BSwayze
Well Known Member
I've been mulling this over for weeks. Wondering how I was going to finish the canopy side rails on my fuselage. I have been trying to decide whether or not to paint them now or later, prime the underneath side for now, wait until after they are riveted on, or whatever. Then recently, when I attended the 2009 Vans Homecoming Fly-in, I was looking at a lot of airplanes.
One thing really caught my attention this time. The canopy side rails of all those planes. Go to a fly-in and take a look at the side rails of the airplanes present there. I'm talking about the tip-ups. They all had scuffed paint on the top surface. Every single one of them. I could not find an exception. From Van's factory demo 7A right on down the ramp, including brand new airplanes just recently finished. Scuffed paint. I know this area has a lot of wear-and-tear from entering and exiting the aircraft, but there has to be an answer. Something better than paint.
So I looked again at my brake pedals. You may have see that I had them anodized a bright fiery red color a while back. Then my son Luke came over with the threshhold to the front door to his house. He's doing a lot of remodeling right now, and he wanted to ask me if he could use my scotchbrite wheel to clean it up a bit. Guess what it's made of? Anodized aluminum! After all the years that door has been on their house, yes, it shows some wear and tear. But considering the abuse it has taken from daily foot traffic, the dog, and so on, it still looked pretty good. It has to be a lot more durable than paint! So I decided to have these parts anodized, just like I did with my brake pedals. Will they hold up? I don't know of anyone else who has done this, so I have nothing to go on. But my hunch tells me it will hold up a lot better than a coat of paint.
So then the next question comes up: what color? I don't know what my paint scheme will look like at this point. But one thing I know for sure. There will be some red in it. So I thought, why not match the brake pedals and do the fiery red? So I took the F-721A's and B's down to the same shop that did my brake pedals. My only regret is that had I known sooner, I could have had all this work done at the same time and saved a second shop fee. Anyway, here are the results. I am totally thrilled. So I thought I'd share the idea with all of you.
When I brought these home from the shop I had to immediately cleco them on to see how they look.
I like the contrast between this and the interior color. I hope to put an accent of the same color in the upholstery. I'm trying to imagine how great that's going to look.
One thing really caught my attention this time. The canopy side rails of all those planes. Go to a fly-in and take a look at the side rails of the airplanes present there. I'm talking about the tip-ups. They all had scuffed paint on the top surface. Every single one of them. I could not find an exception. From Van's factory demo 7A right on down the ramp, including brand new airplanes just recently finished. Scuffed paint. I know this area has a lot of wear-and-tear from entering and exiting the aircraft, but there has to be an answer. Something better than paint.
So I looked again at my brake pedals. You may have see that I had them anodized a bright fiery red color a while back. Then my son Luke came over with the threshhold to the front door to his house. He's doing a lot of remodeling right now, and he wanted to ask me if he could use my scotchbrite wheel to clean it up a bit. Guess what it's made of? Anodized aluminum! After all the years that door has been on their house, yes, it shows some wear and tear. But considering the abuse it has taken from daily foot traffic, the dog, and so on, it still looked pretty good. It has to be a lot more durable than paint! So I decided to have these parts anodized, just like I did with my brake pedals. Will they hold up? I don't know of anyone else who has done this, so I have nothing to go on. But my hunch tells me it will hold up a lot better than a coat of paint.
So then the next question comes up: what color? I don't know what my paint scheme will look like at this point. But one thing I know for sure. There will be some red in it. So I thought, why not match the brake pedals and do the fiery red? So I took the F-721A's and B's down to the same shop that did my brake pedals. My only regret is that had I known sooner, I could have had all this work done at the same time and saved a second shop fee. Anyway, here are the results. I am totally thrilled. So I thought I'd share the idea with all of you.
When I brought these home from the shop I had to immediately cleco them on to see how they look.
I like the contrast between this and the interior color. I hope to put an accent of the same color in the upholstery. I'm trying to imagine how great that's going to look.
