What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

spinner

HansLab

Well Known Member
I'm thinking of adding a polished aluminum spinner to the plane. The only thing bothering me is the hole for the pitot: how will I be sure to get it absolutely centered? Anyone?
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0835.jpg
    IMG_0835.jpg
    292.1 KB · Views: 228
Polished Spinner

Not sure how an actual aluminum spinner would work, but my airplane’s spinner has the ‘look’. It’s standard fiberglass but looks chromed. It’s done by some sort of chemical process by covering it with one chemical, waiting a bit and adding another and it turns shiny. It’s held up really well. Kracon Aircraft paint in California did the job and would be able to tell you exactly how.

Here’s a pic
 

Attachments

  • CA2DC2C4-CAD0-4B89-8CDE-82A67ADFBC9F.jpg
    CA2DC2C4-CAD0-4B89-8CDE-82A67ADFBC9F.jpg
    288.2 KB · Views: 273
Spray Chrome

There is an episode of the History Channel's show 'Counting Cars' where Ryan (the in house painter) showed Danny ( the owner of Counts Kustoms) a new spray process he was playing around with that involved spray painting chrome onto car parts. One can see the spray gun is special and has quite a few lines feeding it from multiple tanks of chemicals. Don't know how well this process would work on fiberglass ... but if it will, I have to say, the results looked very impressive. Below is a link to a YouTube clip from the show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIUErhuFXT8

I know vinyl wrap will stick to a properly prepared fiberglass spinner because a friend of mine put vinyl wrap on his RV-9A's spinner and it has hundreds of hours on it and is still sticking just fine. There is an overlap though which can be seen if up close to the spinner.

Vinyl wrap is available with a chrome or Mylar look.
 
Last edited:
This suggestion might not be feasible or safe.
Remove top half of cowl and remove pitot tube.
Insert (in place of pitot tube) a long drill bit of the correct diameter.
With engine running, slowly advance the drill bit until it contacts the new aluminum spinner.
Remove spinner and final drill hole.
 
I'm thinking of adding a polished aluminum spinner to the plane. The only thing bothering me is the hole for the pitot: how will I be sure to get it absolutely centered? Anyone?

Hans - feel the best way is to start from scratch. Take the spinner to a good machine shop and have them drill the proper hole size into the tip of the spinner then install the bushing (suggest using Proseal). This should get you a reasonably centered hole and bushing.

Ideally, you should consider using two new spinner bulkheads and follow the procedure in section 47 of the assembly instructions to align the spinner and drill new mounting holes. (Suppose it may be possible to try using spherical magnets to locate the existing holes in the spinner bulkheads but that is likely a long shot).

Don't over think this .... remember, the original fiberglass spinner is aligned to the current position of the pitot tube by clamping and positioning the spinner onto the spinner bulkheads so the pitot tube does not move when the prop is rotated ... then the spinner is drilled to the bulkheads. You should follow the same procedure when drilling the new aluminum spinner. If the hole in the spinner is off a tad from perfect center, the alignment process should compensate nicely.
 
Last edited:
Not sure how an actual aluminum spinner would work, but my airplane’s spinner has the ‘look’. It’s standard fiberglass but looks chromed. It’s done by some sort of chemical process by covering it with one chemical, waiting a bit and adding another and it turns shiny. It’s held up really well. Kracon Aircraft paint in California did the job and would be able to tell you exactly how.

Here’s a pic

I REALLY like that! My spinner is one of the things on my plane that needs work due to flaking paint next to the screw heads.. If I can't find someone local, I may try shipping my spinner to Kracon and let them work the magic! Thanks!
 
"Not sure how an actual aluminum spinner would work, but my airplane’s spinner has the ‘look’. It’s standard fiberglass but looks chromed. It’s done by some sort of chemical process by covering it with one chemical, waiting a bit and adding another and it turns shiny. It’s held up really well. Kracon Aircraft paint in California did the job and would be able to tell you exactly how."

That sure does looks nice, and is a possibility I didn't know of. Thanks to this very forum.
For the aluminum spinners I am aware of the difficulties adjusting the pitot - that's why I asked. Cummins Spinners advises to buy both a new backplate and front-plate from Van's, so that the whole adjusting process can be overdone per the manual.
I have tried aluminum Oracover, but as mentioned the overlap is quite large..
The trick with the long drill sounds nice, however I still cannot visualize: the only place this drill is to be supported is the small nylon piece behind the gear.
 
Back
Top