R

rfchisholm

Active Member
Can anyone share any interior painting words of wisdom, or previous posts, with me as I begin my fuselage kit? Prime vs no prime. Finish versus no finish. Types of finish ...etc. Thanks in advance.
 
There are many options.....

.... and I'm sure you will get several opinions on this. I can only tell you what I did.

I chose to paint all the interior pieces as I assembled them. Much easier than completing the fuselage and then masking off and painting as a unit. After deburring and fitting, I cleaned each part with solvent, roughed it up with ScotchBrite, primed with rattle can NAPA 7220, and then painted with a rattle can textured paint from Wal-Mart.

Came out looking very nice, and seems to be quite a tough finish. I've cleaned it with soap and water with no ill effects. BTW, I painted the instrument panel with the same paint in black.

You can see pictures on my blog.

Build on and have fun!
 
John is right, this is like primer wars.

I stayed away from rattle can for interior paint after talking with several painters. Over the long haul it chips and wears too easy, and it is not compatible with many products you will use to clean the plane. When you add weather stripping the glue can take the paint off leaving you a real mess. The vinyl from the seats can soften the paint and stick to the seats. IMHO you would be better off using a two or three part automotive type painting system.
 
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Interior paint

I'd advise dark color and no gloss. It's the best way to mitigate light reflections on the canopy.
 
A few from the many...

Ron, as it happens I've been researching this a bit as I try to understand what taking on a -12 project will mean (time, skill, $$ etc.). Here are a couple of thoughts to help you dig further:

-- In addition to Big John's log (very helpful to me in many respects), I found the following refs helpful:
http://www.europa.com/~swayze/RV-7A/Fuselage/20090702.html by Bruce Swayze
http://www.romeolima.com/RV3works/Airframe/airframe.html#Primer by Randy ?? (and coincidentally recently recommended by Bruce)
http://tonytessitore.smugmug.com/RV-12-Project-N577RV by Tony Tessitore (helpful in part for the excellent pic qualities)
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=66672 is a useful VAF thread with a broad range of useful comments

-- priming is about corrosion protection at least as much as appearance; sadly, for all the priming threads, there are very few identified by the 'search' function that focus on corrosion protection itself (even in the Archives). The general view seems to be the more time consuming (and hazmat-related) the product(s) chosen, the better the protection...but there's little longitudinal 'data' offered that helps form a perspective on 'how much' better. (Don't miss the fact that all of Vans' QB wing & fuse kits are primed only after they are assembled; lots of bare metal there, yet apparently this is viewed as an acceptable tradeoff).

-- it's probably most productive to think in two dimensions about priming: what's the best approach for general priming, and what makes sense given your plans for painting the forward fuselage portion that becomes the cockpit. (E.g. you'll notice that Bruce is very pleased with the results he gets from a SEM rattle-can product, yet chose a 2-part primer for his cockpit area. OTOH John finds rattle-can products acceptable for the wear his cockpit will see, while Tony's pleasingly covered up most of his cockpit like it's a tuck 'n roll '57 Chevy. All choices that, so far, these gents seems pleased with).

We see the phrase 'primer wars' all the time here...but I find the term misleading. I've pulled up a number of those threads and find there's 99% steak and only 1% sizzle. It's hardly the only topic about which various opinions flourish here. :D

Jack
 
Larry is right...prime it and use a two-part. You may also want to consider buying a cheap "touch-up" spray kit to hook up to your compressor. They are small and allow you to cover small areas quickly. You can do you entire interior in 30 minutes.
 
Interior paint

After some research we are using Sherwin Williams JetFllex solvent based polyurethane enamel. It is very durable and used by many aircraft painters.
Since we are using a carpet kit there is not a lot to paint. Per the tech guy from Sherwin Williams if you scuff and clean well a self etching aerosol primer will work. You will need the paint of your choice, satin or flat, catalyst #981520 and reducer #110845. The paint and catalyst is available in qts. and the reducer in gallons. The reducer is used for thining and cleanup so you will probably use a gallon.
 
I chose to use Stewart water borne prime on fretting surfaces in the wings and tail. I brushed it on with no problems. I did the same on the tail cone. On the main fuselage I waited until it was all together, then I used the Stewart on all the surfaces forward of aft bulkhead. I shot a very light primer coat then a coat of grey finish. I got a terrible finish. The water borne finishes are different than the conventional finishes I had used painting cars over the years. It was not the fault of the paint, just my inexperience. As an aside, even with the fuselage on a rotating frame it was not easy to get an even coat on all surfaces. As John stated above, it would have been much easier to paint if I had done it as I went along. On the canopy and landing year I used Stitts epoxy primer. I loved it! It is easy to use, very durable, and leaves a finish that could be left as a top coat. I wish I had used the Stitts on the whole thing. Just my 2 cents
 
Mark Henderson said:
I chose to use Stewart water borne prime on fretting surfaces in the wings and tail. I brushed it on with no problems. I did the same on the tail cone. On the main fuselage I waited until it was all together, then I used the Stewart on all the surfaces forward of aft bulkhead. I shot a very light primer coat then a coat of grey finish. I got a terrible finish. The water borne finishes are different than the conventional finishes I had used painting cars over the years. It was not the fault of the paint, just my inexperience.
Click to expand...

Mark, I am going to use the Stewart product on the interior soon. I prime as I go but part of the interior paint I wanted to shoot before the structure gets too enclosed, so when I finish the floor structure I am going to put the paint on and then paint as I go. To avoid the same learning curve, would you share what your mistakes were so I don't run into the same issues?

Thanks,
Torsten.
 
I watched the Stewart video and it seemed very straight forward. He used a particular gun, and the pressures and flow were based on that gun. I was unable to find the same gun, so I bought a medium quality DeVilbis. I never quite the the flow or fan right. I seemed to go from dry to runs. I spoke with an experienced auto painter here in Napa about what went wrong. All shops in my area now must use the water based. he said he went to a multiple-day course put on by PPG. Temps and humidity are very important, and must be taken into account, or you get a poor result. He now loves the stuff. I should have done more experimenting before I shot the fuselage. In contrast the Stitts was very very easy and was flowed out nicely.
 
Thank you!

I really appreciate the great feedback provided in this post! My intention was not to insight another flare-up of the primer/paint war ... Although it was a nice refresher of this debate!

I believe what I take away from this thread is to .... paint interior components as I go along, rather than at the end. Although this may slow me down a bit, I'm in no hurry!

Thank you to all that participated in this post.
 
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