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When to Paint?

JackinMichigan

JackinMichigan

Well Known Member
At the EAA last evening, I said that I planned to paint my RV-10 before flying. I was told big mistake!! Cuz all the modifications I would need to make after it flys... Modifications? The group seemed nearly unanimous in their stand.. You will surely make modifications?

I wasn't planning on making any modifications. Are they right?
 
Wrong

Jack, many airplanes are painted before they fly. The only mods that I can think of, is the addition of a trim tab to the rudder, unless you build yours modified with a cockpit controllable rudder trim.

...and it can be held on easily with a couple dabs of RTV, like mine is.

Best,
 
JackinMichigan said:
At the EAA last evening, I said that I planned to paint my RV-10 before flying. I was told big mistake!! Cuz all the modifications I would need to make after it flys... Modifications? The group seemed nearly unanimous in their stand.. You will surely make modifications?

I wasn't planning on making any modifications. Are they right?
Click to expand...

I know of dozens of aircraft built and painted before flight. I can't think of any of them that required significant changes afterwards.

How much collective experience does "the group" have with Van's kits, particlarly the prepunched kits? I'm guessing not much.
 
I would think that if you took a survey across the RV community including builders who are still building as well as those who are now flying, you would get replies that are as diverse as the primer wars. :eek:

I've heard builders make good points on both sides of this debate, so my advice is do what you want. And some of our builder group (Tennessee Valley RV Builders Group) have waited to paint, while others have painted before flying.

I'm not sure at this point in the build what I'll do. I don't think there is an incorrect answer as long as you are okay with the decision. :)
 
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Paint first

Hello Jack,

I'm firmly in the camp of painting before flying. The Van's kits are far from a science project anymore. The notion that you'll have the cowl on and off is a non argument. You'll have it on and off plenty of times after painting too. Hopefully you'll know how to take it off without damage:rolleyes:

It's a little more work on the front side. Getting your wheel pants and fairing done, cowl fit and finished etc....

As Pierre mentioned, just make sure you build a rudder trim tab now so you don't have to add on after paint.

The biggest problem, if you wait, is the tough decision to take it out of service once you've tasted flight in your machine!!! Paint first and be done once!!!
 
You may be hearing from some folks who have built RV-4s.

Many times, on the '4s, the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer had to be "shimmed" to get the proper incidence. This resulted in having to re-do the tail fairing.

I've never heard of this happening on any of the other models.

I flew my RV-6 for several months before paint. It is the only airplane that I've flown before paint and I will never do it again.

I recommend painting before flying unless you have a particular reason for waiting.
 
Easier to paint it before if you're gonna paint it yourself. It is a very big job and you won't have a bunch of down time later.

Could you have any issues? Yes, but most are preventable...

My only isssue was I didn't trim the rear baffle corners enough and ended up with some hair line cracks in the paint where they hit the top cowl.

No regrets.
 
What?

The mods that would affect the paint job are - let me think - well, none. Paint it, fly it, those EAA guys are wacky.
 
I plan to fly unpainted, unlike my -6A which was totally complete before it left for the airport. When I was Crew Chief of a Reno Super Sport racer, (all metal) we did a complete repaint and had a couple of areas where we could not never stop the oil soaked into the seams from messing up the new paint.

So what are the lessons learned to prevent paint problems?

One thing a painter told me was to prime the INSIDE of the cowl.

(I sure wish the cabin top wasn't pink! Perhaps taking it to an epoxy primer would be good.)
 
Painted mine one piece at a time over two years as I finished them. Roughly in this order:

Tail fairing
Prop and spinner
Right wing including tip
Left wing including tip
Horizontal stab and elevator
Vert stab and rudder
Canopy
Wheel pants
Fuse
Wing fairings
Gear fairings

It was inspirational getting a piece done and seeing how nice it was!

Facts:

Didn't have a complete paint design until just before painting the fuse
Absolutely no issues with color match
No scratches putting it together
No modifications so far, 10.4 hrs into phase one.
Couldn't be happier!

Go ahead and paint it, you won't be sorry!
Tons of painting photos in my Picasa link
 
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Paul,

What a beautiful paint job! And nice job documenting it. Any idea of hours/sessions to do the paint?

Bevan
 
paint before you fly

Painted at home

IMG_2264.JPG


The only mods required would be the ones you decide to do.
None is required if you finish the airplane.
 
Bevan,

Thanks for the kind comment. I have no idea how long I spent on paint! Partly due to not completing it all at once and partly because I didn't track any of my build time. I tracked everything by photos, thousands of them! I have about 616 work sessions over 6 years. Some were short, an hour or two. Some were long, 14 non-stop hours!

Hope to make it to Oshkosh this year, home built camping.
 
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I also painted prior to flight. I wanted to do it myself and completely finish everything prior to flight. The only consideration I really did not think through was the transportation of the fuse and wings to and from the paint booth. I originally was going to build a trailer, but ended up using a towing service roll-back for the fuse, and renting a u-haul truck for the rest. It was a definite anxiety producing situation with the fuse. It took 3 months to paint, only being able to work in the booth in the evenings. In the end, it turned out just as I wanted.
If I had it to do all over, I think I would assemble it and the fly it to GLO Custom. I just looked at a -7 that came back from there this week. Absolutely gorgeous paint.
 
Paint then fly for sure

Just my two cents Jack, my RV-6 had about 260 hrs on it when I decided to paint it. I cannot tell you the amount of work it took to properly clean all the aluminum, and then acid etch it. It was almost impossible to get all the oil out of around the rivets and seams, especially on the belly, and that was with an Airwolf air oil separator installed!

I won't even get into the contortions I had to do to scrub the belly with acid. Dirty, nasty job. Anywhere you have surface contamination, the paint will be adversely affected. Do yourself a huge favor and paint it before flight, pick a paint which your painter tells you does nice color matching down the road if need be, and good luck!
 
I also painted mine first. I couldn't stand the thought of taking it to the airport for first flight naked. Nothing uglier than an unpainted flying plane in my opinion. I don't even like looking at a polished one.
 
Wow, thanks for all the replies...

I understand.. Yes, I think the guys in my EAA are not that familiar with RV's... some VeriEZ, Rands, etc...

I have a friend who is an outstanding painter (showcars) and and has painted airplane parts (never a complete airplane)..

We can get the fuselage into his paint booth, then the wings... Wheel pants, cowl, maybe separately.. but once I put the wings on, I don't plan to take them off, so him doing it (at a reasonable price) is out.. that is why I want to paint before.

Thanks for all the comments
 
Jack,

You may want to start with the smaller pieces first, and finish with the fuselage last on account with experience of the paint, process, lighting, equipment etc.

Bevan
 
We have 240 hours on ours and we're taking it to the painter after OSH. I'm glad we didn't paint first for a few reason... Although, none of them were mods. We've pulled the left tank twice, fixed some wheel pant fiberglass, replaced the lower fiberglass fairing on the rudder and saved the money so we didn't have to finance the paint job. We'll pay the painter to clean and prep it. Yes, the pink top is an eye sore but I'm not trying to win a fashion show. The decision to fly first was best for us and we haven't regretted it.
 
Paint first gets my vote. Wings were painted in May 2010 and hauled to the airport. Fuse and everything else painted Aug/Sept 2010. Final assembly October 2010. first flight dec 2010....oh yeah...its car paint and was told it would never hold up.


Here it is at Cavanaugh Bay taken this weekend (3 years later) looking like it came out of the shop recently. I have a chips or two...but very few. My hangar mate threatened to whack it with a ball peen hammer, just to make it look normal.
 
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