Jeff Vaughan

Jeff Vaughan

Well Known Member
Trying to figure out if painting the baffles is worth the time and effort.

What are the pros of painting. I know the cons: added weight, time to do etc.
 
I think the biggest con is that they just don't look that good for very long. I painted mine, but they look a little beat up now.

If I were to do it again, I would go for polishing the aluminum and then just let them reach a natural patina. I think it's a cleaner look and will last longer.

If you do paint, you might consider having them powdercoated instead. That might be a little more durable.
 
Try a can of X-I-M 900 clear coat 800-262-8469 This stuff goes on easy, your parts look great and it is easy. Will dry fast and the finish is tuff.

Wash your part with Dawn dish soap and scuff with red scotch brite.............
 
Anodize

Anodizing might be an option that might look better (more metallic looking... :) ...) than powder coat.

It's an option on some aftermarket certified aircraft baffles.

Pricing might be not much more than powder coating if done in a single batch...

gil in Tucson
 
Painted mine with flat black engine paint from an auto parts store. They look great after 95 hrs.
 
I left mine bare - my experience with baffles on my old Grumman was that with all the vibration and wear, they'd be looking patched and ratty eventually anyway. With more than 450 hours on the Val's baffles now, they do look remarkably good - no wear or cracks - but I'm still satisfied that I didn't take the time to paint them. If I had, and they needed patching, the disassembly to repaint to make them pretty again would be a lot of work - I don't want to have to take them apart until it's time for engine overhaul!

Paint them, powdercoat them, or anodize them if it makes you feel better, but leaving them bare worked just fine for me.

Paul
 
I am always impressed with the guy at the fly in that takes his cowling off to show his beautiful engine compartment. There are some spectacular installs and I like looking at them, seriously. However, I did not paint anything that I did not have too, and in my opinion, baffling is one of those things. Decided flying sooner, even a few hours, was more important to me.
I do think that cracks are easier to see on naked aluminum, hence, I did not paint my airbox parts either.
I think there is no right or wrong answer here, just your personal preference.
 
Next time bare!

Ironflight said:
I left mine bare - my experience with baffles on my old Grumman was that with all the vibration and wear, they'd be looking patched and ratty eventually anyway. With more than 450 hours on the Val's baffles now, they do look remarkably good - no wear or cracks - but I'm still satisfied that I didn't take the time to paint them. If I had, and they needed patching, the disassembly to repaint to make them pretty again would be a lot of work - I don't want to have to take them apart until it's time for engine overhaul!

Paint them, powdercoat them, or anodize them if it makes you feel better, but leaving them bare worked just fine for me.

Paul
Click to expand...

I'm in Paul's camp. I powder coated mine with a high heat silver finish. Came out OK, but not great. My 1963 Mooney had bare baffling. I took a rag and some Dawn to it and it cleaned up great. If I were to do it over, and I will at least three or four times, bare. Less time, little if any benefit and releatively easy to replace if it starts to look ratty.
 
Doesn't paint isolate?

Hi.

I'm working on the baffles right now and I'm planning to leave them unpainted.
The reason is that I'm thinking they'll be able to transfer heat more easily from inside of the plenum to the outside, thus making the cooling more effective?

I was thinking that paint will act as isolation?

Or am I wrong here maybe?


Regards Alf Olav Frog / Norway
Finishing
 
Absolutely right

Thermal conduction is impeded from cylinders to the big aluminum heat sink and the sections of the baffle are isolated from each other which hurts the baffle heat conduction and the painted surface hurts the heat transfer to the air. It's simply a bad idea all around when you think of maintenance, etc. I'm sorry iff I came off too abrupt but I seriously wonder why you would consider such an action? Is it an appearance thing?

Bob Axsom
 
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Bare's the only way to go

When I restored my Skybolt I painted the baffles. They lasted about 150 hours before they got ratty again.

I left the baffles bare in my RV-8. I scuffed them up with red scotchbrite to even out the finish and the scratches from fabrication and 200 hours later they still look new.

IMHO, leave 'em bare and get up in the air faster.

-Rob
 
I understand the desire to paint them. I would suggest that the impact to engine cooling from painted baffles is negligble at best, and probably immaterial. There are a lot of things you can do to improve cooling other than worry about the 1 dF you lost out on because your baffles are painted, IMHO.

Paint them if you want. A lot of Airventure Golden Lindy winners have in the past. From my experience, they just don't look as nice (both short term and long term) as bare aluminum does, but that's just my opinion.

BTW, my baffles are painted on my IO-540 and I have zero cooling issues, mostly because of efficient intake shape and a fully sealed plenum.
 
Engine Baffel Painting?

I am about to start on my baffels and I have been checking out several builder sites (thanks, they help). I noticed that some are painting their baffels and some are not. What is the pros and cons of both? What do they look like after several hundered hours?

I'm going for a solid aircraft and not a show winner so I don't want to add any additional steps unless there is good reason for doing so.

Thanks
 
Several locals paint their baffles black. They prefer to see only black if they look into the air intakes from a distance. Personally, I'm fine seeing my aluminum baffles.

There is no functional difference, so unless you have some aesthetic reason to paint 'em, painted baffles are just an extra step.
 
I figure corrosion is not much of a concern in that hot dry environment. I cleaned and alodined for good measure, but it was probably a waste. I don't think I'd like black, since it might make spotting cracks or oild drips more difficult.
 
I live on the soggy Texas gulf coast. Everything will corrode here if given half a chance. Having owned an old British bike with lots of chrome and polished aluminum, I chose to paint the baffles to eliminate the corrosion and need to polish (I never want to polish anything ever again ;)).

I chose red because the front of my -8 is red. I wanted a consistant color inside the cowling. Also, I painted the inside of the cowling red. I really like the effect.

Karl
 
And yet another view...

I did not paint mine as they are easy enough to replace, if needed.

The second reason I did not paint them was fire. If this thing ever starts to burn, I figure it will be in the engine area and the less paint fumes I have to breath while trying to get on the ground, the better.

Just my $.02
 
does priming them count?

i primed them, not sure why. but it made me feel better.

 
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Just Iridite

I iridited mine for corrosion without putting on paint that may prevent me from seeing cracks. Plus I like the nice gold color.
rv842206vw2.jpg
 
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