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Painting done!

Draker

Draker

Well Known Member
How about another "Picked up from the paint shop" thread?

I drove down over the weekend to re-assemble the plane, and then since Wednesday was VFR, we flew down in a friend's -6A to finish reassembly, W&B, and flying it home. Really turned out well. Another beautiful job done by T&P Aero Refinishers in Salinas, CA. Having primed all interior parts and rattle-can painted the interior, I knew my painting skills were just not up to task to do the exterior. Juan and staff at T&P turned my chicken-scratch sketch of a design into a real work of art. Really happy with it.

Process: The aircraft had some fiberglass fixing and filling/sanding done, cleaned, alodined, primed and then painted. Sherman Williams Acry Glo and then a clear coat layer.















 
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That looks great! I should have had mine painted. Mine looks good from about 10' but nothing like yours does. You will be happy you had it painted!!

I was trying to pick out which house is yours. It looks like it is next door to Mikes old house. I didnt build any on your street but did several in the park. Wish I lived in an airpark!!

Have fun with your newly painted plane!!
 
Incredible

I love the color combo! She is going to look good in an aerial photo shoot. I know how you feel to finally have the paint done.
 
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My plane is being painted at T&P at KSNS as well and saw this beautiful RV-7A being painted.

The place exudes pride of workmanship for all the planes they paint.

Here's a close up pic of detail I took while this RV was on the ramp getting final prep for delivery.

Zoom in on the aileron pivot to see all that needs to be said.
 

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Hey Ryan. That is super sharp. I can only imagine the first time you got to see it in person. Question, is you pitot mast the anodized blue? Kinda looks like it in one of the pics. Just curious. Congrats on a wonderful plane!
 
SeanB said:
Hey Ryan. That is super sharp. I can only imagine the first time you got to see it in person. Question, is you pitot mast the anodized blue? Kinda looks like it in one of the pics. Just curious. Congrats on a wonderful plane!
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It’s the anodized blue one from Spruce. I did not specify to the shop whether or not to paint it, and they decided not to. Not a big deal to me.
 
Hey Ryan,

Notice any speed difference after paint? :) Did you happen to do a before and after weight calculation. Wondering how much paint may add. Really like how it turned out!
 
SeanB said:
Notice any speed difference after paint? :) Did you happen to do a before and after weight calculation. Wondering how much paint may add. Really like how it turned out!
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The only difference I felt is that somehow the controls feel a bit stiffer. Like it takes just slightly, slightly more push to manipulate the stick. It might just be all in my head, since my senses were on full sensitivity on my first flight after painting. No performance difference I could detect. I cruised home at ~150KTAS @7.5GPH and 145KTAS @7GPH, which is exactly how it performed in cruise on the way to the paint shop.

I re-weighed the plane and found to have gained +29 pounds since my first weigh-in when I finished the build. This seems very, very high to me for paint. I was expecting no more than 20 pounds from reading other people's results. Looking back through my logs, I have not added anything into the plane since airworthiness that weighs more than 1-2 pounds, so that's not it. I had to add a little more counterweight to the elevators to balance them. That wasn't more than 1 pound. One thing I suspect may be that my tanks are not bone dry. I drained them from the wing sumps, but there may still be a small amount still in the system forward of the tanks. I plan to either fuel-pump the rest out or run the engine till it quits from both tanks, so I know for sure I only have unusable fuel left, then weigh again.

Empty CG moved aft 0.5 inches. Hope this helps.
 
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The fuel pickup sits above the lowest point where the sump drains are located, so ‘pumping’ fuel out will not have the desired effect. Really splitting hairs here if you feel the need to get a few more ounces out to increase useful load by 1-2 lbs.
Are you using a certified/accurate scale?
 
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I re-weighed the plane and found to have gained +29 pounds since my first weigh-in when I finished the build. This seems very, very high to me for paint. .
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I gained 39 lbs on a RV-14 with a Evoke paint job.
29 lbs doesn't seem out of line.
 
Walt said:
The fuel pickup sits above the lowest point where the sump drains are located, so ‘pumping’ fuel out will not have the desired effect. Really splitting hairs here if you feel the need to get a few more ounces out to increase useful load by 1-2 lbs.
Are you using a certified/accurate scale?
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Hi, Walt, I don't really care about increasing the useful load. I just want to make sure I did as correct a job weighing as I could. The way I learned it, empty weight = weight of the airframe, engine, oil, and unusable fuel, so I want to make sure I'm really down to just unusable fuel. I thought maybe the fuel pickups are closer to the wing root and might still have some fuel left, but if the drains on the -7A are truly the lowest point, then it looks like you're correct and pumping would be pointless.

The scales are not certified, but I stood on each of them and then on two separate bathroom scales and they all say the same number, so at least they can weigh 190 pounds accurately.
 
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