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Painted the Interior This Weekend

WingsOnWheels

Well Known Member
I stuck this in general since it is part product review, part vendor review, and part how-to (or at least how I did it).

So, I have been putting off painting the interior of the my RV-6A until I had done as much as I could inside to minimize the change of me beating up the interior paint. Well, the time finaly came for me to get it done.

A few weeks back a made a trip to the local English Color automotive paint supply store off Avenue K in Plano. I went in expecting to get the "we only deal with professionals" treatment. Boy was I wrong. The folks at EC were very helpful. I told them what I wanted to do, how much I wanted to spend, and they made some great recommendations. I decided on what paint and colors to use and they set me up with all the activators and reducers to go along with it. I ended up with a quart of PPG Omni Epoxy Primer in Grey and a quart of PPG Omni MTK Urethane single-stage topcoat, plus all the othe chemicals to go with it. I plan to buy a second helping of a darker color for the rollbar, canopy frame, and panel so then gave me more reducer and activator than I needed since the larger quantity now would save a couple $$ later (cheaper to buy a quart vs 2 pints...ect). Total cost was ~$160.

Last week I finished up the last few items I needed to do before painting and started in on the prep work. I stripped everyting out of the cabin that wasn't riveted in place. most of the parts are already primed with rattle-can duplicolor self-etching stuff from the auto parts store. I scuffed up the existing primer with fine sandpaper and green scotchbright pads to smooth the finish and remove any overspray dust. The interior (and the shop) was vaccumed and blown out with air. I wiped down the bare metal with acetone and the primed surfaces with a paint-prep I bought years ago at auto-zone. I masked off everything (that was lots of fun...).

The big day has arrived on Sunday, it is time to paint. The weather has been great the last couple of days. A cold front came through and dropped the temp from 104 down to the low 80s, perfect for me to paint (or close enough). I started early and put together my paint booth by stapling plastic sheet to the ceiling and taping it to the floor. I have a couple of fans to circulate air through the "booth" with cheap filters to keep out the dust. I will be wearing a full-body tyvek suit and full-face mask with the appropriate chemical filters.

I have a few different paint guns, all are cheap harbor-freight units, but they should be OK for the interior. I have the HF "Professional" HVLP two-gun kit (knockoff of the Devilbiss Starting Line guns) that came with touch-up and full-size guns. I also have a second little touch-up gun with an adjustable paint cup that can be rotated to any angle. I bought the small gun so I could shoot at upward angles to get unter the armrests and stiffeners.

II shot the grey epoxy primer. used the smaller touch gun with the rotating cup for most of the job, it is difficult to get in all the small areas and under the angles and stiffeners. I tried the full-size gun, but it was a bit much. The primer went on ok, but a little thick in some places. Next time I will thin the primer a bit. I let it cure for a couple hours.

The topcoat was just great. It went on really well even with my poor technique. I used the small "professional" gun with a 1.1mm tip. The coverage was great and it took less than a pint of paint to do the whole interior with at least two coats. The paint covered well even with a single coat. I have a bit over overspray and orange-peel here and there, but I am very happy with the finish. Given the this challenging job with all the corners and hidden areas, I couldn't be happier. I will use the PPG Omni line again, it was great to work with. Now I can be satisfied that I have a paint job that will hold up long-term that wasn't much harder to apply than rattle-can.

Here is the interior all masked off. I masked all the open areas of the firewall.
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Paint booth assembled. You can see I used the box my seats came in to mask off the tailcone.
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All geared up and ready to go:
FP09092012A00052.jpg


Grey primer is on, looks pretty good so far:
FP09092012A00053.jpg


And now the topcoat:
FP09092012A00054.jpg

FP09092012A00056.jpg

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Looks good. Painting is so much fun hu, My only problems were paint fumes drifting into the house and the wife was not to happy about that.
 
Looks good. Painting is so much fun hu, My only problems were paint fumes drifting into the house and the wife was not to happy about that.

I had the same issue with the fumes even though I taped the door seams. It wasn't bad, but just noticeable. She went and ran errands while I painted. I opened the windows in the house and it was clear before she returned.

At the time the painting was a bear, but seeeing the results made me forget all about the trouble...haha
 
if the weather permits and there is a side of the house that away from the fumes, you can place one or more fans in windows blowing in to make the house positive pressure.
 
if the weather permits and there is a side of the house that away from the fumes, you can place one or more fans in windows blowing in to make the house positive pressure.

That is a great tip. I'll be sure to do that for the next round of painting. I still need to paint the floors and side panels, plus the roll bar and canopy frame.
 
If you are going to do more painting, I would suggest you make up an extract panel to fit under your door.

1/4" ply, 2x2 top and bottom to strengthen and an 18" electric fan in the middle.

Trap it under the door, run it when painting, works a treat.

:D
 
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