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Exterior Painting

RViator60

Well Known Member
I'm looking for any leads on paint shops and/or DIY training for painting my RV-14A. I'm finding lead times at most paint shops are at least 12 months or more. I'm not shy about painting it myself. I think Sherwin Williams offers some hands-on training with their system, but any other suggestions most welcome.
 
I'm looking for any leads on paint shops and/or DIY training for painting my RV-14A. I'm finding lead times at most paint shops are at least 12 months or more. I'm not shy about painting it myself. I think Sherwin Williams offers some hands-on training with their system, but any other suggestions most welcome.

The paint isn't really the hard part, it's the prep and with a new build there's a lot of fiberglass work to do.

Good shops stay booked.

Consider Evoke aviation at KGAD, award winning painter, 8-12 month lead time, probably more expensive than most, but wow the quality is wow .. wow.

Funny story sort of .. I spent about 2 weeks getting that fairing perfect between the canopy and plexiglass ... first thing they said to me, without being prompted, was "We can fix that for you" :eek:
 
So many choices.

You’ll get a ton of satisfaction out of painting your own plane but you most likely won’t have that award winning Oshkosh finish. I’m the type of builder who wants to do as much as I possibly can by myself. I’ve painted both of my planes and have been extremely satisfied. The first with SW Deltron which was easy to spray and still looks great after 20 years but the over spray and lingering smell in my garage and house almost caused a divorce. The second and latest plane with Stewart’s Systems water based paint done in the garage of a new house with a super nosey HOA.:mad: Got it painted without anyone even knowing what I was doing including the wife who I had to show the paint job to prove I was actually spraying. The Stewart’s stuff is easy to clean up, almost no smell but takes a real learning curve to get good results. But once you do figure it out you won’t want to use anything else. On the plus side you can save thousands and thousands of dollars over a professional shop job and be on your own time table. It’s just a matter of how you want the finished results. A really nice plane your proud of that you built yourself or a award winner you wrote a check for. :rolleyes:
 
The paint isn't really the hard part, it's the prep and with a new build there's a lot of fiberglass work to do.

Good shops stay booked.

Consider Evoke aviation at KGAD, award winning painter, 8-12 month lead time, probably more expensive than most, but wow the quality is wow .. wow.

Funny story sort of .. I spent about 2 weeks getting that fairing perfect between the canopy and plexiglass ... first thing they said to me, without being prompted, was "We can fix that for you" :eek:

Thanks. I emailed Evoke, they weren't on my list. I'm OK with a pedestrian paint job with no aspirations for winning awards and really don't mind the process of prospect of painting it myself if need be.
 
The paint isn't really the hard part, it's the prep and with a new build there's a lot of fiberglass work to do.

Good shops stay booked.

Consider Evoke aviation at KGAD, award winning painter, 8-12 month lead time, probably more expensive than most, but wow the quality is wow .. wow.

Funny story sort of .. I spent about 2 weeks getting that fairing perfect between the canopy and plexiglass ... first thing they said to me, without being prompted, was "We can fix that for you" :eek:

You’ll get a ton of satisfaction out of painting your own plane but you most likely won’t have that award winning Oshkosh finish. I’m the type of builder who wants to do as much as I possibly can by myself. I’ve painted both of my planes and have been extremely satisfied. The first with SW Deltron which was easy to spray and still looks great after 20 years but the over spray and lingering smell in my garage and house almost caused a divorce. The second and latest plane with Stewart’s Systems water based paint done in the garage of a new house with a super nosey HOA.:mad: Got it painted without anyone even knowing what I was doing including the wife who I had to show the paint job to prove I was actually spraying. The Stewart’s stuff is easy to clean up, almost no smell but takes a real learning curve to get good results. But once you do figure it out you won’t want to use anything else. On the plus side you can save thousands and thousands of dollars over a professional shop job and be on your own time table. It’s just a matter of how you want the finished results. A really nice plane your proud of that you built yourself or a award winner you wrote a check for. :rolleyes:

I sprayed the cabin interior with Stewart Systems in my garage and liked the results. Oh, I had all the usual issues: orange peel, runs, thin spots, dull finish, etc, but was satisfied with the results and pleased that the SS product is easy to clean up and avoided toxic solvents. My main concern, other than developing the right technique for exterior painting, was how well the finished held up. I noticed the finish dissolves readily in acetone. How has yours held up?
 
I took the Sherwin-Williams Aerospace Coatings training course in September of 2016; I recommend it. You can find the account of my experience in my Blogspot blog; see the link in my signature and search for the date. One important lesson I learned the hard way: don't order your paint supplies until you are ready to use them. I wasted a great deal of money on material that expired because I ordered it way too early.
 
I strongly agree with the satisfaction of painting your own. No, not award winning, but you can achieve great results as a first timer. It'll take time (4+ months) and you'll likely spend $4-5K on materials and equipment, but that's a far cry from what you'll pay someone to do it. You can find lots of local help too by talking to any Autobody shop. We used PPG products for the most part and was very happy with the final product.

photo
 
I sprayed the cabin interior with Stewart Systems in my garage and liked the results. Oh, I had all the usual issues: orange peel, runs, thin spots, dull finish, etc, but was satisfied with the results and pleased that the SS product is easy to clean up and avoided toxic solvents. My main concern, other than developing the right technique for exterior painting, was how well the finished held up. I noticed the finish dissolves readily in acetone. How has yours held up?

After I finally learned how to apply it properly the results were as good as any factory spam can. My problem was that I had done a lot of painting with conventional auto paint and those techniques slowed down the learning curve for the Stewart’s. The paint job is two years old now with plenty of hours of bugs slamming into it and it still looks like the day I painted it. A couple scratches on the wheel paints we’re easily repaired.
It’s a good serviceable paint job but definitely wouldn’t win any awards against those 30K jobs you see at Oshkosh. Some of them are truly works of art.
 
Paint prep

Prep is 90%. However, Cut & Buff will fix a multitude of errors. I am painting all the fiberglass and vinyl wrapping the rest.
Photo is a wingtip after Cut & Buff
20200819_182817.jpg
 
Paint match

Probably. The issue is paint matching. Even with a color code, color can vary.
The solution is to buy a bunch of paint but then you deal with shelf life.
Not a problem with pure white so you could paint as you go with white and add accents later.
 
Come up with a paint scheme where not matching is part of the paint job............

If you buy paint in multiple batches, you can still paint the wings, flaps, ailerons, and tips with one batch and the balance of the airplane with another batch (can) of paint.

With the near right angle junction between the fuse and wings, any minor shading difference will be unnoticeable.

Been there, done that. Twice.
 
You’ll get a ton of satisfaction out of painting your own plane but you most likely won’t have that award winning Oshkosh finish. I’m the type of builder who wants to do as much as I possibly can by myself. I’ve painted both of my planes and have been extremely satisfied. The first with SW Deltron which was easy to spray and still looks great after 20 years but the over spray and lingering smell in my garage and house almost caused a divorce. The second and latest plane with Stewart’s Systems water based paint done in the garage of a new house with a super nosey HOA.:mad: Got it painted without anyone even knowing what I was doing including the wife who I had to show the paint job to prove I was actually spraying. The Stewart’s stuff is easy to clean up, almost no smell but takes a real learning curve to get good results. But once you do figure it out you won’t want to use anything else. On the plus side you can save thousands and thousands of dollars over a professional shop job and be on your own time table. It’s just a matter of how you want the finished results. A really nice plane your proud of that you built yourself or a award winner you wrote a check for. :rolleyes:

Do you have any pictures of what “good results” looks like? I painted mainly with Imron back in the day and am trying to use Stewart’s now. I had good luck with their Ekoprime on my interior parts, but am now trying to spray the exterior color and getting dismal results. I have followed the Stewart’s instructions to the letter and watched their videos, but I can’t get a decent wet coat. The first three fog coats go on as advertised, tack up in 5-10 minutes and look like 1000 grit sandpaper prior to applying the final wet coat, but I have shot many test panels trying different gun pressure settings, distances from the panel, speed of motion and percent overlap and nothing gets a good surface finish. I have tried everything from so heavy it sags and runs to a barely wet coat and all look like nasty with terrible orange peel. The only thing I haven’t tried yet is adding more than 25% weight water to thin the paint more as Stewart’s warns against thinning much more than their 25% recommendation.

This picture is my best result thus far with no runs/sags and a nice uniform metallic, but the orange peel is terrible as you can see in the reflection.
 

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Prep is 90%. However, Cut & Buff will fix a multitude of errors. I am painting all the fiberglass and vinyl wrapping the rest.
Photo is a wingtip after Cut & Buff
View attachment 12918

Do you have pictures of the “as sprayed” finish? My as sprayed finish has terrible orange peel. No doubt cut and buff would correct it, but on an airplane with pulled rivets, that is not an easy process.
 
well

Do you have any pictures of what “good results” looks like? I painted mainly with Imron back in the day and am trying to use Stewart’s now. I had good luck with their Ekoprime on my interior parts, but am now trying to spray the exterior color and getting dismal results. I have followed the Stewart’s instructions to the letter and watched their videos, but I can’t get a decent wet coat. The first three fog coats go on as advertised, tack up in 5-10 minutes and look like 1000 grit sandpaper prior to applying the final wet coat, but I have shot many test panels trying different gun pressure settings, distances from the panel, speed of motion and percent overlap and nothing gets a good surface finish. I have tried everything from so heavy it sags and runs to a barely wet coat and all look like nasty with terrible orange peel. The only thing I haven’t tried yet is adding more than 25% weight water to thin the paint more as Stewart’s warns against thinning much more than their 25% recommendation.

This picture is my best result thus far with no runs/sags and a nice uniform metallic, but the orange peel is terrible as you can see in the reflection.

Well the wires look good.
Sorry for the sarcasm.
I have stayed away from the water based paints because of all you guys' problems. But I only painted the interior so far with traditional. With traditional paint, all the chemicals are bought from the source; I am not sure if y'all are cutting your paint with household water or not.

If I had to guess, I would be curious if something is in the water, or another chemical, is making the paint do that.

I think for the exterior, I will use a professional. Or be like Vlad, and just fly.....
 
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Do you have pictures of the “as sprayed” finish? My as sprayed finish has terrible orange peel. No doubt cut and buff would correct it, but on an airplane with pulled rivets, that is not an easy process.

You might need a little more reducer in your paint and a little more air. What’s your current setup ?
 
As sprayed finish

Do you have pictures of the “as sprayed” finish? My as sprayed finish has terrible orange peel. No doubt cut and buff would correct it, but on an airplane with pulled rivets, that is not an easy process.

Sorry. Nope. It was orange peeled but I purposely shoot an extra coat for Cut & Buff.
If that were a solvent based paint, I would add slow reducer. No idea what to do with a water based paint. It's tricky to get the consistency just right so the paint flows before tacking. Personally I prefer more coats of thinner paint.
 
As sprayed

Do you have pictures of the “as sprayed” finish? My as sprayed finish has terrible orange peel. No doubt cut and buff would correct it, but on an airplane with pulled rivets, that is not an easy process.

I found a photo. It's pretty hard to see the orange peel, but it's there. Also, never figured out how to post a vertical photo so hold the image sideways. :D
20200818_154017.jpg
 
+1 Evoke

I am not sure if Evoke will do this, but their prep team is great. (Along with their painters) The issue is they are taking new orders complete (prep and paint not until 2025). They might be able to do something just prep sooner. The bottleneck seems to be the paint booths. Prep is a huge part of getting this done right. I can't speak for them but worth asking. (If one is inclined to do their own paint) Evoke had at least 5 of the airframes in the final countdown in Osh last week.
 
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