Panel finishing

What have you all found to be the best way to finish the aluminum panel, paint or silkscreen of some sort?
What kind of paint works best to protect from scratching and age deteriorating and where is a good source for covering options?
Also, what are you all using for labelling switches etc?
Thanks for any advise.

panel

For the panel, I used carbon fiber overlay. There is a current thread on that topic. It is probably only a bit more expensive than paint and looks a whole lot better. If you don't want to to it yourself, Dawin Barrie can provide a finished blank for your panel.

The brother P machine does an excellent job of label making. Many of the folks here use it.

Good luck on the fun part of your project.

Tony

I used black wrinkle paint from a rattle can. It looks good after 6 years and I still get compliments on it. Lightweight and inexpensive too, compared to some options.

I paid a local sign/viny shop $50 to do the vinyl lettering for all the panel stuff.

Spray with paint

Then use a laser printer and clear acetate sheet to print labels with nice boxes around them, then cut them out with a scalpel and stick 'em on.

Lasted 7 years on my last bubble canopied airplane, besides if they curl up you simply open the Word file you saved them in and print out a second set...

Would have worked great in my 7 if the paint hadn't peeled up from the panel...Argh!

Frank

Wrinkle Finish

I had painted my panel with flat black polyurethane, but the flatness never was even. I just repainted part of the panel with black "Wrinkle Finish" from Krylon. Set me back all of $5 and I really like the finish. Took the panel down to bare aluminium, and scratched it good with scotchbrite - people told me it works better with no primer, and I think it does. Cleaned the parts well with dish soap and water and let them dry. Applied a heavy wet coat of Krylon and then hit it with the heat gun, after about 5 min, the wrinkle "reaction" begins at one corner of the piece and then moves across the piece. I then hit it with another heavy wet coat and did the same. After the second wrinkle "reaction", I baked the part in the oven (electric) with the vent fan on for ~3 hours at 150 deg.

Provided a great looking, lightly textured surface that will not show finger prints.