Paint cracking...

[ddwolfe]

I own an 05 ACA 8KCAB. It has 150hrs TT and has always been hangared in the SW and W US. The plane is used for pleasure flying and light acro. I'm beginning to notice small paint cracks along some of the tape joints on the fuselage, tape joints on top of the wing, and leading edge tape joints on top of the horizontal tail. I have a friend with an 04 ACA 8KCAB that also has cracking paint in similar areas.

The "factory" has been very helpful with my airplane and suggested putting 3M tape on the paint cracks on top of the wing. I'm hesitant to begin "taping up" the beautiful paint job. Does anyone have a fix or way to slow down the "cracking paint?"

 

[Tom]

ddwolfe-

Similar problem on my 2001, 3M tape is becoming the standard solution to cracking on poly finishes. Easy to install, buy a number of different widths and plan ahead to minimize the number of individual tapes and overlaps. On a short rib crack I would tape from trailing edge to the leading edge tape seam, with care and planning it will be almost invisible.

Hopefully poly cracking will become a thing of the past in the future with new products.

Tom-

 

[N378JG]

I have a 1992 8kcab with 480 TT and it only has two spots on the plane. One just above the step to get in on a seam and the other on the top of the tail that looks more like a paint crack. We used a glue that the factory sent my A/P and reglued the seam. i was going to just touch up the paint. I dont know if they used the samt painting process back in 92.

You can touch it up, but I would just tape it for now and wait untill it really gets bad or before you sell it so that it will show nice, I think if you fixed every spot every time one poped up you would be "chasing your tail" taildragger pun, and spending lots of money.

I had more trouble with the cowl bolt holes tearing out. I ran a two inch strip of fiber glass on the inside of the top and bottom cowls to reinforce the bolt holes and it help a lot. When the paint gets badd enuf i will filx everything on the cowl

 

[jerrymjr]

To keep things consistant; the paint used from 1990 to 1999 was not the same as the paint used from 2000 and up. After they made air conditioners adequately unable to keep things cool, the EPA decided that painting was working out too well.