Painting and colors for 737?

[XOrionFE]

Hello all,

I just took my real Boeing panels to Home Depot yesterday and had a batch of Boeing gray latex paint made for the wood parts of my pit.     I then took the panel to a local Auto Paint store and they mixed me up a batch of this wonderful interior auto paint that goes on smooth with my airbrush and requires no matte clearcoat as the paint already has the proper flattening agents in it.   It dried hard to touch in about 20 minutes and this stuff is rock hard and extremely durable.   I am really pleased with it and ready to start painting my homemade panel parts.   The match with the real boeing panel is perfect on color and sheen.

Now onto my question.    There seems to be a lot of white parts (radio pedestal) and some of the overhead panels.   Can someone share what color of white that is?    Would a primer white be appropriate?

[Efe]

RAL 7038 cream color
RAL 7011 grey

[XOrionFE]

Thanks Efe

[Efe]

Of course even on this forum there are different codes floating around. This is what we use for our cockpit here and it seems to go well with what we can see on the real aircraft.

[Boeing Skunk Works]

  I have three different shades of gray between all of my Boeing equipment. In addition to that, I used two shades of gray for stuff I built myself.

New Ford Gray from Dupli-Color, and Gloss Battleship Gray from Krylon.

On an airplane this old you're liable to find anything.

[NAX228]

I took a quick googlesearch for the color RAL7011 and the first link i looked on didn't look much like my own whitish panels.
So a googlesearch for pictures RAL7011 was done only to make me more confuzed. Take a look at the differences in the supposedly same color:
http://images.google.no/images?rlz=1C1GGLS_noNO347NO347&sourceid=chrome&q=RAL%207038&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=no&tab=wi

[JWS]

RAL 7038 cream color

I may be wrong but 7038 seems to be grey not cream (white).

JWS

[Trevor Hale]

I am actually using Pure White for my sidewalls and "will do my pedestal sides in white as well".  Trev

[shaneb]

Hey Scott,

Do you have any info from the paint that you had mixed at the auto parts store?  I would be interested to see what it is and check to see if any of the parts stores around here can mix it.

I've painted my main instrument panel, EFIS panel, TQ and center pedestal with paint I had color matched and mixed at Lowe's for Gunship Gray.  The brand is Valspar and it is a interior flat enamel finish that can be applied to wood or metal.  It dries rather quickly, but best to allow it to cure out for several days before it has good durability.

[Efe]

RAL 7038 cream color

I may be wrong but 7038 seems to be grey not cream (white).

JWS

I am aware it is a light grey, I was merely referring to it as cream because people are usually expecting something much darker when you say grey. The color in the aircraft is not white, but of course you are free to paint those parts white.

Here is a portion of the overhead from a real 737NG, taken personally:


And here is the same portion (different angle obviously) taken from our cockpit, with the new eyebrow piece that we made with the RAL codes I mentioned initially:


First picture is taken in real light while the second one is with the flash on.

Here is the comparison of knob color, light panel color and eyebrow 'cream' color on a real 737NG:


And here is right side eyebrow piece that we put into production.

[XOrionFE]

So is the pedestal that same light grey color Efe?  I thought it was white from other pictures I have seen.

[Trevor Hale]

Love your eyebrow trim Efe, Looks awesome.

[Efe]

So is the pedestal that same light grey color Efe?  I thought it was white from other pictures I have seen.

That is what we deduced Scott. Here is a pic from the real aircraft that shows the colors of the aft electronic panel a.k.a. pedestal, courtesy of our flight captain, who I look upto a great deal.



By the way, bumped into this site while I was searching for something on the net. Seems similar to this site, which I use as a reference when stuck.

Love your eyebrow trim Efe, Looks awesome.

Thanks Trev! We still have some modifications that we are working on but we are pleased with how it turned out considering it was the first attempt.

[XOrionFE]

great site links Efe.  Thank you.

And yes, that Eyebrow trim looks great.  That is going to be made available?  That would be really nice.

[Efe]

great site links Efe.  Thank you.

And yes, that Eyebrow trim looks great.  That is going to be made available?  That would be really nice.

Thanks Scott. Appreciate the kind words. The eyebrow trims are some of the items that will be made available shortly. These were some of the parts that we had trouble acquiring and we got such an amazing result when we decided to make them that we thought it best to make them available to other builders as well.

These are made from the real 737NG, with every nook and cranny that you can see in real life including holes for lights and speakers. As I stated earlier, we are just making some final adjustments to ensure that the trims are durable yet don't break anyone's bank in the process.

[XOrionFE]

Hey Scott,

Do you have any info from the paint that you had mixed at the auto parts store?  I would be interested to see what it is and check to see if any of the parts stores around here can mix it.

I've painted my main instrument panel, EFIS panel, TQ and center pedestal with paint I had color matched and mixed at Lowe's for Gunship Gray.  The brand is Valspar and it is a interior flat enamel finish that can be applied to wood or metal.  It dries rather quickly, but best to allow it to cure out for several days before it has good durability.

The Paint is from PPG and is called Deltron (DIU Interior).   The color is actually a FORD color called Medium Portland Gray.
There is a breakdown of color parts also as follows:
DMD664  Black   227.7
DMD663 White   147.1
DMD614 Blue  32.2
DMD641 Yellow  17.1
DMD622 Red Oxide 4.7
DMD656 RED  1.9
DX685  Urethane Flattening Agent 66.4
DBX695 CLEAR  61.2

I mixed this with DRR Reducer 50-50 before putting through my airbrush.   Worked perfectly.  There is also a spray they gave me to spray the plastic with called Plastic Adhesion Promoter.   You just scuff sand the plastic with a scuff pad then lightly dust it with the Adhesion Promoter prior to shooting the paint.   There is no final clearcoat required.    This is the same paint type used on plastic parts inside autosmobiles for their plastic panels and is extremely durable.   Here is a picture of the test piece I shot sitting next to the actual Boeing panel.   As you can see the color and sheen is pretty close to perfect.    At least with my eyes I cannot see a difference at all.    This photo was taken with a flash so you can see the effect of the flat finish on both panels.  Note Shane that for the Learjet the Gunship Grey Testors paint is the right color.   This color is for Boeing and would be darker than the Lear panels.   

Regards,
Scott

[shaneb]

Yeah, I have a can of the Testor's gunship gray . . it will work but not really sure of its durability.  I was thinking that you took a panel in and let the auto parts store scan it for the correct color mix. I plan on taking a panel that I shot with the Testors gunship gray and let them match it. 

The interior paint should hold up real well . . I used this on some interior panels when I restored a Corvette and the paint has held up great, but I had purchased it from a online source and did not remember the company that produced it. Thanks for the info, now I know what to ask for.