V

vindino

Member
I am planning on building an RV-10 and am looking into what it takes to paint your own aircraft. I cant find much on the subject. can anyone recommend a website, thread or book that will help me with the required skills.

thanks
 
Painting

I'm on my 3rd complete airplane paint job, and the best advice I recieved was from a fellow pilot that owns a body shop. So far I prefer Sherwin Williams Jet Glo top coats and primers. After all of the techniques that I have tried, the best for me is one light coat, 15 minutes later a wet coat. Having said that, there is a lot to the preperation of the metal or fiber glass, use the AC43-13 and read up. Stick to one brand of paint, the primers, topcoats and clears play together well, and I have found cheap automotive paint is just that. And NEVER get in a hurry.

Randy
 
vindino said:
I am planning on building an RV-10 and am looking into what it takes to paint your own aircraft. I cant find much on the subject. can anyone recommend a website, thread or book that will help me with the required skills.

thanks
Click to expand...

You might already have looked through the "Painting" sub-forum, but if not, take a look....a wide range of threads, topics - and opinions!!

http://http://www.vansairforce.com/community/forumdisplay.php?s=&f=75&page=1&pp=50&sort=lastpost&order=desc&daysprune=-1
 
Jet-Glo

Got to go along with Randy about Jet-Glo. My -6 was painted with Jet-Glo almost 15 years ago and still looks great.
Back then Jet-Glo was made by Pratt & Lambert but to my knowledge, Sherwin Williams has not changed the formula.
 
painting

Just one reccomendation... Paint the belly before you roll over the canoe. Saves a lot of time later..
FWIW...Chris
 
thanks for the advice guys. ill try to get to the paint area when i get back to my hooch. the computer police got it locked out here! anyone know any good books on the subject?
 
Preparation and cleanliness are key to a good paint job. The prep is the hard part. Painting is easy.

Here are a couple of tips.

The fuselage makes the best wing holder.

and

The best way to paint the bottom surfaces is with a creeper and pressure fed paint gun.

I have sometimes thought of making and step by step tutorial on painting an RV with pictures and stuff but seems to be a whole lot of work. I still have my own RV to build and thats enough work already.:)
 
My 2 cents

I'd never painted anything before I did my RV-6. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it. My advice is to not skimp on the equipment. Buy good stuff and you won't regret it. I started painting mine with a (relatively) cheap gun and compressor, but after dissatisfying results, bought a semi-professional gun, a big 60 gal compressor, and even an air dryer/filter for the painting line. I also bought good paint (SW Jet-Glo). Now that its over, I'm glad I did it that way.

Also, I would disagree with some of the previous posts about how to paint the pieces. I painted everything prior to final assembly. It wasn't hard to make jigs for the wings, fuselage, etc. and have easy access to all sides of them.

Good luck.
 
Paint

I painted my first A/C (Kitfox) and I'm now painting my RV6. My son and I just made a paint booth last week. I'm using Axon Products made here in Greenville, S.C. It's a great product used by the major airlines. Another advantage is the President of the Axon gave me the paint base on the amount my company used. A good paint job is all the the prep.
 
I remember Axon. :mad: I was on a crew that was the first to spray their product outside the lab when they started making paint again. Long story, but I didn't think much of their "future of high solids aviation paint".
 
A little help

I had some experience painting my '72 Toyota after the body shop messed it up. I think the paint was lacquer, and you could "blend" the new paint into the old, by using some compound and a buffing wheel. Can you do this with the new urethanes? I have read several books on painting but they don't touch the subject. I'd like to know, if I screw up a small area, can I fix just that small area, or do I need to start from scratch?

As always, thanks to all for past and present help.
 
clear coats

again thanks for the advice guys. got to the paint forum and read through some of the threads. one thing i dont see is weather guys apply clear coats after the painting. is that common or not?
 
Clear coat adds weight, labor and makes repairs difficult. Clear coat only if you rate "show" more than "go".
 
tomcostanza said:
I had some experience painting my '72 Toyota after the body shop messed it up. I think the paint was lacquer, and you could "blend" the new paint into the old, by using some compound and a buffing wheel. Can you do this with the new urethanes? I have read several books on painting but they don't touch the subject. I'd like to know, if I screw up a small area, can I fix just that small area, or do I need to start from scratch?
Click to expand...


The Sherwin-Williams Genesis 3.5 acrylic polyurethane that I used; does have instructions for repair blending, using two guns and a urethane blending solvent after the coat of new paint; as well as buffing

This paint is a high end automotive paint, that is supposeably along the lines of their aircraft paint. It wasn't cheap either. :D

L.Adamson
 
Painting

I was fortunate to have access to a friend with a body shop, paint booths, $1000 guns, gun cleaning cabinet, mixing station and all necessary supplies. He guided me in the process.

It is a real pain to make the fixtures to hold the pieces but not too bad. From there it is all prep and cleanliness.

I used PPG base with another brand of clear. (Can't remember the name now).

Only use 3M fine line automotive tape for paint lines and to initially tape the canopy paint line. This is stuff is designed for paint and the glue will not react with any of the paints. Also use the proper masking tape for all other areas.

Base/clear process is quite easy but clear is difficult to spray properly. Practice on the bottoms or small pieces first. I used 1.5 gallons of base white. The entire airframe was painted white first. A single quart of red was used and less than a pint each of blue and gold. Clear was about 1.5 gallons.

My friend, who has painting custom cars, boats and trialers for years, said the single stage is definitely heavier than a properly done base/clear system. He said the SS paint is heavy on pigment and is often not sanded or buffed after. We applied 3 coats of clear and a little more on the paint lines. The clear was sanded and then buffed with a three stage process.

Mel is right that dings are tougher to fix with base/clear. That is the risk you take. I certainly built mine to fly and I do.

img1360jc1.jpg
 
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Vinnie! I should have known...

I clearcoated mine, for what its worth. It does add a bunch more work, although not that much weight because clear doesn't contain much solids. Dings will be harder to fix (I don't have many, yet), but I think it will be worth it. One of the main reasons I did the clearcoat was to seal up the trim lines. The joints in the paint are often where chips occur, and they gather dirt as well.

Here's another one to think about: Holly and I filled all the rings around the rivets on the top side of the airplane (Skipped the ones on the bottom). Now THAT is a lot of extra work. Again, now that its over, we're glad we did it. Helps keep the plane clean, especially in the white painted areas. Those rivet rings collect dirt and grease and they are hard to really get cleaned out.

When you get to that point, the bottom line is that you'll trade time for money. You'll save thousands of dollars (assuming a top-notch professional job), but it could add 6 months to your build (it did for me).
 
I had mine done after one year of flying. Definitely it is easier to paint it in pieces (at least the paint booth is much smaller). I ended had it painted out in the open (in September). I got some bugs on the top wing surface and pretty clean the rest of the surfaces. There is no other defects. I brought good equipment and books and pondered which paint to buy. At the end I hired a local auto painter to shoot the paint and took his advise (use locally available supplies). He brought his own gun. A friend with experiences helped me to prep the surface. We used a creeper for the bottom surfaces and hung flap, aileron, and elevator on lines. The outcome may not be professional but satisfied me. If you are interested in doing it this way, here is my log: http://tc1234c.googlepages.com/painting

At the bottom of the page is the material list and costs.
The painter charged me $450 and the friend $1200. It is worth it.
 
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Thanks Ted

tc1234c said:
I had mine done after one year of flying. Definitely it is easier to paint it in pieces (at least the paint booth is much smaller). I ended had it painted out in the open (in September). I got some bugs on the top wing surface and pretty clean the rest of the surfaces. There is no other defects. I brought good equipment and books and pondered which paint to buy. At the end I hired a local auto painter to shoot the paint and took his advise (use locally available supplies). He brought his own gun. A friend with experiences helped me to prep the surface. We used a creeper for the bottom surfaces and hung flap, aileron, and elevator on lines. The outcome may not be professional but satisfied me. If you are interested in doing it this way, here is my log: http://tc1234c.googlepages.com/painting

At the bottom of the page is the material list and costs.
The painter charged me $450 and the friend $1200. It is worth it.
Click to expand...

Ted,
I enjoyed the write-up!

Thanks for sharing,
Mark
 
good words gadget. my jury is out on the clear coat thing but from what ive seen i think i would like to fill in the rivs. one guy put a bunch of coats on trying to fill in the riv gaps and had no luck. sounds like the clear is a looks thing as well as a functionality thing. is it true that you would have to paint a whole section as opposed to just a small area if you were to clear coat?
 
You'll definitely never fill the rivet rings with just paint. We used a 1-part filler that was recommended to us by an experienced painter called Nitro-Stan. This was our process:
1. Paint a coat of primer
2. Use a razor blade to "squeegee" the paint across the rivet.
3. Let it dry - it shrinks a little when drying.
4. Squeegee a second coat (it always needed at least 2 coats)
5. Sand smooth
6. Paint another layer of primer. (you can't see the defects in your fill job unless its all painted)
7. Fix defects by filling again, sand smooth again.
8. End of fix/sand/paint cycle should be a smooth, defect-free surface that is all painted with primer. The filler was a different color than the primer, so I'd always have to paint primer over the top of fill jobs to make sure there was no variation - it shows through the topcoats.

See? Lots of work. If you're thinking about that, you can always just try it on the empennage when you paint that and decide if its worth it. For 90% of builders, its not worth the time, but Holly insisted...

Here's the thing with painting a whole section. Let's say you paint 1/2 of the top of your wing with clearcoat and let that dry, then come back later and paint the other 1/2. The second paint session will overspray a little onto the first area. That overspray will not dry nice and clear and shiny - it will make the other section look dull. That is very fixable, however, with a little wet-sanding and polish work. If you want to avoid the polishing work, you paint the whole section at once so overspray is not an issue. That is what I did for most of mine.

Cheers,
 
N number

Vindino,

I contacted a local guy who runs a side business on vinyl graphics to cut the numbers. He charged $50 for both side (12" letter Helvatica Italic font). The benefit of buying locally is the ability to choose exactly what I want.
 
so gadget, is the nitro-stan the primer? did you prime the whole top of the AC and then squeege the rivits or did you just spray over the rivit lines and then squeege and sand?
 
Rivet Proseal

I know that proseal is not very enjoyed but somewhere or someone used it on every rivet on their plane. Not sure if it was RV or not. They didn't use it to cover the rivet but to "seal" the ring around the rivet. Seems to me that they used a small thin sqeege (sp?) and just filled the ring and wiped the proseal off with some type of solvent. You could still see the rivet. Am I crazy? I have never used proseal other than to do my rudder on the 7. Has anyone ever heard of this or any other procedure like it?
 
Avoid Nitro Stan

JordanGrant said:
You'll definitely never fill the rivet rings with just paint. We used a 1-part filler that was recommended to us by an experienced painter called Nitro-Stan. This was our process:
,
Click to expand...

I certainly don't want to shoot down your process but Nitro Stan WILL react to many paints and solvents. Simply spread some on a piece of metal and let cure. Then test what will remove it. Lacquer thinner, Acetone and even alcohol will soften and remove it.

Anything used to fill should be a catalyzed two part filler. Rage and Evercoat 416 are excellent products.
 
If you use too much Nitro-Stan, it may never fully dry. This will lead to it coming out of the paint. Nitro_Stan is only good for the smallest of little pinholes.
 
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