When to paint fuselage

[tomcostanza]

I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to paint the underside of the fuse before I hang the engine. I have a rotatable fuse stand and it would be infinitely easier to paint the underside while it's on the stand. Obviously can't do the top until the windscreen is in, but the top will be a different color and will be a clean break.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks,
-Tom

[hydroguy2]

I kinda wish I had, but then again that would have been a year ago and might already be faded

Truthfully, I don't really think it will save much any effort.

[DanH]

I did. I liked it.

[PainterJohn]

Ive done it both ways. It is easier to paint it with the bottom up.. but make sure you do like Dan has done.. follow a panel/seam line then back tape the bottom up to that line when you flip it for final painting, otherwise youll have overspray all over the bottom.. the only thing more annoying than painting upside down, is buffing upside down!

Painting upside down isnt a big deal. 3M makes a very nice cup adapter and cup that turns an HVLP in to a gun that can spray inverted (pretty well)
I use them all the time, and love the results!

[RWoodard]

I paid to have someone paint my Midget Mustang, but I set him up with a rotating stand for the fuselage. It seemed to work out very well. I didn't have any problem working with the finished product as I installed the wings and all the other systems inside the fuselage shell.

The only problem I ran into was that my first painter had a different idea of what color my silver should be and took it upon himself to pick a slightly different shade. We had a falling out and I discovered my original painter's change of color selection just after the second painter had finished painting my wings and canopy in the color *I* selected. Very frustrating. And no, it wasn't just a difference in shading when the paints were mixed. The original painter used a different paint code altogether.

Here's a pic of my rotating stand. It's a Harbor Freight engine stand with a 3/4" particle board mount that attached to my engine mount. I'd raise the tail as necessary and it'd rotate right around. It also worked well to work on the fuselage before the wings were attached because the landing gear in a Midget Mustang are part of the wings.



And here's one with the fuselage painted and ready for systems installation...

[KTM520guy]

The easiest way to paint the bottom of the airplane is with you laying on a creeper. Every RV I have painted has been done like that.