M

motzg

I'm New Here
Just had the RV-7A painted. I'm completely satisfied with the quality and
the people are nice to work with. However, the final bill had significant extra
charge to fix pinholes on the gear leg/wheel fairings. After a phone call to the shop, they gave me the option to discount as much as I wanted on the extra charges. To be fair I'd like to know how about how many hours labor is needed to prep pinholes on the fairings? What is an average price for a basic paint job from a quaility shop? (Not counting disassembly/assembly, which I did)
 
Thanks for the warning - - prep-work can take a long time, not so skilled as shooting paint.

So, just guessing $600 additional?
 
Who did your paint, and can we see pictures? I'm willing to pay to have someone else fill pinholes at this point! Not sure I could even count the hours I've spent, and I'm probably not even halfway done.
 
Filling pinholes with epoxy, as Dan and other composite pros recommend, shouldn't take more than a couple hours with sanding by experienced craftsmen. Other methods take much longer because they don't work as well and have to be redone several times.
 
Tapping the VAF brain trust

For those here that have done it, what IS the best way to fill pin holes?:confused:
 
DonFromTX said:
Help me zero in on this procedure. I have all my fiberglass in need of pinhole filling.
Click to expand...

Prior to priming, squeegee a thin coat of pure epoxy on your fiberglass parts. Use an easy to sand epoxy such as West Systems. Don't waste a lot of time trying to get it right the first coat. This is just to fill the majority of pin holes. Everything extra you put on has to be sanded off so squeegee hard. When cured, sand the part with 220 Zircon paper. A cowl half should not take more that 15 minutes to sand it back down. Wash and dry the part thoroughly and use compressed air to get any sanding dust that may be trapped in remaining pin holes. Most will be gone now. Prime with a sanding primer and sand again. Any remaining pin holes will stand out like a sore thumb. Use a plastic or rubber squeegee and work more epoxy into the pin holes. When cure, sand again. Keep doing that until they are gone. A hand held trouble light helps in finding any pin holes. You can use spotting putty if you wish, I prefer epoxy though. Use sanding blocks when sanding if possible. Don't overdo it with the epoxy. That's where it gets time consuming sanding all the extra epoxy off.
 
OK, thanks for all that. I think I can follow those instructions quite well.

9GT said:
Prior to priming, squeegee a thin coat of pure epoxy on your fiberglass parts. Use an easy to sand epoxy such as West Systems. Don't waste a lot of time trying to get it right the first coat. This is just to fill the majority of pin holes. Everything extra you put on has to be sanded off so squeegee hard. When cured, sand the part with 220 Zircon paper. A cowl half should not take more that 15 minutes to sand it back down. Wash and dry the part thoroughly and use compressed air to get any sanding dust that may be trapped in remaining pin holes. Most will be gone now. Prime with a sanding primer and sand again. Any remaining pin holes will stand out like a sore thumb. Use a plastic or rubber squeegee and work more epoxy into the pin holes. When cure, sand again. Keep doing that until they are gone. A hand held trouble light helps in finding any pin holes. You can use spotting putty if you wish, I prefer epoxy though. Use sanding blocks when sanding if possible. Don't overdo it with the epoxy. That's where it gets time consuming sanding all the extra epoxy off.
Click to expand...
 
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