On the flip side to your experiences, the WLS primer on my
bird was on for over a year while building. Some areas, like
the rear stab. and elevator, to this day (painted in 1999), show the
weave under hanger lights (the dreaded fluorescents). Can't feel it,
but it can bee seen (DuPont chromabase coat/clear coat).
The cowl, which was not primered before flying, but was
primered at the time of the finish paint work, does not show any weave under
fluorescent lights.
In the 13 years since paint (wow, has it been that long)
nothing with the paint has changed. No more or fewer areas of seeable
weave. All looks as good now as it did in 1999 (except for my own
condition inspection dings).
Gary Edwards
LNC2
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 5:24
AM
Subject: [LML] Re: Paint before or after
test flying
My first Lancair (LNC2) was finished in 1992. I used WLS primer and
it was painted with PPG basecoat clearcoat before first flight. I did
need to modify the cowl after paint which was a pain, but more important, when
the plane was 3 or 4 years old ripples started to appear. Also if you
hilighted some areas you could barley see the weave in the glass cloth.
I believe that was caused by shrinkage of the primer.
On my second Lancair (LNC4) which was also primed with WLS did not get
painted for about 8 months after first flight. The beautiful paint job
(Brad Simmons) is now 8 1/2 years old and does not show any ripples or glass
weave. It still looks great. I believe that letting the primer
cure for 6 or 8 months is the way to go
Tom Byrnes Lancair IV N54TB