After asking various paint professionals and getting opinions from various forums, the consensus for a durable cockpit paint seemed to be “2-pack” . So I toddled off down to my local paint supplier and they advised a 2K Acylic, satin, with about 10% plasticiser to keep panels from showing hairline cracks with age.

Masking

After the acid etch had hardened, the ends of the top skins, which will be in the baggage area, were masked so the white 1K acrylic with which I’ve been priming could be sprayed … no point in painting those end areas twice, but extra work of course.

Then masked in reverse for the chosen cockpit paint. I chose a very light grey, RAL9002. This paint is mixed with the base, hardener and thinners … 5:1 base:hardener, so hard to judge in a small quantity.

All done …

Anyway, seemed easy to spray and I’m very pleased with the result.

I realised later that I’m going to need to spray cockpit paint on the very front of the top skin F-01475 and the doubler, since a small area of these will also show in front of the rear bulkhead in the baggage area . Also the very front of the longerons which are in the baggage area. Foohey Fudge Cake!

Some advocate spraying all cockpit components once assembled, avoiding marks and enabling the rivets to be painted. Makes a lot of sense, except that I’m an inexperienced paint sprayer … I know it will be hard to position the gun to get a good finish on all surfaces in situ. But I’m not sure yet, so plan to spray components as I go for the time being. I can always colour the rivets and touch up marks with a airbrush. I think??