QuickBuild Interior Painting When? How?

I am building an RV-9 QB so the fuselage looked kind of like a canoe with I started working on it. My question is about interior paint. Is there a point that I need to paint the interior? It seems to me that if I wait much longer I will be masking off a lot of items that are not installed right now. I am going to install some type of interior but I think there is a lot of metal that will show and that needs some top coat form of paint.

What is the generally accepted procedure to paint the interior on a quickbuild kit? Sorry if this has already been discussed here, but I didn?t find it.

QB Fuse painting

I painted my interior fuse pretty early on.... perhaps a little too early because it got scratched up along the upper edges from thousands of times of getting in and out with tools, parts, etc. Although the areas that needed touchup later were easy to do.

Because the QB interior comes with a protective "coating" I didn't want to break the surface of that. Rather, I wiped it all down with acetone to remove any oils, then rattle can painted with Rustoleum "Hammer" finish. I used a dark color (gray) to mitigate reflections on the canopy. I'm happy with the results.

http://www.mykitlog.com/users/displ...v&project=161&category=2189&log=31101&row=123

http://www.mykitlog.com/users/displ...v&project=161&category=2189&log=31101&row=123

You can easily protect the longerons...

...with cheap foam strips taped in place, or bubble-wrap plastic.

You'll be leaning over the sides a lot and buttons, belt-buckles and so on can mar the top of the rails. We painted our interior before installing just about anything.

Best,

I waited to paint my fuselage until I had all the system planning and installation details done. The goal was no drilling after painting. Where wires are routed so brackets could be installed, holes punched for grommets, holes drilled for adel clamps, nylon conduit installed to pull wires. All the stuff not on the panel needed nutplates and brackets installed- there is a lot, so it really means you need the schematics done to get it all. I also ordered the seats and armrests so I could drill the holes for the armrests- some of my seat belt anchors didn't fit the Hooker Harness, so they needed to be tweaked. There is a ton of systems stuff to do, and is the reason the paint takes such a beating if you do them after you paint.

I'm at the same point as Dean. Do I need to scotchbrite the interior so the paint will adhere? (mine is a slowbuild)

Interior Painting

SmittysRV said:

I'm at the same point as Dean. Do I need to scotchbrite the interior so the paint will adhere? (mine is a slowbuild)

Click to expand...

You'll get lots of opinions on paint prep....IMHO it depends on the product you're using.

I experimented with rattle can paints, but couldn't find a color I liked. I was also looking for some resistance to typical fluids.

Decided to go with Sherwin Williams Jetflex (water reducible process). Jetflex requires a primer coat, but I had already primed with Akzo.

Scuffed up the Akzo with Scotchbrite, vacuumed, blew the dust out with the air compressor, and wiped down with MEK.

I used two rolls of masking tape and a partial roll of masking paper to tape off areas I didn't want to paint (floor interior, gear tower interiors, aft baggage area, etc.). In my case this was the most time consuming part of the prep.

Shot the Jetflex yesterday with no issues (other than my skill with the gun!). Jetflex dries quickly, so I was able to rotate the fuselage on the rotisserie and shoot on (mostly) flat surfaces after a ten-minute pause.

Good luck,
Mike

Thanks Mike!

I'm at the point of prepping the seat back brace parts on the F-705 bulkhead.
Looks like it would be a real pain to try to get primer and/or paint in there later.

Should I just prime them with AKZO now, or leave them unprimed?

At some point I will paint the interior with something like JetFlex.
I know that I should probably keep the priming compatible with the top-coat.