How much of wing to paint vs polish ?

I have an RV-4 that I am polishing part of and painting the rest. I don't want to have excessive glare in the cockpit off of the wings. If I paint the inboard section of the wings and polish the outboard will this make the reflection tolerable? If so how far out should I paint the wings? Also how would you handle the bottom of the wings and HS? I was planning to just lightly polish them ( 1 or 2 passes with the Nuvite ) as they are out of sight of just paint it light gray.

tturner said:

....I don't want to have excessive glare in the cockpit off of the wings. ..... Also how would you handle the bottom of the wings and HS?.....

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Some people are bothered by what they perceive or what they *think* they may perceive as excessive glare generated by highly polished wings. Personally, I do not see it as much of an issue at all. Assuming cloudless conditions or other obscuration, the sun has to have an unobstructed view and be within a particular range of angles relative to the wing to catch it just so. There are only certain times of day when this occurs during level flight. Certainly there are occasional moments when the wing can catch the sun in such a way that glare is momentarily reflected back into the cockpit. Big deal. A slight turn or bank quickly takes care of that issue. Of course, this is not an option if you plan to fly formation with others.


Many polished aircraft owners recommend painting the lower surfaces of the airframe. This makes good sense as doing so will dramatically reduce the amount of airframe the owner has to maintain with aluminum polish.

polish and paint

This is one of those things that people will really argue about....but heres my take.

I had planned to polish my 8. In fact there were a lot of extra steps taken to really take care of the aluminum during the build. I did the first flights and exited phase one without paint (and not polished). The glare is a bit of an issue, but what really surprised me is the heat coming off the airplane. Both on the ground and when flying. Not a problem at night or with a high overhead sun, but if the sun is 45 degrees or less from the horizon its just not much fun. On top of those issues, the extra work in keeping it polished just pushes me over the ege. Working on paint designs now......

my 2 cents.......

Tim

Has anyone polished the plane and then clear-coated it? Wheels are done this way on cars.

I tried the polishing route and never did get to more than 2 iterations.
Never got to the fuselage.

Lots of work.
Lots of glare.
Did not stay polished long.

I noticed you live in GA where you've got lots of humidity.
Me too, in FL.

Painting was much easier, less work & more corrosion protection.