DrDave Posted August 12, 2022 Share Posted August 12, 2022 Looking at Aussie P-40s and Spitfires at the moment. These were delivered in Camo and later stripped back to NMF. I am interested in how this is actually done. It must have been quite time consuming in wartime. We’re they sanded with power tools? That would leave a highly polished aircraft, with paint still left in nooks and crannies. Did they use stripper? Messy and can’t be easy or good for an airframe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted August 12, 2022 Share Posted August 12, 2022 Stripper! If they'd used sanding and power tools they'd have been shot. Oldbaldguy, LSP_K2 and Gazzas 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palm-tree Posted August 12, 2022 Share Posted August 12, 2022 Power tools would have too much risk of damaging thin aluminium alloy skins, rivets or other components-pretty much the same as your models. Gazzas 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juggernut Posted August 12, 2022 Share Posted August 12, 2022 I know the 357th used gasoline to strip the green paint off their Mustangs for winter ops so maybe this was a common practice elsewhere as well? Gazzas 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John1 Posted August 12, 2022 Share Posted August 12, 2022 29 minutes ago, Juggernut said: I know the 357th used gasoline to strip the green paint off their Mustangs for winter ops so maybe this was a common practice elsewhere as well? Was this paint not resistant to petroleum? Seems like a massive amount of work to remove paint from every rivet, panel joint, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldbaldguy Posted August 12, 2022 Share Posted August 12, 2022 I’d be curious if this was a common practice and why they thought this was necessary. Was it done at depot or in the field? Would likely have been a more thorough job if done back in the rear. If done by crew chiefs in the field, it likely was whatever it was. Stripping an airframe is a messy business, is very work intensive and takes a while because there is a lot of surface area. Aircraft availability is a big issue during wartime, so you’d think they would have had better things to be concerned with. And, no, no right thinking person would sand the paint off - in many places, the aluminum skin on these airplanes is thinner than the plastic in our LSPs. JayW 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easixpedro Posted August 12, 2022 Share Posted August 12, 2022 I'll make an educated guess that whatever solvent they had handy was used. Remember that the AVGAS back then was like 110 Octane and burned really hot. Am guessing it was quite capable of stripping paint. I know it was wartime, but you cant look at it through a modern lens (i.e. environment regulations, amount of work etc.) When the USN wanted to move all the enlisted aviation schools to Pensacola in the late 90s, the proposed barracks and classroom sites were old WW2 hangars. The area became a superfund site due to the amount of clean up required to safely build there. Apparently back then it was accepted practice to just drain oil and gas straight from the engines to the ground (helps keep the dust down right?) So I'm guessing the same occurred in other parts of the world. Oldbaldguy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John1 Posted August 12, 2022 Share Posted August 12, 2022 (edited) 14 minutes ago, easixpedro said: I'll make an educated guess that whatever solvent they had handy was used. Remember that the AVGAS back then was like 110 Octane and burned really hot. Am guessing it was quite capable of stripping paint. I know it was wartime, but you cant look at it through a modern lens (i.e. environment regulations, amount of work etc.) When the USN wanted to move all the enlisted aviation schools to Pensacola in the late 90s, the proposed barracks and classroom sites were old WW2 hangars. The area became a superfund site due to the amount of clean up required to safely build there. Apparently back then it was accepted practice to just drain oil and gas straight from the engines to the ground (helps keep the dust down right?) So I'm guessing the same occurred in other parts of the world. Spot on. I’m in the environmental remediation field and if it wasn’t for military / former military sites, business would really suffer. Some of the most common “hot spots” are former fire training areas where they simply poured fuel on the ground and lit it off. Historically, this caused major soil / ground water impacts. Decades after cleaning them up, we now discovered that the fire-fighting foam was loaded with PFOS, so we are right back at the same sites dealing with those contaminants! Another common hot-spot are former degreasing / parts cleaning operations where the spent solvents, as you alluded to, were simply dumped in the “back 40”. Edited August 12, 2022 by John1 LSP_K2, Oldbaldguy and easixpedro 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted August 12, 2022 Share Posted August 12, 2022 3 hours ago, Juggernut said: I know the 357th used gasoline to strip the green paint off their Mustangs for winter ops so maybe this was a common practice elsewhere as well? Not sure that petrol worked for paint, but I know it was used to strip Cosmoline from aircraft so treated for ferrying as deck cargo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Ron Posted August 12, 2022 Share Posted August 12, 2022 I think they used easy off oven cleaner, Gazzas and LSP_K2 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juggernut Posted August 12, 2022 Share Posted August 12, 2022 (edited) 3 hours ago, Sabrejet said: Not sure that petrol worked for paint, but I know it was used to strip Cosmoline from aircraft so treated for ferrying as deck cargo. Apparently, it did as that is a direct quote from Bud Anderson himself. He said the ground crew had bloody hands because they worked all night stripping the green paint off of his aircraft with gasoline. Quote starts at 37:00 in the below film. Edited August 12, 2022 by Juggernut easixpedro and Gazzas 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Mike Posted August 12, 2022 Share Posted August 12, 2022 That is part of the answer. Andersons crew worked all night to get the paint off. With gas. Gazzas 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waroff Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 sprayable remover paint could be used airscale and John1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John1 Posted August 20, 2022 Share Posted August 20, 2022 On 8/19/2022 at 3:29 AM, waroff said: sprayable remover paint could be used The birth of a Superfund Site! "My business is cleaning up messes left behind by the military. Business is good". easixpedro 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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