Narrative:

I was scheduled to fly a B767-300 aircraft on an ETOPS flight. Our report time was xa:36 pm for a scheduled departure time of xb:36 pm. We arrived at the aircraft at the gate. After reviewing the paperwork with the captain; I commenced my walk around at xa:45 pm. The aircraft had recently been painted with [our] air carrier's new paint [scheme] and I was immediately aware that several fasteners were missing. Rather than complete my walk-around and delay the repair; I returned to the cockpit and asked the captain to give maintenance a call to give them as much heads up as I could. I then returned to my walk-around. There were so many fasteners missing I had to start writing them down on a piece of paper to keep track. It was evident that the paint shop had simply painted over many of the holes rather than replace the fasteners. One panel; the auxiliary fuel panel; had 50% of the fasteners missing on the panel.many of the fasteners were large and at the corners of panels; where the potential for things falling off aircraft is maximized. The mechanics were initially a little put out; however after seeing the extent of the missing fasteners they took to the task and found a further five missing fasteners for a grand total of 25 (twenty-five). Some of these were difficult to see as the new paint was actually partially filling the holes. When the mechanics had finished their work; the captain and I went down to ensure that all the fasteners had been replaced. After helping the mechanics find the last few; we returned to the cockpit to get ready for push. The mechanics replaced 23 of the fasteners and deferred two because the backing nuts were missing and inaccessible. These two were covered in high-speed tape.for some reason; the deferral took quite some time; but at xc:11 pm we commenced our pushback. The part of this that really concerns me is that the paint job was carried out in another airport. I have taken a number of these aircraft to and from the paint shop and the aircraft is always greeted by our mechanics. The question I have to ask; why are these mechanics not doing any kind of inspection on these aircraft before or after paint? The majority of these missing fasteners are very; very obvious to the naked eye. They are large black holes against a bright white background! [After release from the paint shop]; the next time [the missing fasteners] should have been caught is the first preflight by maintenance. Do they not care? It makes one wonder what else they are missing and that gives me the shivers just thinking about it.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: While performing a preflight walk around on a B767-300 aircraft; a First Officer notices multiple fasteners missing from numerous panels; including an auxiliary fuel panel with 50% of the fasteners not installed. Aircraft had recently been painted by a Contract paint facility with many of the missing fastener holes painted over.

Narrative: I was scheduled to fly a B767-300 aircraft on an ETOPS flight. Our report time was XA:36 PM for a scheduled departure time of XB:36 PM. We arrived at the aircraft at the gate. After reviewing the paperwork with the Captain; I commenced my walk around at XA:45 PM. The aircraft had recently been painted with [our] Air Carrier's new paint [scheme] and I was immediately aware that several fasteners were missing. Rather than complete my walk-around and delay the repair; I returned to the cockpit and asked the Captain to give Maintenance a call to give them as much heads up as I could. I then returned to my walk-around. There were so many fasteners missing I had to start writing them down on a piece of paper to keep track. It was evident that the Paint Shop had simply painted over many of the holes rather than replace the fasteners. One panel; the auxiliary fuel panel; had 50% of the fasteners missing on the panel.Many of the fasteners were large and at the corners of panels; where the potential for things falling off aircraft is maximized. The mechanics were initially a little put out; however after seeing the extent of the missing fasteners they took to the task and found a further five missing fasteners for a grand total of 25 (twenty-five). Some of these were difficult to see as the new paint was actually partially filling the holes. When the mechanics had finished their work; the Captain and I went down to ensure that all the fasteners had been replaced. After helping the mechanics find the last few; we returned to the cockpit to get ready for push. The mechanics replaced 23 of the fasteners and deferred two because the backing nuts were missing and inaccessible. These two were covered in high-speed tape.For some reason; the deferral took quite some time; but at XC:11 PM we commenced our pushback. The part of this that really concerns me is that the paint job was carried out in another airport. I have taken a number of these aircraft to and from the Paint Shop and the aircraft is always greeted by our mechanics. The question I have to ask; why are these mechanics not doing any kind of inspection on these aircraft before or after paint? The majority of these missing fasteners are very; very obvious to the naked eye. They are large black holes against a bright white background! [After release from the Paint Shop]; the next time [the missing fasteners] should have been caught is the first preflight by Maintenance. Do they not care? It makes one wonder what else they are missing and that gives me the shivers just thinking about it.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.