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To fill or not to fill...

R

ROTARY7

Well Known Member
I plan to eventually paint my aircraft. Any comments from someone who has taken the time to fill / sand the rivets for a fully smooth appearance? Is it worth the hassle? How much time did it take?

If I was to do it it would be purely for asthetics, and being and aero engineer I don't imagine there will be much performance gain. I have heard that more people are making this effort, but I'm really not sure if it would be worth it.

Comments appreciated.

Mark
Rv-7 in progress
 
don't fill the rivets

My opinion here...Aluminum airplanes are supposed to have a subtle indication of where the rivet is after painting. I've heard that airplane judges don't like to see "no rivets".

The filling requires lots of work and adds some weight, but no performance gain. If it's not a fiberglass airplane, why make it look like one?

Bevan
RV7A wiring
rivets showing, in fact I like the retro look of trim paint only on polished aluminum.
 
Rivits

My suggestion is to take a tooth pick with self ecthing primer. Put a small amount on the end of the tooth pick and go around each rivit head to seal the small gap between the shop head and the skin. I back rivited all of the top skin on my 6 wings. This will leave a great looking rivit but with out a little extra work on the rivit heads they will get what I call ring around the rivit. My plane is mostly white and I dont get the little rings of dirt around the rivits. It doesnt take to much time to fill these in.

Jim Knight
Burlington Iowa
RV6 FLying since July 2005
 
ROTARY7 said:
I plan to eventually paint my aircraft. Any comments from someone who has taken the time to fill / sand the rivets for a fully smooth appearance? Is it worth the hassle? How much time did it take?

If I was to do it it would be purely for asthetics, and being and aero engineer I don't imagine there will be much performance gain. I have heard that more people are making this effort, but I'm really not sure if it would be worth it.
Click to expand...
I have done it. Yes, It looks good. No, It is NOT worth the time spent and added weight.
 
basically what I thought

Ok. Thanks to those who have replied. Mel, that is basically what I thought.

Mark
 
Putting a small amount of sealant at each rivet sounds like a reasonable idea, especially for a white aircraft. Still time consuming but less so than filling and sanding. I'll keep this suggestion in mind.

Thanks,

Mark
 
Bevan,

Thanks for your opinion. I'm not really trying to make it look a glass airplane, and certainly don't care about judging. I do agree it is an aluminum airplane and as such should show the "warts" of its construction technique.

In any case, I'm sold on NOT going thru the fill process.

Mark
 
Let metal be metal

ROTARY7 said:
Bevan,

Thanks for your opinion. I'm not really trying to make it look a glass airplane, and certainly don't care about judging. I do agree it is an aluminum airplane and as such should show the "warts" of its construction technique.

In any case, I'm sold on NOT going thru the fill process. Mark
Click to expand...
Good idea, I agree, but another idea is using "filler primer" JUST on the rivet lines. Filler primer has more "build". Shoot than sand back, repeat, than prime the whole plane with a lighter prep primer. You add work and some weight but not too much. The rivets will still be fully visible, just filled in a little.

The exception is pop rivets, I mean blind fasterners. I fill in the little holes with body filler. You sand it and they look like regular rivets. Love seeing the rivets and letting metal be metal.
 
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I filled some of the rivets on some of the tail feathers and it looks like a plastic plane or a Gulfstream! It's a ton of work! I used two different methods:Bondo and primer build-up. The bondo looked smoother but the primer build-up was a lot faster.
 
Be aware that "Bondo" is polyester and continues to shrink forever. Take a look at the older RVs. The wingtips are polyester and no matter how well the weave was filled, after several years the weave begins to show through.
 
Solution?

Mel- I have recently bought an older (1993 kit, finished 1997) RV-6A. When I repaint, as I must, what should I do to prep the wingtips? You're right, the fabric weave is showing through.

Thanks,
 
About all you can do is sand, fill, and paint.
BTW, It WILL continue to shrink. It's the nature of polyester.
My -6 was painted in 1993. All the weave was filled but it shows now.
 
I filled my wings completely, and all I get is compliments about how good it looks. I love it ! Yeah, ALOT OF WORK, but they look SWEET !
 
Bevan said:
My opinion here...Aluminum airplanes are supposed to have a subtle indication of where the rivet is after painting. I've heard that airplane judges don't like to see "no rivets".

The filling requires lots of work and adds some weight, but no performance gain. If it's not a fiberglass airplane, why make it look like one?

Bevan
RV7A wiring
rivets showing, in fact I like the retro look of trim paint only on polished aluminum.
Click to expand...

It's a personal opinion - but I agree with Bevan.
 
More good info. What brought this all into my mind was a slight waviness at the fuel tank to outboard LE joint plate interface. I plan to use a minimal amount of filler to even this disconnect out, and it got me to thinking about filling rivets.

Thanks for the input from all.

Mark Swinford
Aero Engineer
Dayton Oh
RV-7, wing closeout phase
 
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Jetlinkin said:
I filled my wings completely, and all I get is compliments about how good it looks. I love it ! Yeah, ALOT OF WORK, but they look SWEET !
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity (since I said I wouldn't the fill the rivets, er - I said I most likely wouldn't fill them), how may hours do you estimate you spent on the process?

Mark Swinford
Aero Engineer
Dayton, OH
RV-7, wing closeout phase
 
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