J_Cunny
Veteran
Location: Austin, Texas
My Posts This: Topic Forum | CracksYou were asking about repairing the cracks? Here's my suggestion. Since you want to retain structural integrity as well as make it asthetcally pleasing (looks good), you should try and fill the crack area with thick CA first. Let this dry. For smaller areas aplly with a toothpick laid flat on its side if needed. If you get a little outside the crack area, no big deal, you can wet sand it down later. The trick is to fill the void with CA. The CA will retain the strength factor, because it will actually penetrate the fibers and hold better. The problem with just putting Bondo spot putty over the crack without reinforcing it first, is when the fuse or part flexes the Bondo sometimes won't and then you either get it to flake off, or crack itself. Ok, now that we have the crack filled, you have two options:
Option A, you could get out the wet/dry sandparer and wet sand the CA down flush. This make take awhile depending on how much you used. Incidentally, WET SAND!! Do yourself a favor here, dry sanding takes way to long. You don't have to remove the electronics, just get a small bowl with water and dip your sandpaper in it frequently. The trick to wet sanding is to keep the area wet. Progress through the grits stopping about in the 600 grit range. Primer her, and paint. Depending on how you did your CA job, this area could be very small or big (just do yourself a favor, don't be a slob with the CA and you'll be fine).
Option B is to still wet sand, but now once you get her really nice and smooth (using paper in the 240-320 grit range only), now apply your Bondo spot putty (about 3 bucks a tube at Walmart) over the presanded area. The reason you are stopping at 240-320 grits with this method, is that you need someting on the surface of the area for the Bondo to "bite" into. Apply Bondo in thin coats, do not over do it here! Bondo doesn't play well with paint, so try as much as possible to cover only the sanded/previosly CA filled area only. Wet sand this area down to 600 grit paper till she's smooth, if needed you can cheat, and put a little primer over it when you're close to to get a feel for "valleys, and hills" in the surface. What you're after here is a totally FLAT surface (relatively speaking). When I mean flat, I mean the area repaired, follows the contour or the area not repiared. The sufrace matches. If you do this correct, You will be able to close your eyes, run your findger over the area, and NOT be able to tell where you fixed it at. Once she's smooth, primer and paint to match.
If you have an airbrush, use it. You could "rattle can" her, but you may find it tricky to do small areas this way. I would suggest using enamel, versus laquer or acrylic. The issue with laquer paint is, if she was previously painted with enamel, she will probably "orange peel" on you (adverse paint reaction due to the way laquer dries). Enamel on the other hand, can be painted over laquer without issue. Laquer is also more "finicky" to spray as is is really easy to screw up the mix, or have issues spraying due to cold temps or hot temps. Laquer really likes to be sprayed in a temp range of 65 to 75 dregrees F.
Hope this helps.
JC
I used to be normal, but then I started flying heli's.... |
Stan
and you will need your next one
or two
on the bench.....
