What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

N4932L Finally Painted

DwightFrye

Active Member
I don't post much but thought I'd share the fantastic work done by Boss Aircraft Refinishers (http://aircraftpainting.com) in Salisbury, NC. I'm a slow builder and got her flying in 2013, then finally got around to finishing the wheel pants and gear leg fairings so I could get it painted. The painting took roughly 3 months. BUT, the long time to complete was all my fault as you'll see from the pictures included below.

My wife Theresa and I dropped it off on October 24, 2015 and picked it back up yesterday on January 26, 2016. We disassembled everything the day we dropped it off, but it took two days to put it all back together again at the end.

We (the family and I) had a fanciful idea from very early on in our build, and while we knew it was maybe a tad over the top we couldn't get it out of our heads. To turn the rough idea into an actual design we worked with the Scheme Designers (and Kevin Burns, in particular) to iterate over possibilities until we got something we were truly happy with. Then we turned to Bill Lucey at Boss to take it from design to reality.

I'll say, for the record, that I have no affiliation with Boss other than as an extremely satisfied customer. Bill and his crew could not have been easier to work with, any more detail oriented, or any more professional. Bill likes to have builders of experimental aircraft come in and do their own control surface removal and reinstallation on the theory that the builder's know the planes better than anyone, and that each plane can have unique aspects of the construction which need to be understood to safely do that work. The upside for me is that I got more of a "behind the scenes" look at the painting process ... and it was eye-opening. I know we pay a lot for these paint jobs but the amount of work entailed in doing it right is ... astounding.

I love all the little careful touches that Bill's crew applied. Any brightwork gets polished. The intake snout on the cowl had a rubberized material akin to what is applied to the intake of turbines applied to the rim of the intake giving it a really crisp look. This design was -hard- to lay out, and they took the extra time to get the curves looking, absolutely, perfect. I had an old friend of mine last night talk about how we say a paint job is a 50-foot job, or a 10-foot job, but he opined that this one looked good even when you got up close and started examining details. Bill's #1 paint guy, Mike, has been shooting planes for about 20 years and that experience really shows.

Finally, Bill's entire crew was just fantastic to work with. Every time I needed an extra hand, or needed to find a tool, they cheerfully jumped in to help. I could tell they were proud of doing the best job possible, and seemed particularly proud to have executed this foolishly-difficult scheme so well.

I'm sure not everyone will like this design. Some will think it too fanciful, or too busy, or too .. something. But I love it. :)

painting1.jpg

painting2.jpg

painting3.jpg


The first shot is off my cell phone, and the other two are from Ben, one of Bill's crew. The pictures have been resized to be not so huge.
 
Dwight, I was blown away when I saw your plane back at KTTA last night. I remember the concept drawings from several months ago and they look good. The executation is AWSOME! Congratulations and welcome home.
 
Thanks for the kind words, folks. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and the pictures actually don't do it justice. I hope to be at SnF as well as Oshkosh this year so the curious can see it in person. While the core idea (accidentally snagging a rainbow as you fly) was mine this final result would not have happened except for the design assist I got and the exemplary work done by the paint shop.

To answer a few questions ...

JR-RV14: I'm not talking about the price. It is too embarrassing. :) Lets just say I think it was fair, and that it was in line with what I expected I'd have to pay. Oh, and that it included an explicit additional line item for a "complex paint scheme". Also fair, particularly since it took them literally a week longer to lay out than they had anticipated! One other thing to say is that the price quoted for the job did not change from the start of the process to the end. There were no surprise charges. There were two additional pieces of work that I requested they perform after we got into the project, and those were extra cost items. But that is as it should be.

It was shot in single-stage PPG, so there is no clear coat. Different people have different opinions about clear-coat vs not clear-coat, and I elected to just go with what the paint shop recommended.

Noel: The kind comments coming from you, having seen it up close (and, folks, Noel got very close) means a lot ... particularly knowing your extreme attention to detail. Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Memory from way back

You and I attended a Bob Nuckolls electrical seminar together a long time ago Dwight. Glad to see you completed your project...Where do you hangar it? My son lives in Durham and I'm down that way fairly often.
Beautiful paint by the way!!
 
You and I attended a Bob Nuckolls electrical seminar together a long time ago Dwight. Glad to see you completed your project...Where do you hangar it? My son lives in Durham and I'm down that way fairly often.
Beautiful paint by the way!!
That was a VERY long time ago now. I keep it at KTTA (formally known as "Raleigh Executive Jetport at Sanford/Lee County"). Come by and say hello next time you are in the area.
 
Back
Top