when the tool box happens to be in the perfect spot and the perfect height to let you work on the belly.

 

[Bruce]

is it giggling wile you tickle the belly

 

[Bob Turner]

From here, those numbers look nice as is. I always go for 2" numbers, but I no longer fly in Canada or Mexico.

320 is good at first, but graduate to 400 before repainting. And don't be like me - get another sheet when your sandpaper starts to not cut.

 

[JimParker256]

Bob said "get another sheet when your sandpaper starts to not cut."

Best advice ever. And the one most often ignored... Don't ask how I know... Sigh.

 

[Sully]

Wet sanding makes the paper last longer.

 

[Bob Turner]

And works way better.

 

[Bartman]

Using 220, spent over an hour sanding off about eight feet of one side stripe and there's still a ridge there. @Bob Turner when you say your old stripes came through are you saying the stripes melted through the new paint because they were the same type of paint or were they different and shadows of the old lines were visible through the new paint?

New paint is going to have to incorporate the old stripes somehow, I don't have enough time left this year to sand off this old paint!

 

[Clifford Daly]

So I’m not sure with fabric but with all cars that I’ve painted, the only way to get ridges out or runs is to went sand using a sanding black. Doing it with your hand gets everything along with the high spot. A sanding block only sands the high spots.

 

[Clifford Daly]

For small spots I have a bunch of little blocks that I cut that I wrap a piece of sandpaper around. Almost the size of the millman spar wood rib blocks!

 

[Bob Turner]

Bart - my numbers were like yours - really well done. You can still see ripples where the tape lines were. A couple of places the split went all the way to the fabric - I wound up putting small pinked-edge patch over the worst. The pinked edges are no worse than the rest of it. I will get you a photo.

 

[Bob Turner]

Here is a photo - you really cannot see the edges. I will get one tomorrow to show you what I am up against.

 

[Bob Turner]

Here - you can see it better in this shot:

 

[Bartman]

Blocks are the only way to get a perfect surface with Monokote also! I am using a combination of things but it ends up my lumpy top cowling was salvageable after all. Another hour or so and it should be good for primer. This saves me a huge hassle of fitting a second hand cowl and swapping out one of the side panels. So I'm smiling today.

 

[Bartman]

I can't see it on my phone Bob but will check it out when I go inside.

My stripes are going to win the fight. If the inner edges of the blue stripes can be sanded smooth into the red, the new stripes will be solid red and matched to the outer edges of the blue stripes to hide the lines that I am not going to sand out completely. It'll just have slightly wider red stripes.