We did a little experiment here last week. We have had Dan Mauer here painting an RV8. Dan is a professional, has been painting airplanes for over 25 years. We decided to see what the paint job might weigh.
Our test was only partial, but the results are informative. We weighed the right wing all by itself before and after. No flap, aileron or wing tip. Dan then went through the entire process, acid etch, alodine, primer, extremely minor filling, and a thorough color coat of polyurethane.
We used a digital scale accurate to one tenth of a pound. After subtracting the before and after weights, the wing gained 1.6 pounds.
We estimate the entire airplane paint job to be 10 pounds.
Of course doing the same process for all the airplane pieces would be more accurate, but by the time we thought of it those had already been painted.
Our test was only partial, but the results are informative. We weighed the right wing all by itself before and after. No flap, aileron or wing tip. Dan then went through the entire process, acid etch, alodine, primer, extremely minor filling, and a thorough color coat of polyurethane.
We used a digital scale accurate to one tenth of a pound. After subtracting the before and after weights, the wing gained 1.6 pounds.
We estimate the entire airplane paint job to be 10 pounds.
Of course doing the same process for all the airplane pieces would be more accurate, but by the time we thought of it those had already been painted.
