Is the paint shop on the same airfield as your hangar?


Wheels

No.

It is about 30 minute flight away. Fortunately I have buddies that I can fly over with.

Grog, is this the first repaint of your Cardinal? If so then I'm amazed how long those last. 60 years?

Yes, this is the first repaint. Original 1969. It was still in relatively good shape overall, but had places where it was needing repaint. Places like leading edge of wings, door edges, front part of cowl, and landing gear legs and wheel pants. If it weren’t for those areas she could have gone a good while longer. I was never happy with the original paint color. I wanted something more modern and fresh.

It is more than just paint. I am having a whole external refurbishment. Every little fault and blemish fixed. After 50 years, some of the screws and connectors have gotten worn and needed different screws or pins. All those will be addressed so I will not have to pay attention which fits where. This is particularly true on the cowl where I had three different screws because of wear. Hated hanging the cowl and then doing the “which one goes here” game. Also the leading part of the cowl is molded fiberglass. It developed some cracks and wear areas that will be repaired. Prop will be stripped, smoothed, repainted and decals. Window seals redone with a better filler than the old putty. All the connectors and actuators on the flaps, aelerons, rudder, and stabilator will be redone with stainless. New swivels and bearings. Everything that can be repaired or improved will be done. Since I will go to fly-ins with grass fields, they will put protective film on the lower front parts of the wheel pants to protect the paint.

Original paint was lacquer, but because of health and environmental issues it is no longer used. Now they use a special aircraft Imron. The paint shop says the lacquer was a bit harder to do right, but was a slightly better paint if done right. The Imron is easier and the best of the new paints.

I am thinking about the wheel pants. I have been thinking of painting them a little different than the picture. First thought was to do a teardrop with the thick part on the front with a swooping taper to the rear. Problem is that it clashes with the fuselage which is larger at the rear and tapers to the front. So, if any of you have an idea I’d love to hear it.




Something like this was my first thought. This is pretty poor since I just did it on my iPad and the editor is limited and I had to use my finger. Of course the front pant would be similar.




Ok, you all are more talented than I am as evidenced with your modeling skills displayed in this forum. I would love to see your ideas.

I have that same fear. I hope that when my life flashes bye. I wont want to get up and leave because I was bored.

First try, I can't draw with a mouse at all, but you might get the idea.



Colors are wrong, and maybe slant the stripes a little more. That black blob is the tire.

Kinda matches the wing tips also.

Wow, quite the refurbishment project. Amazing to think how common 50 year old aircraft are, compared to 50yo cars... thanks for sharing your stories btw, always entertaining.

I'm not good at classic designs... maybe go inverted on the wheelpants. Make white the main color and red on the edges, then taper a (white) diamond from the front to the back.

At least it wasn't in the 1970's beige-on-beige. We have a 172 on our field that doesn't have wheel pants so much as bell bottoms.

I've seen some pretty atrocious "improvements" to paint schemes, especially the ones where they add metallic flakes and they turn out looking like bass boats.

Dart, what do you think of my hangar ?

Something like this line of thinking? Matching the wingtips like Nixer said might be cool.





The more i look at it them, the more i dislike it




edit-

Did you mean more like this?






Since i have no shame ...i also stole Nixers awesome wheel and plonked it on .

^Swap the red with the white (and maybe the gold and black) and that's what I had in mind.

Although... you can always make them pure white, put a big yellow smiley on the front wheel, a yellow "how's my flying" on the left and "my other aircraft is an A-10" on the right. Just sayin'...

Ajay, nicely done. I like yours better than the original picture. Thanks. At least I have something I like better than the original.

Can you do one with a tear drop with a quicker taper than your drawing ?

LOL You are quite welcome to use my high res wheel Ajay.

Too clean. Too organized.

How do you find anything in there?

I also find the lack of oil stains on the floor distressing.

The floor is epoxy painted so oil doesn’t penetrate. Just wipe it up.

And speaking of organization. The whiteboard on the left has all my info on it. Date of engine overhaul, time on engine, date of last annual, date of medical, date of semi-annual flight review, hours at oil change, date of avionics certification, date of ELT, etc. that way with a quick glance I can see what is due. If not, some of the dates would be out of mind.

I knew you would get a kick at discussing hangars. Refrigerator, microwave, music, etc all make it more inviting to hang around at. I will have to post pictures of some of my neighbor hangars. They have quite expensive furniture and decor. We have friendly group that socialize as well as fly.

Maybe this?

It looks like mouths now, just the eyes missing

...don't tempt me Colonel..i've already resisted adding ordnance, mg's and schrage musik as it is

Go ahead, you know you want to put a Shark on the front wheel. OG wants too