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From: n295vv

Rick Argente:  Eight grand for a paint job is quite a bit of money.  $2200
for a clear coat is especially a lot if the paint job was prepped correctly
in the first place.

What your painter has told you seems to me to have a bit of smoke and mirrors
associated with it.

First of all, most of the work in terms of hours will be spent filling
pinholes before the first coat of primer is put on.  This is done with K-200
and lots of sanding and reapplication of the K-200.  This can be maybe 70% of
the cost of a paint job if you want a show plane.

Next, the Primer is applied, and again pinholes will probably show up and
this will be attended to.  Sanding with 600 grit or better will help prepare
this coat for later layers, followed by 800-1000 grit just before the Color
Coat.

Next the Color Coat will be applied--maybe several coats- we were advised to
put it on so thick it looked liked it would all run off in one big swoop, and
it worked out very well.

His explanation of a time frame for Clear Coat is correct--we applied it
shortly after the final color coat and there were two applications if I
remember correctly a short time apart.

I don't think you want to sand color coats at this time--if it needs to be
sanded, the sub coats were not prepared correctly.  After the plane cures for
two to three weeks, a final sanding with 1500-2000 grit may improve the looks.

If, at any point you see the appearance of orange peel--the whole coat should
be sanded off, because the painter screwed something up, and subsequent coats
will just get worse.

Regarding the $2200 for clear coat--it reallly is an easy application and a
small part of the overall labor amount--in fact, it is done soon after the
color coat, so him separating it out as a separate charge is quite unusual, I
think....

David Jones, Pecatonica, Illinois
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