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  #1  
Old 02-28-2019, 10:15 AM
WingnutWick's Avatar
WingnutWick WingnutWick is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Lemoore
Posts: 187
Default To re-paint or wrap?

Hello,

Looking to help my girlfriend out with her RV-6A. It has an old, underwhealming paint job and she is wanting to get it re-done. Been throwing around the wrap idea and looking for any input on that if anyone has experience.

Otherwise, would like to go with a new paint job. Given the costs and seeing as I am one for a new challenge I am debating whether or not to tackle this job myself. I have never painted an airplane (or any vehicle for that matter) and am looking for a good resource for how to do this and what product to use to make a nice paint job. Unfortunately there aren?t many posts under Painting your RV thread. I figured there would be a thread that outlines this step by step. Any pointing in the right direction in the regards of how to do this with a pre-existing paint job is much appreciated!

Thank you

Charles
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  #2  
Old 02-28-2019, 10:31 AM
Bavafa Bavafa is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Sacramento, CA
Posts: 3,351
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With wrap, just wondering how do people check rivets for possible cracks? Do cracks show up under the wrap?
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  #3  
Old 02-28-2019, 12:34 PM
PhatRV PhatRV is online now
 
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: Buena Park, California
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I am still very far from finishing my RV8 build. I am planning to paint it myself by learning from Youtube. Checkout this video from Eastwood which shows you how to paint your car without very complicated setup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw0ObOdWnRE

If you want a perfect paint job, here is a video of painting of a Porsche. I suspect this is the heavy paint option.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BV0PMYfc3o

My neighbor primed his classic car in his garage and rented a paint booth to put on the finishing coats. The rental fee was less than $500 for 11 hours. It took him and his buddy all 11 hours to get everything done.
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  #4  
Old 02-28-2019, 04:15 PM
RV12JT RV12JT is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: Keystone State
Posts: 128
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Throughly enjoyed the Eastwood video. However, watching it only made me feel better about buying a completed aircraft. Also why I?m glad I didn?t try painting my first two planes. Having them done professionally was money well spent, not to mention the time I spent with family, rather than prepping and painting.
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  #5  
Old 02-28-2019, 08:38 PM
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Harvey Harvey is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: I live on an airpark in South East Queensland, Australia
Posts: 114
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The last thing she wants is a lousypaint job, but a novice can do it if he gets some basic instruction and uses good paint and equipment. None of which is cheap and may not be worth it for one job.
With wrap, it works for stripes and graphics, but I would not use it for a complete aircraft, and definitely not on control surfaces. An RV7 was lost a year or two ago in NZ and there was some reason to think that the recently applied wrap was the cause. Remember what happened to legendary Steve Wittman when something similar happened to him, although it was fabric in his case.
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  #6  
Old 03-01-2019, 01:09 AM
sailvi767 sailvi767 is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Charlotte NC
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Is there any data on the weight of a wrap verses normal paint job?
G
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  #7  
Old 03-01-2019, 02:05 AM
Bevan Bevan is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: BC
Posts: 1,674
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I did a full wrap myself but there was no old paint to deal with. I?m sure you?d have to get the loose paint off first. In my opinion, the wrap is easier, faster, lighter (50%), and cheaper than paint, requires no harsh chemicals or special equipment or spray booth. 3 years and 230hrs including very cold temperatures up here in Canada and it?s holding up very well. It?s parked in a hangar which probably makes a difference. I would do it again. Bevan.
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  #8  
Old 03-01-2019, 12:02 PM
fly3g fly3g is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Colorado
Posts: 44
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Bevan,
Did you perform any surface preps (alodine?) to your bare aluminum skins prior to laying down the wrap? Did you perform any special cleaning of the surface prior to the wrap? I am heading for a full wrap on my project.
Gregg
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  #9  
Old 03-01-2019, 12:48 PM
Gusmax Gusmax is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Sherwood Park, Alberta
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As a guy who has been painting light aircraft since 1985, I would try the new high end wraps before I tried to teach myself how to paint. I have many thousands of dollars of painting equipment and many years of experience and I still can mess up a paint job. The trick is to know how to fix it. Learning how to wrap is much faster than the years it takes to master the perfect paint job, plus if you mess up, just peel off and start over. The lack of negative health affects is a HUGE bonus also! I always use aluminum cleaner and Alodine 1200 with high quality strontium chromate primer for maximum corrosion protection. The hexavalent chromium in the Alodine is definitely a huge health concern. I would be concerned about corrosion under the vinyl if the aircraft lived in a coastal environment. I have restored many 1940's aircraft with no primer on internal aluminum parts and they still looked like new when the aircraft lived in a dry climate it's entire life. Enough rambling for now.

Fly Safe,
Phil
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  #10  
Old 03-01-2019, 01:10 PM
FinnFlyer FinnFlyer is online now
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: Bell, FL
Posts: 387
Default Vinyl wrap lighter than paint?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bevan View Post
]... In my opinion, the wrap is easier, faster, lighter (50%), ...
Something here does not add up.
Tracy Crook just told me he covered his RV-4 with paint just thick enough to cover it, 7 lbs. Aludined but no primer.
Specs on 3M 1080 is 0.5 oz / sqft. 7 lbs of wrap would cover 224 sqft. Wings alone on an RV-4 is 200 sq ft.

So is wrap actually lighter than the lightest possible pain job?

Has anyone here calculated the entire (outside) surface area of an RV-4?

Finn
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