The owner of this Cirrus SR22 had several large expenses planned for his new to him Cirrus. ADS-B, Engine Overhaul and Repaint. The Cirrus was showing its age, the paint was yellowing and dull. Fortunately, we got a hold of him before the paint shop did. For a fraction of the time and cost of repainting, we were able to restore gloss and protect the paint with a tough ceramic coating.
Check out the highlights video and read on about how we made this owner love his plane even more!
Starting off with a thorough belly degreasing.
You can see the vertical before and after line. The left side is noticeably clearer.
Another clear difference, the lower segment is free of all of the oxidation and engrained dirt that makes the white more of a yellow. Being a composite aircraft, we made sure to keep panel temperatures below 100F to ensure the integrity of the carbon fiber fuselage was not compromised.
Here is a before and after of the same area – same exposure and same white balance on both photos.
Even though the paint correction accounts for the bulk of the gloss increase, we can still observe a measurable increase in gloss after coating a small test area inside of the taped area. A higher gloss reading means that more light is reflected off the surface.
Our coating is a two step process. The applicator on the left applies the first layer, the applicator on the right applies a gloss and hydrophobic enhancement layer. The left applicator is clearly loaded up with paint debris from the old single stage paint. Worth nothing that the second layer does not acquire any such debris because the paint is now sealed with a ceramic layer.
Micron scale surface scratches on the right half cause a hologram effect on the paint. the light radiating off of the light source reflection is present on the right half, but gone on the left half after paint correction. The increase in paint clarity is also clearly present.
Some finished shots:
