I scuffed and cleaned all of the seating and baggage area ribs, then set up my table over by the open garage door with the infrared heater shining on it. While the heater doesn't make priming at 40 degrees just as fast as priming at 75, it definitely speeds the process up over not having it. The bare aluminum doesn't absorb the heat very well (the shiny surface reflects most of it), but once it's got a tack coat of the grey primer on it, the metal heats up within minutes.
I batched the baggage area parts (and a few other odds and ends) first, then while each coat was drying I scuffed and cleaned the seat ribs.
It seems a little silly that 4 ours of priming is what gave me a month of downtime, but that's the breaks. I could have continued on with spray can primer, but for the cockpit area I really wanted primer that was a bit tougher. The Professional series Rustoleum is the best spray can primer I've tried so far (although it's not self etching, so you still have to scuff), but at least in the short run it is still quite soft and easy to scrape off. I have a feeling it will actually continue to cure and get harder with time, but I don't know for sure yet. I tested a piece after a week and it was still pretty soft. The Stewart is fine within a day, and after a week it's very tough. On the next plane I won't have any qualms using spray can primer for areas that don't get touched all of the time though, like tail and wing parts. Granted, assuming I'm not having to store the plane outside in Seattle at that point, I would probably just spray mating surfaces and call it a day. For this plane, I know I'm probably going to be sitting in less than ideal conditions for a while, so even though I think it's overkill, the full primer treatment still makes me feel better.
