prep and painting stainless steel?

Thinking of what to do with the firewall and have a couple questions for the group.

1-Has anyone primed/painted the engine side of the firewall? How did you prep the stainless steel? What coating did you use?

2-Has anyone used Akzo primer on stainless steel? How did it work out? Stick well?

I'm sure I'll be able to see lots of examples at OSH next week, but still interested in your comments. Thanks in advance!

-Jim
40603

But why would you want to paint it? I don't think that you will see ANY RV firewalls painted at Oshkosh.

REALLY...... the stainless is so easy to keep clean and will never peal or scratch off.

A very experienced A&P once said to me "anything you paint will eventually need a repaint". I think this is very good advice, especially regarding a firewall. Eventually that paint will flake off (especially stainless) and look like heck. Leave it bare.

Thanks guys. Maybe I'll break out the polisher instead. Still thinking of priming the cockpit side though... -Jim

you could "engine turn" it if you wanted something different. a bunch of polish circles in a pattern, looks kind of neat. supposed to hold oil a little better if you were concerned about corrosion, but i don't think it matters much with SS

Stainless isn't really non-corrosive just corrosion resistant. That is why it is called CRES (corrosion resistant steel). It also has at least as many alloys as aluminum so just saying "stainless" has about as much value as saying "aluminum" when you get right down to it.

I'm pretty sure the firewall is some 300 series alloy (316?) and that can be painted if properly prepped. That is the hard part once installed in the airplane because the best prep is commonly referred to as "passivation" which is normally. done by immersion in a tank. It is similar to "chem film" or "alodining" for aluminum alloys.

If you really wanted to paint it you could get the parts passivated before installation and, despite all the warnings that things must be painted within 24 hours of chemical conversion, I know from experience that a good bond can be had as long as a year after passivation.


Why exactly you would want the bother, expense, weight, and cost is another topic that I will let lie....