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sam.marlow

Joined: 25 Feb 2006
Posts: 99

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 7:47 pm Post subject: Painting

For those of you that have finishd building an RV of any type, can you shed some light on weather to assemble fully before or after painting?

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carl.froehlich(at)cox.net
Guest

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 4:46 am Post subject: Painting

Recommend flying before painting.  You will be amazed at the "little

changes" you will want to do the first year - most of which will mar your

nice paint job.



Assuming you will do the painting, recommend removing the wings to paint.

The gain in ease far outweighs the 3-4 of hours of work to pull the wings.



Carl Froehlich

RV-8A (250 hours)

RV-10 (tail)



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zackrv8

Joined: 14 Jan 2006
Posts: 133

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 10:20 am Post subject: Re: Painting

 	  sam.marlow wrote: 	
		  For those of you that have finishd building an RV of any type, can you shed some light on weather to assemble fully before or after painting? 	




I have to disagree with Carl.  I would certainly paint the whole plane before flying.  Here's my reason's...



  First, if you paint it yourself or have someone else paint, it will be easier with the wings off.  I highly recommend painting your wings with the wings off.  You mount them vertically you can work on both sides at once.  Also, bugs and dirt won't collect as easily as if the wings were horizontal.  Then, if using a 2 stage paint process, it makes sanding the clearcoat easier.



  Second, if you fly your plane and then decide to paint it, you will be without a plane for awhile.  This will drive you crazy!  All your buds flying but not you!  You could go into "RV withdraw" symtoms.  



  Third, the only thing I noticed on my RV8 was paint chipping where the cowl meets the fuselage.  I had too small a clearance and because of airloads and the hingepin wearing, that nice tight gap I had closed up and chipped the paint.  



  Just keep the distance from the cowl to the fuselage about the thickness of a hacksaw blade and you should be fine.  As the hingepins wear, the gap will be enough not to chip your paint.



  I can't see any other problems that would preclude you from painting before flying.  Maybe Carl could elaborate more.



Zack

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_________________
RV8 #80125
RV10 # 40512

carl.froehlich(at)cox.net
Guest

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 11:50 am Post subject: Painting

I fully agree with Zack that you paint with the wings and the empennage

removed.



For my RV-8A, there were advantages to wait on painting until after flying

and working out the bugs.  Here are a few things that I changed between

flying and painting:



1.  Small weeping rivet on the one gas tank.  Not enough to drip, but enough

to really irritate you as it would leave a green streak on the skin.  Easy

to fix when taking the wing off for painting.  Yes - I did a leak check when

building but this problem did not present itself.

2.  Resetting the angle of incident on the horizontal stabilizer.  I ended

up adding a .040 shim under the forward stabilizer spar as I was getting too

much down force.  The shim turned out to be just the right size, but it was

enough that the empennage fairing did not fit so it had to be redone.

3.  Rigging (and re-rigging).  Many small changes done to dial the plane in.

One required replacing the one aileron mounting bracket.  Although not

required, I chose to glass in the wing tip, aileron, flap, rudder and

elevator end ribs.  Doing this after all the rigging adjustments and trials,

I had confidence that I would not have to redo this work after painting.

4.  Replacing the static air ports.  I started out with a combination heated

pitot tube (both static and dynamic ports in the tube).  This arrangement

yielded a 200' altitude error, and indicated speed dropping to zero at very

high angles of attack.

5.  One major redo on the main gear wheel pants mounting - required reglass

work.

6.  One major redo on the main gear leg fairings - required reglass work.



I flew the plane for two years before painting.  I did however paint all

fiberglass pieces with PPG Concept single stage paint (not base coat/clear

coat) so that the plane looked halfway decent.  This was a simple, "one coat

of blue in the garage" job but it looked fine.



Zack is absolutely right however that you will be tempted never to paint it

after flying.  These planes are way fun!



Carl



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randy(at)romeolima.com
Guest

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 12:52 pm Post subject: Painting

 	  Quote: 	
		   sam.marlow wrote:

> For those of you that have finishd building an RV of any type, can you 

> shed some light on weather to assemble fully before or after painting?

 I have to disagree with Carl.  I would certainly paint the whole plane 

 before flying.  Here's my reason's...

  First, if you paint it yourself or have someone else paint, it will be 

 easier with the wings off.  I highly recommend painting your wings with 

 the wings off.  You mount them vertically you can work on both sides at 

 once.  Also, bugs and dirt won't collect as easily as if the wings were 

 horizontal.  Then, if using a 2 stage paint process, it makes sanding the 

 clearcoat easier.

  Second, if you fly your plane and then decide to paint it, you will be 

 without a plane for awhile.  This will drive you crazy!  All your buds 

 flying but not you!  You could go into "RV withdraw" symtoms.

  Third, the only thing I noticed on my RV8 was paint chipping where the 

 cowl meets the fuselage.  I had too small a clearance and because of 

 airloads and the hingepin wearing, that nice tight gap I had closed up and 

 chipped the paint.

  Just keep the distance from the cowl to the fuselage about the thickness 

 of a hacksaw blade and you should be fine.  As the hingepins wear, the gap 

 will be enough not to chip your paint.

  I can't see any other problems that would preclude you from painting 

 before flying.  Maybe Carl could elaborate more.

 Zack

I'm with Zack on all counts and plan to paint first in parts on my current 

project (RV-3B) just like I did on my RV-8. Pay attention to what he says 

about end clearance where fiberglass parts but up against something else. 

Starting with 1/8" clearnace is a good rule of thumb because primer and 

paint will decrease the final gap.

Randy Lervold

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sam.marlow

Joined: 25 Feb 2006
Posts: 99

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 12:39 pm Post subject: Painting

Can the wing tips be installed before rigging the controls? How do you know where to position the fiberglass tip faring if the wings have never been installed, along with the ailerons and flaps? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for painting first, but have concerns about having to redo the fiberglass tips once installed on the airplane. 

---- zackrv8 <zackrv8(at)verizon.net> wrote: 

 	  Quote: 	
		   

 

 

 sam.marlow wrote:

 > For those of you that have finishd building an RV of any type, can you shed some light on weather to assemble fully before or after painting?

 

 

 I have to disagree with Carl.  I would certainly paint the whole plane before flying.  Here's my reason's...

 

   First, if you paint it yourself or have someone else paint, it will be easier with the wings off.  I highly recommend painting your wings with the wings off.  You mount them vertically you can work on both sides at once.  Also, bugs and dirt won't collect as easily as if the wings were horizontal.  Then, if using a 2 stage paint process, it makes sanding the clearcoat easier.

 

   Second, if you fly your plane and then decide to paint it, you will be without a plane for awhile.  This will drive you crazy!  All your buds flying but not you!  You could go into "RV withdraw" symtoms.  

 

   Third, the only thing I noticed on my RV8 was paint chipping where the cowl meets the fuselage.  I had too small a clearance and because of airloads and the hingepin wearing, that nice tight gap I had closed up and chipped the paint.  

 

   Just keep the distance from the cowl to the fuselage about the thickness of a hacksaw blade and you should be fine.  As the hingepins wear, the gap will be enough not to chip your paint.

 

   I can't see any other problems that would preclude you from painting before flying.  Maybe Carl could elaborate more.

 

 Zack

 

 --------

 RV8 #80125 

 RV10 # 40512

 

 

 

 

 Read this topic online here:

 

 http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=15148#15148

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zackrv8

Joined: 14 Jan 2006
Posts: 133

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 4:48 pm Post subject: Re: Painting

[quote="sam.marlow"]Can the wing tips be installed before rigging the controls? How do you know where to position the fiberglass tip faring if the wings have never been installed, along with the ailerons and flaps? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for painting first, but have concerns about having to redo the fiberglass tips once installed on the airplane. 

---- zackrv8 <zackrv8(at)verizon.net> wrote: 

[quote] 

Sam,



  The wingtip installation will easier with the wings are off the plane.  Here's the reason....



  By installing the wingtips when the wings are off makes the installation easier.  You will be cussing enough working with fiberglass so why not make it easier?  You can work on both sides of the wing tip easy.  Plus, by mounting the wing vertically, the wingtip uses gravity to nest/hold it in positon and the sides won't sag.



  Here's what I did.  Have your wings in the cradle or some sort of jig mounted vertically, trailing edge sticking up.  Now mount your flaps and ailerons and put them in the neutral position as called for in the plans.  Now mount your wingtips.  Align the trailing edge of the wingtips with the trailing edges of the flaps/ailerons.  I used a very long straight edge and clamped it on my flaps/ailerons trailng edges and aligned the tips like that.  There.  Your done.  No need to re-rig anything.  Just hook up your control tubes after the wings are mounted.  Done.



  You might want to consider having removable wingtips.  Ya never know what you want to put in there.  



Work smarter, not harder.



Zack

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_________________
RV8 #80125
RV10 # 40512

sam.marlow

Joined: 25 Feb 2006
Posts: 99

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 4:54 pm Post subject: Painting

Thanks, good info, clears up a lot of questions!

---- zackrv8 <zackrv8(at)verizon.net> wrote: 

[quote] 

 

 [quote="sam.marlow"]Can the wing tips be installed before rigging the controls? How do you know where to position the fiberglass tip faring if the wings have never been installed, along with the ailerons and flaps? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for painting first, but have concerns about having to redo the fiberglass tips once installed on the airplane. 

 ---- zackrv8  wrote: 

  	  Quote: 	
		   

 

 

 Sam,

 

   The wingtip installation will easier with the wings are off the plane.  Here's the reason....

 

   By installing the wingtips when the wings are off makes the installation easier.  You will be cussing enough working with fiberglass so why not make it easier?  You can work on both sides of the wing tip easy.  Plus, by mounting the wing vertically, the wingtip uses gravity to nest/hold it in positon and the sides won't sag.

 

   Here's what I did.  Have your wings in the cradle or some sort of jig mounted vertically, trailing edge sticking up.  Now mount your flaps and ailerons and put them in the neutral position as called for in the plans.  Now mount your wingtips.  Align the trailing edge of the wingtips with the trailing edges of the flaps/ailerons.  I used a very long straight edge and clamped it on my flaps/ailerons trailng edges and aligned the tips like that.  There.  Your done.  No need to re-rig anything.  Just hook up your control tubes after the wings are mounted.  Done.

 

   You might want to consider having removable wingtips.  Ya never know what you want to put in there.  

 

 Work smarter, not harder.

 

 Zack

 

 --------

 RV8 #80125 

 RV10 # 40512

 

 

 

 

 Read this topic online here:

 

 http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=18220#18220

- The Matronics RV10-List Email Forum -

Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:

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