Aero_Octaveus
Well Known Member
When I took my car into the Autobody shop to get the bumper re-painted. I got on to the discussion of paint with the Shop Foreman. He says that at a professional level, a painter can get the paint too perfect when applying it to car to match the factory paint job. He said that factory paint jobs have a very slight orange peel to them and when painting a body panel to match, if the paint is applied they same way, it can look very different even if the color is matched near perfectly. Taking a very close look at a factory paint job on a car, I would agree that the paint does have a very slight orange peel to it. But compared to an restored show car where the paint is like a mirror. Wow there is a difference, but you have to look close!
With that said, the boundary layer over a wing can be as small as 1/100th of an inch, or 0.25mm thick. At this level one could assume that this sort of difference between a very slight orange peel as your would get on a factory car finish or home/shop painted finish, can produce more Skin Friction Drag then if the paint was "Perfect and Polished"
With the large amount of builders who have painted their own wings, has anyone noticed an increase in cruise just by having their plane repainted professionally with a "Perfect and Polished" paint job?
Or are the planes too slow for skin friction at this level to play a significant factor?
With that said, the boundary layer over a wing can be as small as 1/100th of an inch, or 0.25mm thick. At this level one could assume that this sort of difference between a very slight orange peel as your would get on a factory car finish or home/shop painted finish, can produce more Skin Friction Drag then if the paint was "Perfect and Polished"
With the large amount of builders who have painted their own wings, has anyone noticed an increase in cruise just by having their plane repainted professionally with a "Perfect and Polished" paint job?
Or are the planes too slow for skin friction at this level to play a significant factor?
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