So I finally (emphasis on Finally!) got my first wing done and just wanted to share some of the stuff I learned related to getting the trim painted.
Stewart recommends sanding between coats to knock down the little nubs in the paint that are inevitable unless you have a very clean spray room. The sanding is also to improve adhesion. It is especially important with the EkoPoly color coats. To do so where the trim paint will be the pattern has to be laid out so you can sand up to the lines. You can almost see the scallops where the base color was sanded.
The tape used to mask the actual trim lines was 1/4" 3M Blue Fine Line tape
https://www.stewartsystems.aero/products/166/tape-blue-fine-line-14
Regular blue masking tape was used over the 1/4" 3M tape and while it looked great at first, after a couple of coats of the water based paint, the masking tape began to lift in places. I should have recognized that this would be a problem before spraying since the paint is waterborne and regular blue masking tape comes loose when it gets wet. I missed that Stewart recommends green masking tape for this
https://www.stewartsystems.aero/products/168/3m-34-green-masking-tape
I had one area lift and I couldn't get the tapes to stay down so I peeled back the plastic masking and just taped the crap out of it for the last coat.
Usually, with trim lines, what is done is that the edges along the tape lines are sprayed with the base color before the trim color in order to seal the trim lines which keeps the trim color from leaking under the tape. Stewart paints are sprayed in very light coats with time in between for them to dry to a tacky film that doesn't transfer color when touched. It seemed possible the paint couldn't seep under the tape if sprayed in such light coats and Andy (Stewart Systems owner, he answers the tech line!) confirmed they don't generally pre-spray the trim lines with the base color first. So off I went.
The goal is to shoot three "fog" coats and to have full color coverage after the third coat. The paint should have a satin finish with the look of 1000 grit sandpaper.
Here's the first coat sprayed on
Second coat
No pic of the third coat. After the third fog coat the paint is given time to set up and then a wet coat, the goal is to have the paint attain a wet look a few seconds after the gun goes by. I haven't quite perfected my technique yet but it still came out pretty good! That little bit of orange peel you see is probably due to not putting on enough paint in the final coat so I have good coverage but I didn't get that perfect glossy smooth wet look that is possible with EkoPoly. But, all in all, no seepage under the trim lines except for a few very small areas is pretty sweet.
Cleanup is with isopropyl alcohol but the paint is really sticky and will stay on your hands for over a week if you're messy like me.
Stewart recommends sanding between coats to knock down the little nubs in the paint that are inevitable unless you have a very clean spray room. The sanding is also to improve adhesion. It is especially important with the EkoPoly color coats. To do so where the trim paint will be the pattern has to be laid out so you can sand up to the lines. You can almost see the scallops where the base color was sanded.
The tape used to mask the actual trim lines was 1/4" 3M Blue Fine Line tape
https://www.stewartsystems.aero/products/166/tape-blue-fine-line-14
Regular blue masking tape was used over the 1/4" 3M tape and while it looked great at first, after a couple of coats of the water based paint, the masking tape began to lift in places. I should have recognized that this would be a problem before spraying since the paint is waterborne and regular blue masking tape comes loose when it gets wet. I missed that Stewart recommends green masking tape for this
https://www.stewartsystems.aero/products/168/3m-34-green-masking-tape
I had one area lift and I couldn't get the tapes to stay down so I peeled back the plastic masking and just taped the crap out of it for the last coat.
Usually, with trim lines, what is done is that the edges along the tape lines are sprayed with the base color before the trim color in order to seal the trim lines which keeps the trim color from leaking under the tape. Stewart paints are sprayed in very light coats with time in between for them to dry to a tacky film that doesn't transfer color when touched. It seemed possible the paint couldn't seep under the tape if sprayed in such light coats and Andy (Stewart Systems owner, he answers the tech line!) confirmed they don't generally pre-spray the trim lines with the base color first. So off I went.
The goal is to shoot three "fog" coats and to have full color coverage after the third coat. The paint should have a satin finish with the look of 1000 grit sandpaper.
Here's the first coat sprayed on
Second coat
No pic of the third coat. After the third fog coat the paint is given time to set up and then a wet coat, the goal is to have the paint attain a wet look a few seconds after the gun goes by. I haven't quite perfected my technique yet but it still came out pretty good! That little bit of orange peel you see is probably due to not putting on enough paint in the final coat so I have good coverage but I didn't get that perfect glossy smooth wet look that is possible with EkoPoly. But, all in all, no seepage under the trim lines except for a few very small areas is pretty sweet.
Cleanup is with isopropyl alcohol but the paint is really sticky and will stay on your hands for over a week if you're messy like me.
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