Ferrari Mailing List: Re: 308 wheel refinishing

[Paul Bennett (pbennett]

At 09:25 PM 6/25/2008 -0400, you wrote:
>Two questions regarding repainting the original wheels on my 308 QV.

The 16" wheels I bought for my 1980 were beautifully repainted but the front 
would 
loose pressure quickly.  A tank test showed considerable porosity on the INSIDE 
at 
the bead.   I refinished those inner areas.  I googled and in the end consulted 
a 
local helicopter maintenance outfit.  They said this primer was the key so I 
used 
PPG Deltron DPLF Eposy Primer.  I've posted the pdf for this product at
http://www.paul-bennett.com/procrastinate/Primer.pdf


Here are notes what I saved after my experience:
http://www.roadsters.com/gibbs/
Gibbs Brand aluminum / magnesium penetrant.  May be painted
One 12-ounce can  $20 including shipping
Two 12-ounce cans $35 including shipping
All of our Gibbs Brand orders are shipped by Fed-Ex Ground. Since Gibbs is 
pressurized, it cannot be shipped by air. Your order will be shipped within a 
few days of when it is received.
Gibbs Brand
919 W. Washington Ave.
Lake Bluff, IL 60044-1647
To order Gibbs Brand by phone, please call (888) 481-2846 and ask for 
Roadsters. If you reach voice-mail, please leave your number and the best time 
to return your call.

******************
Prep the magnesium: 

Beech/Raytheon provides a Mil-spec Mil-C-3171, AMS 2475 Conversion Coat process 
for magnesium called DOW 7 and DOW 19. If you search "google" with the term, 
"Conversion Coat" you will find the pdf file to download. This involved process 
is not required for existing control surfaces, but Beech or their 
subcontractors used it on the bare metal magnesium parts originally by 
utilizing dipping tanks.  

For repainting all you need to do is use some of the brush on types. The 
company Polyfiber www.polyfiber.com/where has a product called Magnadyne (about 
$4.50 /Qt.) that you mix with water (follow directions by manufacturer). 
Poplawski uses a product from Eldorado Chemical, there are others too. This 
stays on about three minutes and then wash off with water.   Dry the control 
surface very well. Use a hair dryer or heat lamp or forced air if heated. You 
have to get rid of the moisture !!!!!   Don't touch the surfaces with your bare 
hands either, get some cotton gloves etc.

Get ready to apply the primer:

Wipe down the entire control surface with MEK (of course it's bad for you, so 
are Krispy Kreme fat pills).  Use a non etching epoxy primer. Make sure you use 
a NON etching epoxy primer. Did I mention non etching epoxy primer!!! Good.  
Polyfiber has a brand and so do all the rest.   
http://www.polyfiber.com/index.html

Get ready to paint the control surfaces:

You can use what ever paint you want over the NON etching epoxy primer 
including Acrylic Enamel (may be lighter weight for older ruddervators), Imron 
or other Poly Urethanes etc. Remember many of the painters at the aircraft 
paint shops started out by painting automobiles and the more paint the better. 
We all know that this is not the case for ruddervators or control surfaces. 
When you select the paint shop for your airplanes, are you talking to a 
salesman or to the person that is going to actually paint your airplane ??? Go 
and talk with the person that is actually going to paint the airplane.  When 
you call Poplawski, guess what, he is the same person that actually paints the 
airplane. (OK, so he's booked up for a year or more).

Now see if you can get the control surfaces to balance according to the Beech 
specifications.