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ghatch

Active Member
I am trying to decide wheather to paint my plane as part of final assembly or after the 40hrs have been flown off. I would like it painted before flight but don't want to make a hurried decision. Looking for advice.

Thanks,
Gerry
 
I've been asking myself the same question.

My research has yielded no right answer, just opinions on both side of the fence.

If you do it before, it's easier to paint in parts. It may also be a little less expensive depending on who does the painting. The downside is that there is a risk of damaging the paint through storage and assembly, then more potential through flight testing due to taking things apart, etc.

If you paint afterwards, you don't have those risks, the paint job may look better. The downside is the cost is more because you have to use a shop located at an airport which usually is more expensive.

So the real questions to ask are:

How tight is your budget?

Which risks do you want to manage?

You can choose either method and have a fantastic paint job. Also notice that I used a bunch of weasel words in my description. There are exceptions in both cases.
 
You are right in that there are many different opinions. If you are planning to paint it yourself, I'd recommend painting it before flying it, because you will discover that once you start flying, these RV's are so much fun that you won't want to take the down time to paint it! I know first hand. For the first time on my recently-completed RV-7A I didn't completely finish painting the trim so that I could make OSH this year, and guess what? Every week end there's another excuse to fly somewhere instead of painting!
If you aren't going to do it yourself, then you might find yourself waiting in line for one of the paint shops, so if that's the case, you may find yourself flying it first. The advantages are that you find some of the wear spots, and then you also get a really good comparison of the impact of paint to the weight and speed.

Vic
 
In my case, I had already made a decision to have someone else do the paint. I've checked that box on a previous homebuilt and didn't want to get back into the painting. I had some canopy fit issues that required some exterior fixing such as a targa strip and some fairing along the front of the tipper. I also had a little hangar rash that needed some work, and then there was the gear fairings and wheel pants. I'm glad I waited to paint. They are a lot of fun to fly, so I didn't even get to fitting the pants until I had 45 hours, but I'm also scheduled into a paint shop for next February.
 
Tough decision

I struggled with this but later decided to fly then paint. I'M GLAD I DID. I ended up cutting some off the tunnel of the lower cowl. Additionally, I flew the first few hours without the wheel pants and fairings.

In my opinion there are many things you could end up doing that could damage paint if painted first. Better to get all the bugs worked out before laying out the money for the paint.

Set a time and/or date that you will take it out of service for paint and be disciplined to stick with it. If painting yourself or a nearby shop, call over a couple of RV buddies and start the teardown process. I had my plane disassembled in approximately 5 hours. This included, wing removal, ail and flap removal, vertical fin removal, rudder removal, horizontal stabilizer and elevators etc......

The prep and cleaning was done with each component off the plane.

When the painting was completed, it took me 2 days to put it back together.

Bottomline, You can't go wrong waiting. Painting before flight provides lots of possibilities of bad outcome. YMMV
 
I'd paint it before. Especially if it's still in pieces. My airplane, as well as a friend of mine, were both painted before the first flight. Neither has enough problems to effect the paint job at all.

When you paint the elevators, it's going to change the balance. I had to add lead, where I had previously drilled it out. I often wonder, how many re-balance these elevators , when flying before painting.

Besides, unpainted planes are rather ugly, whether the owner admits it or not... :D

L.Adamson ---- painted RV6A
 
Will you paint or will you hire it out?

I am just finishing the painting and assembly of my RV-6 and expect the first flight within the next 4 weeks. I painted before assembly because I decided to do it myself to save money. I new it would be a "20 foot paint job" (looks good from 20 ft) but would not be up to par with the professionals. My recommendation is if you can afford to hire it done, fly first then have the professional paint it. If you are like me and the budget doesn't include a professional paint job, do it first at your home shop then assembly and fly.
 
Paint before or after

As has been previously said, it depends. We flew then painted. AOG paint in Mena, Arkansas did a great job. Mark Burns is painting before the first flight. He has done it in bits and pieces. His paint job is turning our very nice.
I would suggest, if you paint it yourself, paint it before the first flight while dis-assembled. If you choose to have someone else paint it, fly first, them paint
 
zspivey said:
If you choose to have someone else paint it, fly first, them paint
Click to expand...

I agree with that, because many airports won't let you paint in a hangar anyway. You just have to fly it to the painter. :) In my case, I made a paint booth out of the 3rd bay of my garage, while the plane was still disassembled.

L.Adamson
 
RE:paint or not????

ghatch said:
I am trying to decide wheather to paint my plane as part of final assembly or after the 40hrs have been flown off. I would like it painted before flight but don't want to make a hurried decision. Looking for advice.

Thanks,
Gerry
Click to expand...

Gerry

Great questions. As a data point consider Jim Piavis and I were on track to do that first flight at the same time. He decided to wait on paint and is flying.....and I .....on the other hand, I have decide to paint and I am not even close to that first flight.

With that said my reason for painting was $$$$$$$ or the lack there of, so I decided I could save a bunch of $$$$$$$$$$ if I did the job. I also wanted to say I built the whole plane. I also wanted the challenge of using the Stewart System of Paint. I also thought that painting thew plane a part would be more easy together, I also thought how hard could it be...........the answer to that is ....well that is along story for a cold winter night.......

If you choose to go fly before painting I would strongly suggest that you at least prep the interior of the cowl so engine fluids don't get into the FG of the cowl. I would also prep the exterior of the cowl. Fill the pin holes ( choose your misery (filler)....they are all...time consuming, messy to work with, and just plain hard work. Use a good UV primer sealer on the exterior of the cowl which like the interior will protect it from all the harsh elements. The cowl will then be in better shape after you fly for a while to finally be in a good postion to be painted.

Gerry, what ever you decided, enjoy the build ride, the real ride, and that RV Grin........

Frank @ 1L8 ...RV7A... painting......
 
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I did it both ways

My Zenair Zodiac I flew before painting..then flew it for 7 years and never did paint it!

My 7a I painted it myself and it came out as good as any of the professional jobs I have seen, except mine is purposely a pretty simple two colour scheme but now i know I can tackle any painting job.

For me learning new skill is as important as building the airplane.

Now I can weld, paint, machine build engines etc etc...build houses even..All skills to add to the repetoir.

if I were doing it again...I wouldn't paint the cowl it comes off and goes back on a lot of times during the first 40 and may enf up being modified.

other than that I'd paint it first.

Frank
 
Data Points

I am not going to advocate one way or the other but I will say this:

To raise a point I have not yet seen specifically mentioned, until the first few flights you really don't know how well the ball is going to center and if you paint the rudder first then add some sort of tab later, how well do you expect the paint to match up?

​

Also, I did have to slightly rework the wheel pants after several hours of Phase One testing because an intersection fairing started to separate at a butt gap....builder error on my part....I should have originally made the parts to overlap......still, the fix was relatively quick and easy. If I had painted first, the repair would have been much more involved and repainting likely to be an added expense in time and labor.
 
I've done it both ways. RV-6 was painted in my garage by me before it flew. The Rocket was painted by a professional after I flew it for 100 hours.

I recommend flying, then painting for all the reasons already cited.
 
f1rocket said:
I've done it both ways. RV-6 was painted in my garage by me before it flew. The Rocket was painted by a professional after I flew it for 100 hours.

I recommend flying, then painting for all the reasons already cited.
Click to expand...

In reality, it's the budget. Does the builder have 6-$8000 (or more) set aside for professional paint job or not?

Without doubt, many RV's have well exceeded 100hrs.; and gone for years or forever without any paint; or even the final finish of the fiberglass work. I think that some builders kid themselves into thinking a plane is done, when it's not yet painted; yet a paint job is either very expensive or very labor intensive. Take your pick! :D

Since I did my own painting, it was around $2000 for paint and supplies. It's not as perfect as some professionals, but in a few places somewhat better than a few 3rd party paint jobs that I've seen. Mines a 2' plane...

Yet, since there was no way, that I was going to throw another $6000 to a paint job, I'm very happy that it was done to begin with.

P.S. --- I do need a rudder tab as pointed out in a previous thread. My 6A has no built in rudder offset. It shouldn't be that big of a deal to paint. I also left the wheel pants and fairings to be painted later -----after final adjustments. These are just addon pieces that don't effect the fuselage paint.

L.Adamson --- RV6A

 
Actually, having it professionaly painted was not a factor in my decision. It was the same problem you just cited. On my RV-6, there were a number of flying characteristics I wanted to address but didn't because I didn't want to try and touch up Polyurethane paint. It was hard enough to get it on the first time, I just chickened out from touching things up or trying partial repaints, etc.

When I did the Rocket, I had some of the same adjustments to make. Without a second thought, I moved the position of the vertical stabilizer, added a rudder tab, cut up the empennage fairing, changed the wheel pants, added some stuff to the cowl, etc. Then when I had it painted (which I could have done myself), I knew that the airplane flew straight and true.

In the end, I don't think it's that big of a deal which way you go. Both approaches have pros and cons. These are just mine which affected my decision. To each their own.
 
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