Opinions on Paint or Polish - 172

[Llk]

Lol I am in sort of a unique situation.
I own a 1976 172 and it’s getting to be that time - I have to treat some corrosion. She’s not the prettiest bird but she has been solidly reliable for a long time. I have a hangar for a Mooney and a 172- Im not ready to address the mooney yet.

i have been taking auto paint classes at the community college. I realize the prep is entirely different. I’ve been painting some of my own vehicles, prepping with various amounts of effort depending on the intended end result. The engine overhaul is paid for, and I ripped out the original Narcos and KT76a/cessna audio panel while putting in an SL30, GNS480, pma7000, sl70 and MX20 with a GDL88. Pinning a KCS55a was wholly unfun.

i have access to painters with 30 years plus experience who also teach at the college available to me at little or no cost. My teachers are awesome. I also have a friend who is an IA and will sign off the control surfaces. I can take all those to the paint booth at school and have them knocked out if I go down the path of paint along with the wheel pants.

Where I am stuck is not quite understanding the amount of effort involved in a strip and paint versus a strip and polish. I don’t mind spending more money on stripper if it will make the job go more smoothly. I will not be replacing windows- that was done a few years back- I riveted all the sides and fortunately the front windshield has rivnuts.

the cost of paint materials doesn’t bother me.

the question is one of effort to polish (not maintain) versus prep to paint from an hours perspective. If stripping takes the same amount of time either route, how many hours would you say acid etching/Alodine/paint would take versus polishing? Im not very interested in wrapping it.

i haven’t stripped or painted a single aircraft piece, and while I could begin with the cowl etc, i stopped after considering the polish option.

equipment cost (orbital polishers/paint guns/etc) are not a consideration. Labor time is.

thank you in advance for your opinions!

 

[Bell206]

is not quite understanding the amount of effort involved in a strip and paint versus a strip and polish.

It's simple. With strip and paint you're done for years with an occasional wash and wax. With strip and polish, you're never done polishing. Never.

 

[Ravioli]

I would think the stripping/prep to repaint would be less labor intensive than stripping to polish. If you paint, every rookie blemish gets covered. Not so much with polish.

And there is @Bell206's observation about maintenance, which you specifically asked not to address, but really does deserve consideration. If I were committing to a lifetime of polishing, I'd want to start with a first rate pro job rather than my first foray into such a process.

[So sayeth the mechanically inept experimental owner who doesn't even change his own oil]

 

[Kevin Holbrook]

At some point, I'm pretty sure it was late '60s or very early '70s, Cessna transitioned from skinning 172s using flat sheets of metal to metal that came on rolls. Cheaper, but led to more surface irregularities. Planes done with the rolled metal don't look good polished.

I polished the first RV-6 I built and kept it that way for about 3 years before painting. It was too much work to keep it up, and looked terrible if I didn't. I painted it and never looked back. The subsequent planes I have built have been painted. I found painting my own planes to be rewarding.

Remember that while anyone can take an airplane apart, you have to re-balance the control surfaces and put it back together after it's painted. If you're not an A&P, you will have to have someone willing to check your work and sign off.

 

[mondtster]

It's simple. With strip and paint you're done for years with an occasional wash and wax. With strip and polish, you're never done polishing. Never.

That's an understatement.

In addition to the polishing requirements one may also find that the airplane has enough blemishes that it won't look good naked. Those blemishes will need fixing and it might be easier to fix them in preparation to paint rather than fix them with the intent to polish.

 

[Silvaire]

I don't think there would be any difference either way concerning the stripping process. If you want a good paint job you're going to have to start with a good strip job, you can't just paint over the top of less than adequate prep and expect good results. As for polishing, there really are only a few GA aircraft that would warrant such effort - Luscombe, Temco Swift, Spartan Executive to name a few but a 1976 172 is just better served with a nice coat of paint.

 

[Radar Contact]

I have a hard enough time keeping 2 spinners polished nicely. Can’t imagine the effort to keep an entire plane polished. You’ll have to let us know what you decide and pics.

 

[455 Bravo Uniform]

Has it ever been painted before? If so, there may be some filler in there that you’re going to have to address what’s under it if you decide to polish.

 

[Dan Thomas]

Aluminum gets acid-etched before painting. That tends to dull the surface, and it'll show up after stripping. Those skins are what we used to call Alclad, meaning that they have a thin layer of 99% pure aluminum rolled onto them as a corrosion inhibitor. 2024 has copper as its primary alloying element, making it hard and strong, but also making it extremely susceptible to corrosion, so the layer of pure aluminum is there to protect it. That layer oxidizes almost instantly, and the oxide slows further corrosion.

And that layer is maybe 2% to 5% of the total thickness, so on a sheet that's .025" thick the Alclad is .0005" to .00125" thick. A piece of printer paper is .003" thick, a human hair is about .0025". You can see that the thickness of that layer is REALLY thin, between a third and a sixth of the thickness of that piece of paper, and any scratching or aggressive or repeated polishing can go right through it and expose the base to the air and water and other corrosive factors, and the thing rots away. You sure don't want to sand it.

I'd strip it (using aircraft-approved strippers) and repaint it.

 

[Silvaire]

In regards to stripper agents I can recommend Napier RemoveAll and another one is called DoradoStrip. They are both non-toxic water based and work differently than typical chemical strippers. Not going to claim it's a joy but they are far less messy or dangerous. They form an oxygen layer under the paint that just lifts it off the surface so all you deal with are flakes of paint rather than a gooey, drippy toxic mess and burnt skin.

 

[steingar]

I read an account in Sport Aviation of the efforts by the owner of a Spartan Executive. I've seen the airplane, it shines in the sun so that you can barely look at it. The owner talked about what it took. What really struck me was when he talked about all the crap that accumulates around the rivets. Dirt, grease and old polish pile up and cake on. You can't use a polisher to get rid of this stuff, has to be done by hand with a toothpick and toothbrush. He said it took him 4000 hours to do his Spartan.

I'd say go with paint. Most painted airplanes look good. Most polished airplanes look like crap, unless the owner is super on top of keeping them polished. Like the man said, you're never done.