I have been working on finshing an SV-11 and have painted the fuselage and part of the wings and tail area with Rustoleum paint.  The paint has gone on pretty well (using a spray gun and not rattle cans) but sanding the final coat to remove flaws has proved to be frustrating.  I have allowed at least two weeks drying time for the paint to harden but even though I've used 2000 grit paper and wet sanded, the sanding marks still show after buffing with polishing compound and finishing with auto glaze polish.

Maybe the Rustoleum is just to soft to be sanded, buffed and polished to a smooth, flat finish?  Anyone have any suggestions or advice?

Thanks,

Joe

Mark,

I wiped the areas to be sanded with a tack rag and then a damp, clean paper towell.  After wet sanding to a dull finish with 2000 grit paper, I wiped everything with water and a clean towell.  I then used DuPont polishing compound which is pretty mild.  After the compound I buffed it with  McGuire's "Show Car Glaze."  The polishing and buffing were done by hand. I didn't see or feel any paint balls or grit through this process.  The scratches are quite fine but are all over the area that I sanded and even though there's fair luster to the finish, the scratches are still visible.

I've used this finishing process numerous times on gunstocks that I have rubbed on or sprayed with several types of oil based or polyurethane products and had good results there.  The Rustolem is black and easily shows scratches and the gunstocks were finished with clear.  Maybe the scratches are in the clear finish as well but just don't show up as they do in the black.

As mentioned, Rustoleum seems to be a bit soft even when completely dry so perhaps it just can't be sanded/ buffed with good results.  The plane doesn't look too bad and I never had any delusions about it being a "front row" contended so I think I'll bolt on the motor and go fly it.  Next time I'll use dope.  I was just trying to save some money and hopefully have a decent looking stunt plane.

Thanks for your help.

Joe

Joe,
yeah, well now that I know its black,, sigh,, I must say,, its going to take a LOT of work to rub out if the Rustoleum will respond ....

Black is a painters nightmare to cut and polish. I have spent days sanding and polishing black cars only to get them under different lighting and discover that the process of polishing has in fact put its own scratchs into the finish,, ( in the trade those are called swirls,, and they make special compound for working on black finishs for this very reason)
Perhaps like you say, fly the heck out of it. you may try a good coat of HIGH quality wax,, that does tend to mitigate the visibility of the scratchs, then go over that with your glaze,,

Joe,
I have to agree with Mark; Rustoleum is not designed to be rubbed out & polished...it is too soft.  And as Mark said, black is the most difficult for getting a good finish regardless of the type of paint; the surface to be painted black has to be really well prepared and near flawless.  On the other end of the spectrum white is the easiest to get a good finish with since it does not show much in the way of flaws (it reflects all the light and your eye just can't see as many small flaws).

Also, with regard to your sanding (especially when you use paint that is meant to be rubbed out and polished)...years ago when I set up my shop and installed the Sikkens paint mixing/matching system, I paid for and attended the product school that Sikkens puts on for users of their product.  When the paint is cured and ready to sand and polish you start with a sanding grit that will do the job and not any coarser.  It is rare, however, that you would start with 2000 grit as that can take forever or maybe never get there.  When you have done the initial sanding with say, 400 grit then you go with the next grit finer such as 600 grit, then with 800, then with 1200, then 1500, and finally with 2000 (all done wet).  It won't take much sanding with each grit, but the sanding process is designed for each finer grit to remove the sanding scratches made by the previous grit.  There are a few paint jobs as sprayed on which you could maybe start with 800 grit but they are few.

Rustoleum as well as dope need to be fairly cured out before thinking of polishing.  I know that it took at least two weeks for the rustoleum to cure to the touch on one plane I finished.  DOC Holliday

Wade,

Rustoleum enamel has been used by some modelers for painting planes for quite awhile now.  If you check the search here at Stunt Hanger you can find lots of information on the subject.

Rustoleum is fuel resistant.  It is also inexpensive.  Dope and the thinner needed for it is expensive.

I have very little experience with spray painting so rather than spend a lot of money on a dope finish and have it turn out poorly anyway, I elected to use Rustoleum.  Also, dope will not stick to heat shrink plastic covering and Rustoleum will.  I covered the wings, flaps, horizontal stab and elevators with Ultra Kote and extended the fuse paint out onto these surfaces.

The Rustoleum finish is really pretty good and the only problem I encountered was attempting to wet sand the paint and buff it out.  That's when the sanding scratches or swirls became apparent.  As pointed out by others, this paint does not dry hard enough (ever) to lend itself well to the sanding/buffing process.  Especially black. I know that now.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I had no delusions about this being a show contender and also,  I'm far from being an expert pilot so putting the time, work and money into a dope finish right now and for this plane (an SV-11) wouldn't have been prudent, in my opinion.

Hope that answers your question.

Joe