Status Brantel #72823

Post by **Spike** » Sat Aug 06, 2011 7:34 am

Wow, that thing is smoke-un! Very nice. Now fly over here and work on mine

Really nice job. You guys make me proud to know you!

Spike

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Sat Aug 06, 2011 10:10 am

Brian,

We were chatting about paint at the hangar the other day and were wondering how much weight it typically adds. We agreed on 50-100 lbs. depending on system , scheme and product

What was YOUR total weight gain after paint?

CJ

Brantel · Post by **Brantel** » Sat Aug 06, 2011 12:48 pm

Thanks for all the comments guys!

I will answer some questions about the paint as soon as I get that info back from Bobby.

I took some interior shots today and will post em up this evening.

Here is a YouTube video of a quick virtual tour. Be sure to check out the HD versions if your computer and Internet connection can handle it...
http://youtu.be/wqw5vHYrcZ0

Brantel · Post by **Brantel** » Sat Aug 06, 2011 3:15 pm

Interior pics for a complete picture...

hydroguy2 · Post by **hydroguy2** » Sat Aug 06, 2011 9:47 pm

your plane looks absolutely fantastic.

hey you ready to help me design a new panel? I might redo mine this winter.

Brantel · Post by **Brantel** » Mon Aug 08, 2011 6:41 am

CJ,

I will have to get back to you on that. I need to reweigh the plane.
Lots of filler, primer, sealer, base, tons of clear but alot of that gets sanded off during the cut n polish phase.

I would say 30-50...we will see how it works out when I can get the scales.

captain_john wrote:Brian,

We were chatting about paint at the hangar the other day and were wondering how much weight it typically adds. We agreed on 50-100 lbs. depending on system , scheme and product

What was YOUR total weight gain after paint?

CJ

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Mon Aug 08, 2011 6:44 am

Cool... lemme know.

I am sure that 100# would be FAT CITY!

30-50# would be reasonable.

Interesting!

CJ

Brantel · Post by **Brantel** » Mon Aug 08, 2011 7:21 am

Thanks Brian, as does yours...

Funny you mention panel upgrades...I also am thinking a panel upgrade is in the future!!!

hydroguy2 wrote:your plane looks absolutely fantastic.

hey you ready to help me design a new panel? I might redo mine this winter.

Brantel · Post by **Brantel** » Mon Aug 08, 2011 7:40 am

Several people have contacted me for more details on the paint and cost.

Bobby Potts of Tuscaloosa Interiors and Paint did the paint.
Work (205)333-3116
Cell (205)361-1588

He is an airplane painting veteran who has done this for many many years. He is a stand up, do business with a handshake, down to earth Southern Gentleman. He seems to be honest as can be.

As far as cost:

I paid $9K...

The paint/supplies cost alone were almost 4 grand. The Red paint colors are out of this world expensive. I don't know why but they are.

The paint was PPG base/clear Deltron 2000. Bobby alodined the plane before priming.
Redfire Metalic 5938
Arizona Beige Metalic 5584
Cloud White 4943

I also had completely raw fiberglass except for the cowl when I took it to Bobby. He had to do a ton of work to finish the fiberglass. Bobby also wetsands the entire airplane after the clear goes on and then polishes it out. This really adds to the quality of the paint.

He also used his A&P to remove/reinstall the flight controls and to remove and install the canopy which had a bunch of wires to disconnect/reconnect.

I could have saved money by finishing the glass myself and disassembly/reassembly of the airplane as well as chosing a different color than Red.

Hope this helps...

I have looked in the archives and it seems I paid a similar price to what others have paid when using Bobby. When you factor in the time and materials, he is not getting rich doing it for that price.

Thanks for all the comments on the plane. I feel totally blessed to be allowed to take part in this. I am a married working man with a mortgage, 3 young kids that will all need braces, cars, college, and weddings (retirement? not sure that will ever happen). The airplane is paid for free and clear and I thank God for that!

dons · Post by **dons** » Mon Aug 08, 2011 11:19 am

Glad you were able to stick with it Brian and see it through, you need to be very proud of what you have accomplished, on so many levels, it looks fantastic!

Bob Barrett · Post by **Bob Barrett** » Mon Aug 08, 2011 6:59 pm

Great Job Brian!!!

It is very beautifull

Bob Barrett · Post by **Bob Barrett** » Tue Aug 09, 2011 6:15 pm

Beautiful Brian!

I thought I posted that before but it is really great!

Brantel · Post by **Brantel** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:54 am

Thanks guys!

The next mission is to convert my VFR ship into something I can bust thin layers with and stay IFR current.

Stein just hooked me up with a previously owned but still in the box 430W.

I plan to add that, a PS Eng PMA5000EX audio panel and a Gemini PFD to the panel for redundancy.

Looks like the easiest way to do that is to just make a new panel.

Look for updates in the future...

painless · Post by **painless** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 7:45 am

Awesome job Brian! Great to see another completion added to the Rivetbanger fleet.

Brantel · Post by **Brantel** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:28 pm

captain_john wrote:Cool... lemme know.

I am sure that 100# would be FAT CITY!

30-50# would be reasonable.

Interesting!

CJ

CJ,

The plane gained ~33.5lbs of alodine, primer, filler and paint. It was base/clear coat.

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 6:00 am

Brian, that is lean! Very nice!!!

Thanks for the data point!

A job well done!

CJ

Bob Barrett · Post by **Bob Barrett** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 7:29 pm

Brian, That is a lean paint job and very inexpensibe

Mine cost $6000 but it was not assembled. It was all red fuselage, white wings, red vertical stab & rudder. I didn't have the gear legs, wheel pants and wing tips painted at that time. We flew the airplane the Summer, Fall, and Winter of 2009 with out the gear etc painted. They cost an additional $500 and then I ieinstalled them on the airplane. I used a white vynl stripe on the side of the fuselage with the N number cut out of it. I completed assembled the airplane after the paint job in 2008. I am very happy with my paint job and feel my charges were fair. Your painted did a more complex paint scheme puls dis-assembled and re assembled the airplane. A real bargin deal.

Brantel · Post by **Brantel** » Mon Aug 15, 2011 8:16 am

Some folks asked about the paint color codes so here they are. I also updated the previous post.

PPG Deltron 2000 Base/Clear
Redfire Metalic 5938
Arizona Beige Metalic 5584
Cloud White 4943

Thanks guys!

Brantel · Post by **Brantel** » Mon Aug 29, 2011 5:12 am

Got my 430W installed and up and running this weekend. N159SB is now a "/G"!

Shot my first LPV approach ever yesterday at KMOR (RNAV-23). This approach is brand new and was only activated during the last cycle.

Way back when, I went ahead and installed a HS34 with my Dynon system to enable future connection to a 430W. This worked out beautifully! The integration of the HS34 to the 430W is super easy to do and works as advertised.

The Dynon AP instantly knows what to do with all that GPS steering info that it gets from the 430W. No changes were required here other than to configure the ARINC channel on the HS34 for the 430W. Just follow the Dynon WIKI for the settings and it works. The AP tracked the GPS steering flawlessly. It is cool watching it cut the corners.

I dropped about 5 gallons of sweat into my airplane during this install as there was much pain and agony under the panel required! Most of the hard work was involved with reworking the audio connections and installing a TX select switch since I do not have an audio panel yet. That will be another massive amount of rework when I get around to installing that.

Started out with the idea of installing cat whiskers on the tail for the NAV side of things but my W&B made me rethink this. I decided to send that back and last week I installed a Bob Archer wingtip antenna in the left wingtip. That thing seems to work very well at around 50miles. I did not check another VOR further than that but I will later. It worked perfectly on the localizer at KMOR. I have not tried the GS yet.

I am waiting on the TT Gemini PFD for a backup EFIS type solution and once I have that, I will call this bird Lite-IFR ready.

tmbg · Post by **tmbg** » Mon Aug 29, 2011 8:03 am

Any notes on how well that left wingtip archer antenna performs if you have your left wing pointed directly away from the station?

RivetBangers.com

Status Brantel #72823

N159SB /G Oh yeah!!!