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One less naked plane

David_Nelson

Well Known Member
After flying naked (the plane, not me) for just over four years, she's finally got paint!

IMG_0008.JPG


Paint was done by Steve Evans of Top Gun Aircraft Paint Refinishing out of Mason County Airport (T92), Mason, TX. Steve was a pleasure to work with and he kept me very informed of his progress via text messages. Prior to mine, he completed an RV-6 in a military paint scheme that I stopped in on a couple of times - absolutely beautiful. If you're interested, he can be reached at 432-210-9766. No relation, just a satisfied customer. Paint is Sherwin Williams Jet-Glo in Matterhorn White, Marlin Blue, and Black.

Mason, TX worked out very well from a logistics point of view. Being right at 100 miles away made it easy to help with disassembly/assembly and putting eyes on the actual work rather than relying 100% on pictures.
 
Dave,
WOW! What a great looking plane! The blues blend beautifully, and I'm a HUGE fan of the checkerboard (that'll give you 2-3 knots right there).

Well done, Dave. Are you taking her to OShkosh this year?
 
Curious if you discovered a down-side to flying naked for that period of time (I plan to fly 1 to 2 years before paint but might consider doing it sooner if it significantly adds to the prep work.
 
Curious

Curious if you discovered a down-side to flying naked for that period of time (I plan to fly 1 to 2 years before paint but might consider doing it sooner if it significantly adds to the prep work.

+1.
Very nice paint job.
 
Thanks for kind compliments.

Scroll - Not going to Oshkosh but a couple of hangar mates from Taylor are talking about Sun-N-Fun - we'll see. Really looking forward to Petit Jean this year and getting a pic taken from the cliff side, though. You all going?

Raymo - I noticed that the cowl had developed a slight bit of surface deterioration. The painter didn't comment on it during prep so I suspect it was just on the surface. I never put anything on the fibreglass, or on the plane for that matter, to help protect it for fear of it absorbing something that wasn't compatible with the alodine/primer/paint. I just used Dawn Dish Soap and water to clean things. The plane has always been hangared when at home base and she's got around 300 hrs. The only prep I did was to make sure the paint gaps were sufficiently wide to prevent paint chipping.

Been thinking about post-paint "todos" and the only things that come to mind are:
- Update the ELT (406 MHz) registration via NOAA
- Update Foreflight's airplane profile
Anything else?
 
Scroll - Not going to Oshkosh but a couple of hangar mates from Taylor are talking about Sun-N-Fun - we'll see. Really looking forward to Petit Jean this year and getting a pic taken from the cliff side, though. You all going to Petit Jean?

Heck yes, wouldn't miss it! We had so much fun!
 
Very nice, David. (paint scheme does look a bit familiar). 😀 Will stop by for up close look. J

Hi Jerry,

You've certainly got a nice thing going on with your 8A. I had gathered 40+ pics of various paint schemes but I didn't have one of yours. Must've been subconscious. :) Stop on by any time - hoping to be out there Sat AM'ish.
 
David,
Do you recall what they used to clean the oxydation before priming?

Hi Dan,

I think you're referring to the cowling. I never did witness what he did on the outside of the cowling so I'm presuming a similar method was used as was done with the inside. He removed all the existing heat barrier, gave it a good bath, dried, lightly sanded, painted, then installed new heat barrier using the old ones as templates. Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the inside. This was all discussed, including what color I wanted the inside to be (which I'd never even thought about), and agreed prior to him doing the work.

During construction, I did paint on a layer of thinned epoxy on the inside of the cowling to prevent oil from impregnating the cowling. I never got around to doing anything on the outside, however. I finally reached a point where I was willing to just pay somebody to do the pin hole filling and what not.
 
Painting Nightmare

After flying naked (the plane, not me) for just over four years, she's finally got paint!

IMG_0008.JPG


Paint was done by Steve Evans of Top Gun Aircraft Paint Refinishing out of Mason County Airport (T92), Mason, TX. Steve was a pleasure to work with and he kept me very informed of his progress via text messages. Prior to mine, he completed an RV-6 in a military paint scheme that I stopped in on a couple of times - absolutely beautiful. If you're interested, he can be reached at 432-210-9766. No relation, just a satisfied customer. Paint is Sherwin Williams Jet-Glo in Matterhorn White, Marlin Blue, and Black.

Mason, TX worked out very well from a logistics point of view. Being right at 100 miles away made it easy to help with disassembly/assembly and putting eyes on the actual work rather than relying 100% on pictures.


I read your posts and talked to a couple people who had their planes painted by Steve. I negotiated a price and time for paint with Mr Evans and then paid $500 time slot deposit. Delivered my RV-8 on May 5, 2017 and wired the paint deposit (more than $6k) as per paint CONTRACT to Steve, with the plan to have it completed by 4 July so I could take my baby to Air Venture 2017. Well Steve came down with an illness and I understand things happen. He recoverd and is back home in Mason, After multiple attempts to bring this paint job to completion.... Steve has taken my deposits and spent them on other things beside RV paint. I did drive over and put my control surfaces back on and flew my scotch-brited RV-8 (top only) home to San Antonio on August 12, 2017. Now after multiple empty promises from Steve to pay back my deposit I have to resort to legal avenues to bring this nightmare to close. I do not know why he went south on his responsibilities. I would avoid this painter at all costs. Unless you want your paint money going to ex-girlfriends and medical bills?
 
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