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Fiberglass: newbie tips, supplies, and pre-paint prep

K

kirkbauer

Active Member
I plan to hire professional painters when I'm done with my RV-10 (e.g. Ekove). I'm about to reach the end of my empennage kit which involves installing the fiberglass fairings. I have no experience working with fiberglass, nor any of the necessary supplies. I also know that I have a lot of fiberglass work ahead of me on the RV-10.

1) Any newbie advice?
2) Recommended tools/supplies?
3) On these fairings, how "done" do they need to be? In other words, how much finishing do the painters typically do on the empennage fairings? Is there anything they definitely do (or don't) want builders to do?
 
kirkbauer said:
I plan to hire professional painters when I'm done with my RV-10 (e.g. Ekove). I'm about to reach the end of my empennage kit which involves installing the fiberglass fairings. I have no experience working with fiberglass, nor any of the necessary supplies. I also know that I have a lot of fiberglass work ahead of me on the RV-10.

1) Any newbie advice?
2) Recommended tools/supplies?
3) On these fairings, how "done" do they need to be? In other words, how much finishing do the painters typically do on the empennage fairings? Is there anything they definitely do (or don't) want builders to do?
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When you say Ekove for paint did you really mean EV0KE Gadsden Alabama? They painted my plane and they will do most all of your fiber glass work. I believe part of their paint quote has 120 hours just dedicated to fiber glass.
Johnathon does first class work. You won’t find a better paint job anywhere. Only downside is the waitlist. He probably has 150 airplanes in queue.
 
bonefishdave said:
When you say Ekove for paint did you really mean EV0KE Gadsden Alabama? They painted my plane and they will do most all of your fiber glass work. I believe part of their paint quote has 120 hours just dedicated to fiber glass.
Johnathon does first class work. You won’t find a better paint job anywhere. Only downside is the waitlist. He probably has 150 airplanes in queue.
Click to expand...
Yes! Good news (or bad news?) is that I have a long road ahead of me!

So how much (or little) should I do on the fiberglass tips for the elevators, HS, and rudder? Just cut and rivet on?
 
We had to modify our elevator tips (one of them actually) quite a bit. The molding wasn't symmetrical top to bottom so the trailing edge would not have lined up.
 
georgemohr said:
Take the EAA Sportair workshop on fiberglass. Well worth your time!
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That's a great recommendation -- perhaps I should try to do that at Oshkosh this year.

Again, perhaps a really dumb question, but I'm itching to finish the empennage and transfer it to my hangar, so I'd like to mostly finish it well before I would be able to attend a workshop. It looks like I can go ahead and rivet all of the empennage items (VS, Rudder, HS, elevators) and worry about extra finishing later. Will I be hurting myself in the future if I go ahead and rivet now (before taking said workshop)?
 
You won't want to rivet the tips on until you get them fitting good. There's no point really, you'll just have to drill them out.
 
kirkbauer said:
I plan to hire professional painters when I'm done with my RV-10 (e.g. Ekove). I'm about to reach the end of my empennage kit which involves installing the fiberglass fairings. I have no experience working with fiberglass, nor any of the necessary supplies. I also know that I have a lot of fiberglass work ahead of me on the RV-10.

1) Any newbie advice?
2) Recommended tools/supplies?
3) On these fairings, how "done" do they need to be? In other words, how much finishing do the painters typically do on the empennage fairings? Is there anything they definitely do (or don't) want builders to do?
Click to expand...
This should get you started:

 
Here's some photos of the kind of work we had to do on these items. Might give you an idea of what's coming.

-G


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kirkbauer said:
Yes! Good news (or bad news?) is that I have a long road ahead of me!

So how much (or little) should I do on the fiberglass tips for the elevators, HS, and rudder? Just cut and rivet on?
Click to expand...
I did no finishing work to any of my fiberglass. Tips riveted on, intersection fairings attached and rough. when I saw Johnathon at sun n fun I showed him pictures of all my rough glass work and asked him what I needed to do. and it was very rough. His response. Don’t do a thing. Whatever you do we will re do it any how.
bottom line, I’m glad I didn’t do anything but rough attached , and when it came back from paint, the plane is show quality. He is an artist and you will be totally happy beyond expectation when you get the plane back. Worth every penny he charges.
 
Based on the work I've seen, I have no doubt that Evoke will do a nice job with rough glass. That said, readers should not assume it's true of all paint shops. I've seen nice paint on really poor glass. Bottom line is fine finishing takes time, and time costs money. The low bidder can't afford to do it all for you.

Kirk, for now, decide if you want your tips blended (no visible seam) or not. Either is acceptable. And take your time, on everything. That "itching to..." thing can result in unhappiness later.

Tip Glass.jpg
 
erich weaver said:
This should get you started:

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Ha. I was gonna comment “Build a Long-EZ in your spare time, that’ll teach ya a lot”. Excellent little article. I would add, be a little careful with the VOC’s and bare skin contact with the materials. Rapid onset allergies have been documented in the extended exposures of those materials. -dl
 
I suggest defering wing and tail fiberglass until later. You will get plenty of glass practice on the cabin top, doors and cowl.

The first step is to find an RV-10 builder working glass and offer your time. Very cheap education.

Carl
 
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