What is a paint room?

Whether you are painting a car or an airplane, you will need a paint room in order to professionally do the job and there is not one article out there about them so we thought it would be prudent to write one for our customers and prospects. There are two types out there, inflatable rooms and metal rooms. Why would anyone need to use a paint room? Well there is dust and dirt that moves all around the air and if that can stay suspended, it will not land or settle on your paint job. Also, there is a lot of pressure from the compressor, chemicals and heat involved (lighting, exhaust, enclosed pressurized room) so it is a very dangerous thing to put together if you do not know what you are doing.

The big question is, do you buy a professionally pre-made paint booth or do you build it yourself? Let’s say you want to do it yourself. Consider this, you do not want to install or build a paint room in your garage or home. There are many concerns you will have to deal with like:

• ·      Fire concerns (insurance)
• ·      Industrial electricity outlet
• ·      Chemical concerns (where to dispose)
• ·      Neighbor concerns (the sounds and smells)
• ·      County regulations (permits)
• ·      Government regulations (license)

And if that doesn’t concern you, the real problems with building your own paint room is/are choosing which type of air flow you will use. Do you want a semi-down draft ducting where airflow goes through the roof air intake or a cross draft booth where the air intake is in the front of the booth, where the doors are, and ducted through the back. A cross draft booth is a cheaper alternative, but after you build the room, you are still going to need to add:

• ·      Exhaust ducting – where does it go? Straight through the roof or out the end of the building?
• ·      Airflow (in and out – major volume 12,000 CFM); residential homes cannot produce that much power.
• ·      Outside or inside paint booth; will it be a separate building itself or inside your shop
• ·      Compressed air
• ·      Heat controller
• ·      Electricity panel
• ·      Exhaust fan
• ·      Air intake fan
• ·      Pressure equalizer
• ·      Fire suppression system

A paint room is a tough nut to crack. If you do it yourself, you will have a hard time getting everything put together to work properly without a fire hazard or worse killing yourself if you do not understand what all is involved. This article is about explaining what a paint room is and what it takes to get one built and will hopefully persuade you to either use ours or purchase a pre-built one yourself. Doing it yourself is absolutely 100% dangerous and is not recommended unless you know about everything we discussed above. If you are considering building one for business or personal use, please make sure you know what you are doing and consult with professionals.

http://www.vertinc.net/what-is-a-paint-room/

What is aircraft restoration?

What is aircraft restoration?

There are two types of airplanes or aircrafts that would need restoration. Flying and Static. Flying can be for recreation, commercial or for a show and Static would be for aircraft that usually sits in a hangar, building, basement, garage or museum. So what is restoration? Dictionary.com states is as, “the act of restoring; renewal, revival, or reestablishment; a return of something to a former, original, normal, or unimpaired condition; something that is restored, as by renovating; a reconstruction or reproduction of an ancient building, extinct animal, or the like, showing it in its original state; a putting back into a former position, dignity, etc.” In this case, restoration means to restore an aircraft to its original condition when it was brought right out of the factory.

When one commonly thinks of airplane restoration, they think of restoring it to factory specifications like it was brand new. In most cases, after a renovation is complete, the airplane or aircraft is used in airshows and museums or in rare condition is put away and covered as it has value to a collector or organization. This is really important to understand because when someone comes to Vert Inc and asks for restoration, they could be thinking of just restoring the original paint job, which we can do easily, but restoring the entire aircraft to original condition from the inside out is not something we do, unfortunately.

We can restore a paint job to its original condition because we own our own spectrophotometer which measures waves of light in which each wave has its own value or code and we can literally replace the original paint job with a brand new one that would fool any expert. If one was looking for full restoration, meaning to restore the aircraft’s inside and out, that is not what we do but we have partners that can and have done it for a long time. Depending on what aircraft you have and where it was manufactured (meaning if it was design in Russia and we don’t have the blueprints since it was the cold war era – we could only restore based on pictures and not facts) we can usually find the right partners do get what you need done.

So we definitely established that we can only restore the paint job and our partners can restore the interior, components and instruments, but let’s take a closer look at what a full restoration job could really look like. Without getting too involved and detailed which it is definitely not needed, one must consider everything but the paint and the detail that involves in such a huge undertaking. Restoration means “working” and “like new”. And that is what needs to happen with the components and instruments. The interior of an aircraft is complicated and full of intricate pieces that cannot be overlooked. Each part that is designed for the aircraft has a part to play in its functionality, agility and performance.

Safety should be number one in everyone’s mind when it comes to restoration aircraft. The slightest change, weight or shape could affect the aircraft’s original conception and drop its value or worse its performance. In example, if you replace a part of the gurney flap with a heavier piece of metal or less sturdy, you could kill someone because the design doesn’t call for such a replacement. If you do not plan on flying the aircraft, then such measures can be performed but the value of the machine could diminish if audited by experts. Regardless, there are thousands of examples of restoring instruments, components and the like and if you’re interested in restoring your aircraft, please consider the dangers that are involved.

http://www.vertinc.net/what-is-aircraft-restoration/

Aircraft painting cost

Aircraft painting cost

No doubt the most important question when it comes to painting your airplane is, what is the cost going to be? Well, as you would assume, there are many factors to consider before coming to the final cost.

We will need to go over all of these steps:

• ·      Plane size
• ·      Schema / Design process
• ·      Removal of controls, instruments and components
• ·      Existing paint – Stripping (how old is the resin)
• ·      What is the reveal after stripping (rust, corrosion, cracks and/or dents)
• ·      Body condition
• ·      New screws for cowling and wing tanks
• ·      Basic coat of non-metallic paint (primer)
• ·      Application of stripes or markings
• ·      Final coats and finish
• ·      Reassembly of controls, instruments and components
• ·      Storage

The plane size is an obvious factor. Wingspan and length will determine the time it takes for completion. How many engines also depends on the price because of the removal of such delicate machinery. Some airplane paint shops bill hourly versus quoting each category.

The schema and design process takes time when the client offers an idea and the painter shows their thoughts after collaboration. It takes a while for everyone to come to an agreement with the final design. The N# holds back a lot of designs due to regulations so take this into consideration when going back and forth with the painter. Make sure you are prepared. Reading all of our articles on my blog will definitely save you money.

The removal of the controls, instruments and components takes serious precision and takes a long time. Every aircraft has a different schematic and the process needs to be recorded for rebuild. This procedure needs to be calculated accordingly based on size, and instruments along with the time it takes to take it all apart “correctly”.

Stripping of the existing paint will reveal what kind of resin is left over and how old the paint truly is. What usually is revealed is all kinds of scary imperfections from manufacturing, wear and tear to just simple age. Dents, corrosion/rust and cracks are natural and shouldn’t be feared because most can be fixed but this process will take a long time if the owner painted over imperfections just to gain profit.

When down to the naked body, what is revealed could be wood, metal or plastic. When the weight of the paint (paint adds pressure) is removed, the body may not be as aerodynamic as it was originally so there are many things that need to be done to restore the body to its original state.

It’s always wise to replace the screws with new ones. You can’t replace the body but you can replace what is holding it together. Replacing the screws around the cowling and wing tanks will give you more confidence of the strength of the aircraft after it is finished.

The basic coat of non-metallic paint (primer) will add an additional cost and adding any new markings (N#, stripes, logos) will add cost to the process. We paint over the safety hatch of Evolutions to where you cannot tell the lines which many of our clients absolutely love. That adds to the aircraft painting cost.

And finally, the last of the coats, gloss/finish and reassembly of the controls, instruments and components, the airplane will need storage until the owner can come and pick it up. If you have thoroughly read through this article, you would be smart in recognizing that we have not put a single price anywhere on this article because it’s almost impossible to add a price sheet given the specs and work involved. This isn’t a restaurant where the menu is simple. But, you can expect a price range of anywhere from $50,000 - $500,000 for just a single engine dual passenger aircraft depending on all the factors above.

What are the costs of painting an airplane? Well, if you do it yourself, thousands. If you have it professionally done, tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you have joined the wonderful and exciting world of aircraft enthusiasts, you will definitely start to understand it isn’t for the faint of heart. Airplane hobbyists have spent their life savings if not retirement on this adventure and you cannot afford to be cheap.

http://www.vertinc.net/aircraft-painting-cost/