A couple of grueling days getting the windshield area ready for painting. First came a redo of the left side windshield retainer (don't ask), and quite a bit of reshaping of the windshield itself. Seems the big acrylic bulb likes to change shape. Then about six hours of detail work just masking in close around the two areas to be painted. The photo below shows some of that detail, including a thin line of blue tape on top of the existing avionics panel overlays (!), plastic wrap around the two cable bundles, Click Bond nutplates curing, masking the defrost vents, etc. More detail work was done from the inside, and yes, the entire panel is well covered.

Then this afternoon and evening, the entire plane got wrapped in masking paper and light film plastic, including the gear legs, struts, antennas, engine and prop, etc. All this had to be done just to paint the glare shield (top of dash) and the little area of cabin roof that will be under the windshield -- all together just a measly 8 sq. ft. or so. Because these two areas will either A) get a lot of use (dash) or B) never really be accessible again (roof), the paint will be some serious PPG epoxy -- material that is not supposed to and won't come off easily -- so it's better to be safe than sorry with the rest of the plane at this point. Nearby parts and equipment will also be covered and, of course, various manuevers will be done to assure proper ventilation. On the bright side, at least this "little" paint job is a separate check off item on the list of tasks remaining.