N

N62XS

Well Known Member
Other than price, would it be advisable to powder coat the interior of a QB fuse. Would primer be necessary?
 
How?

You gonnal put the whole airplane in the oven? :eek:
Or are you talking about just some of the components....seatbacks, baggage panels and the like?
 
Whole plane prior to installing top skins.

Whole plane prior to installing top skins.
 
IMO ... I don't think it will last ... power coat doesn't like to flex!

IMO it would crack and flake off long before you fly it.
 
Most powder coats require curing temps around 400 degrees. I don't think this would be good for the metal. I'd expect some warping.
 
powder coating flexing

I had the tail spring powder coated on my -6 and it is holding up fine.....
and it flexes alot....:)
Bob Martin
 
Powder coated fuselage

Wow! I never thought I would hear the words "powder coat" and "fuselage" in the same sentence!

Several issues to consider:

1. A quick review of my Aircraft Sheet Metal reference reveals that heat treatment temperatures are as low as 250 degress F. Placing your fuselage in a large autoclave or oven would alter the tensile strength of the whole dingus in unpredictable ways. Recall that Van's has specific alloy and tensile strength requirements for each piece of the fuselage. Baking the fuse could result in a very dangerous concoction. You may find that your nice, slide-rule selected and qualified, T6 alloy is now T? while your T3 is now mush. What would the finale temper of your rivets be? Remember, they are work hardened on installation to achieve a specific strength.

2. I haven't done any experiments but by observation, the thickness of powder coating is substantially greater than primer. I think it would add a butt-load of weight with a greater percentage of it aft, thus aggravate your future CG range.

3. I bet it would cost a quite a few pennies more than primer.

Jekyll
 
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I totally agree with Jekyll. You definately DO NOT want to do that! You could anneal the aluminum back into a much softer state. Just to give you an example several years ago someone got the idea to powder coat aluminum scuba tanks. Tanks that once were safely pressurized to 3000 psi exploded durring refilling due to the metal no longer having the same properties after being baked. Several people were severly injured and shops destroyed. Find a fellow builder or the local FBO and ask to see some 2024-O aluminum sometime. This is soft aluminum that hasn't been heat treated.
 
True, powdercoat is heavier then spraypaint so we only powdercoated parts that are subject to wear, like the seatbacks, the rollbar, some interior panels that can be reached by zippers or feet and also parts like the tailwheel spring. It looks very good and is tough (and flexible) as it can be. For weight reasons we sticked to alodine or primer on non-visible parts and to spraypaint in a matched colour for interior parts that were visible but could not be removed. You can see some of the results here: http://websites.expercraft.com/PHVII/index.php?q=log_entry&log_id=8748
 
Hard Knox said:
Other than price, would it be advisable to powder coat the interior of a QB fuse. Would primer be necessary?
Click to expand...

Firstly aluminium surfaces require an appropriate degrease and pretreatment of the aluminium prior to application of the powdercoat. Are you going to dip the entire plane in the pretreatment tanks.

Secondly the QB is already primed so even if you could do #1 it wouldn't work.

Thirdly, the powdercoat would not be protecting the surfaces that are the most prone to corrosion (between all the mating surfaces) because they are already rivetted together.
 
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