A big job: Painting an airliner
Associated Painters recently opened their Spokane location in a specially-designed hangar at the Spokane International Airport. It is a branch of Rod Friese' business which started at Paine Field in Everett. The business paints airplanes, many of them airliners from Southwest or Alaska/Horizon airlines. It takes about a week to strip all the paint from the aluminum skin of the plane, then repaint it with great attention to detail.
Section:Picture story
The crew removes paint from a Southwest Airlines jet at Associated Painters. It takes about a week to strip and repaint a large jet.
Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
Jack Brown, left, and George Straley, right, remove paint from the engine cowling of a Southwest Airlines 737.
Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
Anthony Morhardt, left, and Justin Spicer, right, remove paint from the tail of a Southwest Airlines 737.
Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
A Southwest Airlines 737 is being painted inside the Associated Painters hangar at the Spokane airport.
Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
Jeremy Cook, foreground, removes paint from a Southwest Airlines 737 along with a crew of others Thursday, July 21, 2011 at Associated Painters, a new aircraft painting business at the Spokane airport. Associated Painters was started by a group of Boeing employees as a moonlighting project.
Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
Rod Friese stands under the wing of a Southwest Airlines 737 being painted inside the Associated Painters hangar at the Spokane airport Thursday, July 21, 2011. Friese is a former Boeing paint shop worker who bought the business from other paint shop workers in the 1990s and has now opened a branch of the business in Spokane.
Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo