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Priming External Rivet Lines

A

agoessling

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I was wondering what people's thoughts were about priming external rivet lines before riveting skins? I have seen some builders (who usually prime entire internals) prime just along the rivet line on the exterior skin surface. I presume in attempt to prime under the rivet head that won't be primed / painted when the final painting is performed. I know the external painting will entail removing all primer left over after riveting. Thoughts?
 
agoessling said:
I was wondering what people's thoughts were about priming external rivet lines before riveting skins? I have seen some builders (who usually prime entire internals) prime just along the rivet line on the exterior skin surface. I presume in attempt to prime under the rivet head that won't be primed / painted when the final painting is performed. I know the external painting will entail removing all primer left over after riveting. Thoughts?
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I would not bother, you'll spend move time then it's worth, just rivet and enjoy the build.

Cheers
 
I've primed the outside surface of the bottom skin that is hidden where the two skins overlap. The idea is that I will then have primer on both surfaces that touch each other where the skins overlap. I haven't primed the rivet line on the outer surface of the top skin. While it's true that no primer will be under the rivet head, I figure this area will be well sealed after the plane is painted.
 
agoessling said:
I was wondering what people's thoughts were about priming external rivet lines before riveting skins? I have seen some builders (who usually prime entire internals) prime just along the rivet line on the exterior skin surface. I presume in attempt to prime under the rivet head that won't be primed / painted when the final painting is performed. I know the external painting will entail removing all primer left over after riveting. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Hi Andrew, I primed the external rivet lines and the reason was as you have outlined, to prime under the rivet head. I found it didn't really take much extra time - just a bit of masking up to do.
 
I primed my external river lines on my -6A plus all the aluminum without exception. With a late 90's kit that is a lot of primer set-ups and gallons of acetone for cleanup.

On my -10 I primed only what the plans said and a lot of that got scraped off in the assembly process.

We all grow up sometimes.

(Let the war continue!)
 
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