Painting the Firewall

[jrouault]

Has anybody attempted to paint the engine side of the firewall? If so, what was the prep and paint procedure?

Jason Rouault
RV-7A Fuselage
http://www.rvbuild.com

[walter]

I'm curious why you would want to do that.

If the firewall is kept clean you can see any oil splatter if it's for
that purpose. My experience with painting stainless steel has not been
good.

There is another thread about painting the inside of the bottom cowl.
I painted it white and I'm glad I did. It's easy to see oil leaks and rub
marks.

Just curious.

[Captain_John]

Jason, my point of view is...

Once something is painted, sooner or later it one day will eventually need to be REpainted!

The FW is naturally corrosion resistant and fairly attractive the way it is, not to mention easy to clean.

I am leaving mine the way it is.

However, any one of the painting processes we use for the aluminum typically could be used for stainless. Pick one and look over the data sheets.

CJ

[tomcostanza]

FWIW, I saw someone restoring a Navion who had polished the SS firewall. It looked gorgeous.

[f1rocket]

Yes, I painted the firewall on my RV-6. FWIW, I polished the stainless on my Rocket. I scuffed the stainless and used a two-part epoxy primer and DuPont single stage polyurethane white paint. After three years it still looked new. Poly paint is good to 450 dF continuous and 500 dF max, well within the temps inside the cowl.

[jrouault]

Thanks for the responses. I had seen some firewalls painted and was not sure if there was any benefit. Does not sound like there would be. Good thing, because I hate painting

Jason Rouault
RV-7A
http://www.rvbuild.com