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Canopy Rail Painting

mike newall

mike newall

Well Known Member
Sponsor
Paint, or no paint............ ?


Can't decide whether or not to paint the canopy side rails.


So - ask the collective :D
 
I decided to have the canopy rails bead blasted and clear anodized. You can see them in the bottom of this picture.

IMG2470-M.jpg


Hopefully this will hold up over time, but for now it looks nice! Gives the aluminum a bit of surface texture and no glare. Sort of the same appearance as my MacBook Pro laptop.
 
Canopy rails , not cockpit sill . I plan to have mine anodized , polishing would work in a dry climate , not Florida .
 
Does it add to the look

Painted my rails red because I liked the way it added to the military (P-51) paint scheme on my plane when the canopy was open. To me it looked cool,

Cheers,
 
Here's mine

I had mine anodized. They seem pretty tough but we will see how they wear over time

canopyrail.jpg
 
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Top rails

I am considering using hard anodizing on the canopy rail of my 7. You wont find better wear or corrosion resistance.
 
How crazy is this.

Enquired about anodising here in the UK. Got a quote of $150 :eek:

A quick google search for anodisers in Orlando came up with

http://www.ammetal.com/

An email sent, a quote back in about 30 minutes - $75 the pair, 24 hour turnround.

So on my next trip at work, I will take them there - they are about 500 yards from our crew hotel at the Florida mall !!

No wonder our country is ruined :(
 
Good move Mike!

While I have a tip-up, when I first built my -9 I painted the top rails and they got all scratched up. While I had the plane home putting the new engine on it, I stripped the paint off and left it that way. No more scratches.
 
One of the earlier RV-8s (flew 2002) in the UK had the rails anodized - and still look good 10 years on. Way ahead I'd say ;)
 
Had mine black anodized at Electro-Chem Metal Finishing, Portland, OR. $30 and 5 day turn time. Look just like pic posted by azonic75
 
I powdercoated the rails to match the gray interior. There was some minor chipping over time but not too bad.
 
IMG_2979.JPG



Decided to get the rails hard anodised.

Came out brilliantly.

Not cheap - over $100, but very, very tough and blended in superbly with our grey interior.

Very pleased.
 
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I'm going to take a sample of 2024 to the anodizer and see what colour it comes out.

If it a similar colour, that will be fine, however they did say it may take on a bit of a gold sheen which I wouldn't want.
 
Bead blast concerns

My experience with bead blasting aluminum is that it will remove the protective alclading which could eventually lead to corrosive issues down the road.

Have heard of soda blasting being less of a concern to alclad.
 
To Paint or not to Paint rails

I've done both. I painted the first set of rails on the Doll, and in time, they became chipped and unattractive.

I wanted to change the method of locking the canopy half open so I ordered a new set of rails. I decided to polish the new set, and I am very happy with the results. After another eight years they look great. I polish them once a year, just prior to Oshkosh.
 
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