Cockpit Paint Quantity

[TASEsq]

Hi!

For those who have top coated their cockpits (including baggage area etc) - what quantity of paint did you use? Is a quart enough?

Specifically I was planning on Stewart Systems EkoCrylic, probably in some kind of grey.

Marty at Stewart says their paint will cover 75 sqft - I’ve no idea what the surface area of the cockpit would be of course.

If anyone has used EkoCrylic or EkoPoly I would love to see what your cockpit colors look like.

Thanks in advance!

[Gnvflyer]

I used a PPG product. Took just about a quart to paint everything in the cockpit.

[PaulvS]

I think that a quart may be cutting it fine to do everything, it depends though on how it is applied.

I used a litre (bit more than a quart) of Nason semi-gloss polyurethane, which has 25% hardener added plus 20% reducer, so 1.5 litres of mixed paint for RV-6A interior, including seat backs, all floors and baggage compartment sides & bulkhead. Picked a medium gray after trying a lighter gray that looked almost white on the large surfaces.

[TASEsq]

Originally Posted by PaulvS

so 1.5 litres of mixed paint for RV-6A interior, including seat backs, all floors and baggage compartment sides & bulkhead.

EkoCrylic is 4:1:1 - but the ‘quart’ includes the catalyst. So I would end up with 1.1 litres or so of mixed paint. Plus the flattener which is up to a pint for every quart - I would end up with 1.4 litres or so.

If my imperial measurements are up to par.

[PaulvS]

I guess the dilemma is being imported, if you run out then there will be an additional shipping cost and delay, versus being able to buy it locally. A quart may be enough... or just not quite!

My maths: 1 US gallon is 3.8 litres, 4 quarts per gallon, so 1 quart would be 0.95 litres, theoretically...

[wirejock]

I use a paint calculator. It's on my blog for download.
Typically I shoot around 2 ft² per mixed ounce. Every paint mixes a little different but the coverage rate doesn't change much. Usually a top coat is two coats inside and three outside. The third allows some extra for cut & buff.

[rph142]

This is a timely thread as I finished painting my -7 interior roughly 24 hours ago. I used exactly one quart of stewart systems boulder grey to paint the interior. I shot in two 600 gram batches - one for removable panels shot outside of the plane and another for the plane/non-removable components. I mixed flattener at a 2:1 ratio. This is my third project using stewart systems and I'm pretty happy with the results. Ill post a pic of the results after I break down the paint booth.

[TASEsq]

Originally Posted by rph142

This is a timely thread as I finished painting my -7 interior roughly 24 hours ago. I used exactly one quart of stewart systems boulder grey to paint the interior. I shot in two 600 gram batches - one for removable panels shot outside of the plane and another for the plane/non-removable components. I mixed flattener at a 2:1 ratio. This is my third project using stewart systems and I'm pretty happy with the results. Ill post a pic of the results after I break down the paint booth.

Thanks Rob,

Would love to see it. That’s probably the color I would choose based on some rough web paint swatches.

Did you use EkoCrylic or EkoPoly?
Did you do the 3 light fog coat / 1 wet coat method? What size tip did you use on the gun?

[noahhl]

To add to the chorus, I used less than a quart of Stewart Systems Ecocrylic (in battleship grey) to do my 9A interior (including cover panels), with flattener at a 2:1 ratio (on top of Ecopoxy primer). If you mixed up just the right amount and were really good, you'd probably be closer to half a quart than a full.

I did the fog/fog/fog/wet coat procedure with the Harbor Freight Black Widow HTE HVLP with a 1.3 mm tip, mixed/thinned per the instructions.

[rph142]

I used Ekocrylic with their flattener shot through a Devilbiss hvlp with a 1.2mm nozzle and 20 psi minimum at the gun. The first coat is very light, followed by 3 progressively heavier coats. You want to wait 10-15 mins between coats or until the surface becomes tacky. The key is to shoot on a dry day with temps between 60-80f. It was an 8 hour day from start to finish.

I've made pressurized booths with filtered air in the past, but given the fact that this is a flat interior finish and 80% of this stuff will be covered by seats or hidden behind other things, I decided to go with a simple pop up tent with plastic walls.