May 05, 2024     Tailwheel assembly; Canopy skirt interior; Baggage door interior - (4.2 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. Reassembled the newly-painted tailwheel assembly.
2. Inspected the progress on the fuselage and consulted with my painter about numerous little issues.
3. Brought home the canopy, lower cowl, flaps, some of the wing root fairings, and the baggage door.
4. Upon inspecting the interior of the canopy skirt, I found that a bunch of wet-sanded primer had run down between the canopy and skirt, staining the interior of the skirt. I spent a lot of time attempting to clean it off with rags and water, and managed to get about 90% of it off. However, the runs were still visible, so I masked off the affected areas and shot a second coat of truck-bed liner. There is still a large area of the primer at the aft end of the canopy, between the skirt and the canopy glass. This is impossible to get to, so I'm weighing my option about how to proceed. I will probably end up painting the inside of the canopy glass in this area to hide the stain.
5. Prepped and painted the inside of the baggage door, using the same Ford Gray enamel I used on the rest of the interior.

  May 01, 2024     Paint update - (1.1 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

A lot of progress has been made since my last visit. The pictures tell most of the story. I did spend some time positioning the data-block masks on the forward fuselage. I also inspected the cowls and th newly-painted anti-glare panel on the top of the forward fuselage and cowl. The lines look really good! (This area will be sprayed with a low-gloss clear instead of the higher-gloss clear on the rest of the airplane.) My painter is starting to work on the belly of the airplane, connecting the color patches in a nice random way -- rather than just "tiger-striping" the colors straight across the bottom of the fuselage.

  Apr 27, 2024     Paint update; Tailwheel prep - (0.8 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. I visited the paint shop and laid my eyes on the new checkerboard for the first time. It looks awesome!

2. My painter gave me the tailwheel assembly to take apart for painting. I took it home and did that, then scuffed and cleaned all the surfaces to be painted and returned them to him.

  Apr 26, 2024     Insignia layout; Skin surface improvement - (3.6 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. More painting has been done, as the cammo scheme comes together. My painter and I spent a bit of time discussing details about how the color zones will meet on the bottom of the airplane.
2, The star & bar insignia has been applied, and we picked the color for it and numerous other insignias.
3. I removed the masking paper from the baggage door opening, placed the door in position, and laid down a tape line on it, to match the previously-established edge line for the anti-glare section of the paint. The door will be painted separately, in the paint booth.
4. I spent a couple of hours laying out insignia masks such as the Aircraft Data Block, Service Access, Canopy Release, Canopy Release Other Side, Ground Here, and couple of others. Positioning the Data Block insignia was a little tricky, because it sits just below a fuselage seam line that is NOT at all level. I had to resist the urge to make this insignia line up with this seam.
5. Finally, I discovered a couple of minor, previously-unseen "rivet smilies" on the left forward skin, just aft of the firewall. I also saw some irregularities at the forward edge of the NACA air scoop nearby. I mixed up some Dolphin Glaze and applied it to the problem areas, then let it cure and sanded it all smooth. (This is the beauty of a basecoat/clearcoat paint system--you can make all kinds of changes and improvements without an consequences before the clear coat goes on.)

  Apr 25, 2024     Anti-glare; Canopy removal - (3.35 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. My painter is continuing to paint the cammo scheme. I note that the tail star and checkerboard are done, and the nose numbers are painted but not totally unmasked.
2. We established a level reference for all the aircraft insignia. It's essentially the canopy sill and the aft fuselage skin seam. With this critical determination, I located and taped on the "star & bar" insignia masks to each side.
3. My fiend Jim and I laid out the straight lines for the antiglare panel on the top forward skin. I should put "straight lines" in quotes, because on a surface that curves in multiple directions, it's pretty tricky to get a pleasingly straight edge. Luckily, Jim is ridiculously good at this particular artistic pursuit. The first line took a while as we made tiny adjustments here and there, in very non-intuitive ways. The second line went surprisingly fast. I think we arrived at a good-looking solution.
4. Finally, we removed the canopy, in preparation for my painter completing the canmo color transitions underneath the canopy skirt edge.

  Apr 20, 2024     Canopy and cowl on; Tail stars and checkerboards complete - (2.1 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. I checked out the latest paint progress. The red stars on the tail are done (minus pulling the masks off their outline edges, and the checkerboards are done (again, minus removing the masks).

2. My painter and I put the canopy on the airplane, after cutting away just enough of the masking plastic and tape to do it. We closed it but did not attach the canopy angle to lock it. This should be OK for what he wants to accomplish.

3. Next, we put the upper cowl on the airplane, so he can start on the nose numbers. This was a bit of a job, because we had to carefully cut away some of the masking tape and plastic, sand a bit of the primer from the Skybolt holes with a Dremel drum, and then get the already-tight cowl to fit. After some struggle, we decided I needed to cut away a fair amount of the forward side baffle material to get a good fit. After that, the cowl definitely fit a lot better. Photo 3 shows that some blood was shed in the effort today -- I bled all over my painter's nice lower cowl primer. Yeesh, no respect at all!

  Apr 19, 2024     Tail stars and checkerboards - (0.1 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

I sneaked into the paint shop to have a quick look at today's progress. The red part of the tail stars have been painted, along with the yellow boxes on the checkerboard. I was happy to see the shade of yellow I picked out the other day. It's perfect.

My painter is doing things in a very clever order. If I'd been painting this airplane, I would have made the mistake of painting the cammo, then adding the various insignias over the top. However, since the insignias have sharp, masked edges, there would have been NO room for error in taping or removing the masking tape later, since some of the sharp edges would have been right over one of the fuzzed edges of the cammo. You just can't fix an edge there.

So instead he's painting the sharp-edged insignias, then carefully masking them off and painting the cammo patterns. Genius.

Once the cammo is done, we'll start laying out the smaller masks such as the serial number and N-number, the data boxes, access panel labels, servicing instructions, and other elements.

  Apr 18, 2024     Tail star and nose number placement; White outlines - (3 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. My painter had painted the white basecoat outline for the tail stars, so he had me come over and we hashed out the exact location for the stars, checkerboards, and the "nose number" on the lower cowl. We had a long discussion about how to determine "level," where the airplane's visual longitudinal axis is, and how we were going to paint the various insignias on the airplane.

Notes to anyone who's going to paint a Vans RV: Fuselage skins aren't always "level." Skins aren't always 90 degrees at the corners, You can't place graphics in a way that simply matches the nearby skin line -- you have to line them up with a common reference (whatever that may be) and EVERYTHING has to match that, or it will probably look funny.

We made a lot of conceptual progress on how we'll paint all the details.

2. I also reordered a couple of paint masks from Aerographics: The USAF "stars and bars" are a bit too big, so I'm downsizing them to 80% scale. Also, the nose number masks are currently two-part (One for the inner color and one for the and outlines) but this would make them very hard to use because you can't see through the masks and therefore can't easily line them up properly. The new ones I ordered will be single masks.

3. We installed the lower cowl so we could verify the position of the numbers and also check the level-line of the seam between the cowls. As I thought, it is exactly parallel with the canopy sill and the fuselage skin seam -- which are the de facto "visual level" lines on the airplane, whether or not they are parallel to the actual longitudinal axis or not.

  Apr 16, 2024     Getting more paint; Wings put in position - (2.8 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. My painter needed more black and white paint, plus the yellow for the tail checkerboard, so I ran down to the Advance Auto Parts paint department and bought some more very expensive custom-mixed PPG Delfleet paint. The black and white were pretty easy colors to pick, but the yellow took a while to choose. I was looking for something that wasn't too yellow (lemon) or too orange (pumpkin) but someplace in between, and it's easy to lose one's way in the color sample books. There are too many choices. I finally picked one, and we're moving on!

2. The painter moved the fuselage out of his paint booth into his main bay, and he asked if I could come over and we'd place the wings in position for a few days. My fiends Jim and Jim helped with the job. We slid the spars in, and supported the wings with padded sawhorses. This arrangement ought to be okay as long as nobody moves the airplane. It was pretty cool seeing the painted wings on the airplane for the first time!

  Apr 15, 2024     Wing moving day; HS and elevator; Windshield fairing filler - (1 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. The main order of business today was to move the two previously-painted wings to the paint shop so my painter can use them as a reference for where the colors will continue onto the fuselage. My friends Jim and Jim helped me get the wings onto my trailer, and we drove them s-l-o-w-l-y down the taxiway, one at a time. We carried them in and put them on his wing rack.

2. All the filling and sanding is now done on the horizontal stab and elevator tips, and they've been primed. They look great -- the gaps are straight and the outboard edges match.

3. The painter also finished filling and sanding the windshield fairing. It is so good I can't believe it. He took my 100% effort and added another 10% to it.

  Apr 13, 2024     HS/Elevator and Windshield Fairing finish prep - (0.1 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

I checked in on the progress in the paint booth. My painter had primed the HS and elevator caps I worked on yesterday, then he applied a bit more Dolphin Glaze filler in several locations on the caps, the windshield fairing, and the top forward fuselage skin (boot cowl). Everything is looking really nice. He is definitely tuned in to what we want to accomplish with this airplane!

  Apr 11, 2024     HS cap re-profiling - (3.5 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. Sanded a new profile for the HS caps so they are the same as the elevator caps, and also straightened the gaps between them. I was pleased to find that the extra work I'd done yesterday to eliminate air voids worked very well. There were only a few surface divots I'd have to address. I headed back home to get some two-part lightweight filler -- the stuff I've always used.

2. My panter saw me preparing to use "my" filler, and that's when something magical happened -- he introduced me to Dolphin Glaze finishing filler. I swear, if I had known about this product eight month ago, I might be flying my airplane right now. It is FAR superior to everything I've been using so far -- it's super self-leveling, sets up to rock-hard in about 10 minutes, is easy to wet-sand, and feathers like a dream. I feel like building another airplane just to use this stuff some more.

The bottom line is, my repair job on the HS caps turned into an easy day-and-a-half job, and the end results look fantastic. Thanks for the tip, Jim!

(There are still a couple of minor nicks, which he's going to address after a shot of primer tomorrow.)

  Apr 10, 2024     Paint prep; HS cap re-profiling - (2.1 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

Paint prep continues:

1. The fuselage has been primed, and the elevators and rudder have received their base coat of paint.

2. My painter continues to perfect my windshield fairing. It's looking great.

3. Once my painter had hung the elevators on the airplane, he realized he wasn't as happy with the counterweight gaps as he'd like, so he called me over to discuss them. He pointed out some inconsistencies in the gap widths, and I concurred. It occurred to me that I had never actually hung the surfaces back on the airplane after I'd filled the elevator caps, so I'd just missed it. That's what I get for rushing. More alarmingly, I decided I didn't like how the outboard ends pf the elevators and HS lined up. When I built everything, I'd made measurements to get the alignment correct, but they clearly weren't quite right. I put together a mobile "fiberglass surgery kit" and got to work. I scuffed the HS caps, then mixed up a batch of thick flox/micro/cabosil and spread it on the caps. Then I spent some time tapping it firmly in place as it cured, attempting to remove as many voids as possible. Since time is of the essence here, I added way more than I knew I'd need, because I didn't want to go back and add more tomorrow. As it is, this looks like it could be a three or four day project, minimum.

  Apr 09, 2024     Fuselage paint prep - (0.2 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

Updates since my last visit:

--The fuselage is now in the paint booth, in preparation for primer application.
--Additional masking has been added to various locations on the fuselage and landing gear.
--The tail stinger has been stripped.
--Spot filler was added and sanded on the windshield fairing.

Once the first coat of primer is applied, we'll be able to assess what additional sanding and detail work will be needed on the windshield fairing.

My painter said he needed an additional 2 quarts of primer and 1 quart of catalyst, so I drove to the auto parts store and bought it. PPG products have gotten incredibly expensive -- the one-quart can I'm holding in the photo was $123!

  Apr 05, 2024     Fuselage paint prep - (0.1 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

Made a visit to the paint shop to check on things. The fuselage has been completely DA'ed (sanded), and my painter has spent some time perfecting the windshield fairing and some of the boot cowl skin rivets.

In the next few days, the fuselage will be ready to roll into the paint booth for the primer and base coat.

  Mar 27, 2024     Cowl, wheel pants, and control surface prep - (0.1 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

Checked in with my painter, who is making good progress on the prep work on the cowlings, gear leg fairings, wheel pants, rudder and elevators. I'm delighted with the lack of pinholes in everything, especially the cowlings!

  Mar 20, 2024     Edge work; Windshield fairing work; Cowling filler - (0.4 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

My own work today was limited to improving a tiny area of the right side of the windshield fairing where the canopy skirt slides underneath. I got it looking exactly like the other one, so I guess that's good.

I met with my painter to discuss the issue on the left side of the fairing. He basically said, "No problem. I'll take care of it." In fact, he identified about 10 small areas on the fairing that he's going to address. I've noticed that his shop is a lot dimmer than mine, and I'm astonished at how many more irregularities you can see in a surface when it's not flooded with direct light. That's a nice little detail I'm going to file away...

My cowls are making progress, with fewer pinholes every time I see them.

  Mar 19, 2024     Paint prep - (0.8 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. I'd noticed that the curve of the windshield fairing wasn't consistent on the left side -- there was a bit of an abrupt transition in one spot. So yesterday I applied a smear of filler on that spot, to see if I couldn't sand a smoother curve there. Normally, this filler fully cures in 2 hours or so. Imagine my surprise when I arrived at the paint shop today and found that not only was it not cured, but I could peel it off with my thumbnail. This left a big ragged divot in my carefully sanded windshield fairing. I sanded the edges smooth and decided to let my painter attend to fixing this abomination. We are going to meet tomorrow to assess how to proceed. Argh.

2. Meanwhile, my painter had masked off the back end of the tail section, so I inspected the masking lines to make sure I liked them.

  Mar 18, 2024     Masking & painting prep - (1.7 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

Made another trip to the paint booth to get some miscellaneous tasks done.

1. Checked out the cowl progress. The upper cowl is 98% done, with just a couple areas of "weave pinholes" still remaining.
2, The lower cowl has had one coat of primer filler applied, but it still has a way to go. Lots of pinholes.
3. On the advice of my painter, I drilled a 5/32" hole in the bottom aft part of the rudder bottom cap as a water drain.
4. Spent some time re-profiling some small areas on the windshield fairing. More tomorrow.
5. Added a smoothed layer of silicone caulk to the tip rib of the VS, over the screen I installed yesterday.
6. Improved the taping and masking on the canopy, which is essentially ready for primer and basecoat.

  Mar 17, 2024     Paint masking - (2.1 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

I spent a couple of hours in the paint shop today, improving the fine-line masking along all four cockpit edges. I also added tape to some of the wing root wires, various fuselage openings, and the engine mask. Then I trimmed some of the closed-cell foam used to fill the spar slot and aileron pushrod slot.

Finally, I began masking the center canopy rail well, which is kind of a tricky area.

I think I've got these areas looking satisfactory for my liking!

  Mar 16, 2024     Paint prep update - (.1 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

I went over to my painter's place to check on things. Here's the latest progress:

1. Left elevator has been DA'd.
2. Rivets lines on fuselage have been scuffed.
3. VS cap has been removed.

  Mar 14, 2024     Masking, filling, and other paint prep - (.5 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

Today, I took the final items over to my painter -- The rudder, elevators, and wing root fairings.

While I was there, I checked on his progress. New projects underway are:

1. Canopy skirt has been DA'd (dual-action power-sanded) and is ready for primer.
2. Belly of the fuselage has been DA'd.
3. Cockpit totally masked.
4. All wing root wiring, fixtures, and holes have been masked and/or plugged.
5. Pedal access port has been masked.
6. Forward baggage compartment has been masked.
7. Filling and priming continue on the upper cowl and wheel pants. 99% of the pinholes have been eliminated, and there's one more coat of primer/filler to go.

Everything's looking great. We discussed the line of rivets along the bottom edge of the boot cowl, which he thinks will benefit from a skim coat of filler and some sanding. He'll be taking care of that shortly.

He also reiterated his commitment to help me "win an award" with this airplane, for whatever that's worth. I'm really impressed with the level of expertise he's gained over the past ten years, and I'm happy he's doing this project. Even if it never wins an award, I think it will be a nice airplane, and that's all that matters.

  Mar 12, 2024     Pinhole filling (wheel pants, cowl); Masking       Category: Paint / Decals

I went over to my painter's shop and had a look at the progress. The latest accomplishments are as follows:

1. Masked the canopy and windshield.
2. Sprayed filler primer on the upper cowling and the rear halves of the wheel pants. (This has already eliminated 80% of the pinholes.)

  Mar 09, 2024     Engine masking       Category: Paint / Decals

Went over to the paint shop to fit the cowl after filing away the excess RhinoLiner, only to find that the engine had already been masked off and bagged. Things are moving fast.

  Mar 08, 2024     Taking the plane to the paint shop! - (3.4 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

It was a big day!

1. First, I spent a few hours doing some final prep work on the airplane. I removed all stray bits of resin, tape, and anything else that shouldn't be on the outside of the airplane, I removed the final strip of electrical tape from the windshield and had a first look at the job I did on the windshield fairing sanding/feathering (it came out really nice!), taped up all the wing root wires and rudder wires, cleaned off a few stray Sharpie marks, covered interior with protective blankets, and did a few other jobs. (I wanted to mask the interior myself, but that's one of those jobs I just ran out of time for. My painter will take care of it.)

2. Next, with the help of my friend Jim, we rolled the plane out of my hangar, tied the tail wheel assembly to the back step of his golf cart, and drove it down the taxiway to its new home for the next month or two, where some magic will happen--at the talented hands of my OTHER friend Jim.

I got back to my place and had nothing to look at except a big empty spot in my hangar and a set of dusty tire tracks leading out onto the taxiway.

  Mar 01, 2024     Exterior stencil layout - (2.5 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

Spent some time laying out drawings for my painter that will show where each of the graphics will go on the airplane. (These are only approximations, and some are not to scale...)

  Jan 12, 2024     Paint planning / Stencil design - (2.4 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

Today I began to finalize some of the paint scheme details:

1. Took stock of the stencils and graphic elements I already have on hand.
2. Created some new stencil designs for various parts of the airplane.
3. Laid out a crude 3" high checkerboard pattern with 1" x 1" squares on masking tape and applied it to the top of the tail, just to verify its scale. I realized after the fact that it should be a two-row checkerboard pattern with 1.5" squares. Overall, though, the 3" high checkerboard stripe seems like the right size for an RV-8 sized airplane.

  Aug 18, 2022     L wing paint - (0.5 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

Picked up the wingtip, flap and aileron from Jim's paint shop. Everything is looking really good! I will bring the completed L wing home next week. He has already started on the R wing.

  Aug 11, 2022     L wing paint - (0.1 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

Spent some more time checking out the progress on the left wing, The bottom of the wing had been clear-coated, and it looks really good. It's amazing how all the roughness and scuffing just go away with the clearcoat.

Jim wasn't happy with one transition area on the top of the wing, so he re-sprayed the whole area (both colors!), and now it looks really good. I don't want to know what kind of sorcery took place there. I'm so glad I left the painting to an expert!

  Aug 10, 2022     L wing paint - (0.6 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

Spent some time visiting my left wing in the paint shop, and got a first glimpse of the fully-painted top of the left wing. Even though it's still sanded rough and has a ways to go, I can tell it will look good when it's done. When I visited, Jim was addressing some red paint from the star that had crept under the edge of the mask due to a nearby skin seam. He got it fixed nicely. I think the cammo fade looks really nice, with just the right amount of "spatter." There a few areas where I was a little concerned about paint coverage, but I will wait to see...

I brought Jim the vinyl artwork for the fuel servicing information, and he applied it with no sweat, despite it containing some really small letters and periods. Once this is cleared over, it will be pretty bulletproof.

Exciting times!

  Aug 08, 2022     Wing paint - (0.7 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. Checked out the progress of the left wing painting. Jim has practiced spraying on some sheets tacked to the wall, and thinks he's got a good handle on the process he will use.
2. Laid out the stencils for the various markings to determine their exact locations.

  Aug 07, 2022     Wing paint - (0.2 hour) Category: Paint / Decals

Viewed my left wing, as my painter Jim begins to apply the first color. Consulted with him about how we will proceed. [No photo].

  Jun 25, 2022     L wing primer - (0.1 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

Jim shot the first coat of primer on the L wing, flap, aileron, and wingtip.

After an hour of drying, this was a good chance to inspect the skins for defects. We really couldn't find any.

  Jun 24, 2022     L wing paint prep - (0.8 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. Added the final nutplate to the aft inboard wing skin.
2. Jim (my painter) prepped the L wing by removing the flaps and ailerons, removing the tank screws, masking everything, DA-ing the skins, and cleaning them.

  Jan 14, 2021     TOGA harness; Throttle quadrant; Paint scheme - (3.5 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. Fabricated most of the harness that will connect to the TOGA switch.
2. Began planning and measuring for drilling the holes for the throttle, mixture and prop controls. Installed the top of the quadrant so I can mark the locations.
3. Did some minor revisions of the schematic diagrams.
3. Worked on finalizing the exterior paint colors with Scheme Designers. The photo below is the "preliminary final" design, and now we'll work on the top view and wings. As you can see the plane will be a tribute to the Aggressors around the world who provide excellent "Red Air" training for our military forces.

  Sep 08, 2020     Strip, prep and prime interior pieces - (3.9 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

Found a few more interior pieces that I had previously painted, but I think they might have faded a bit over the past few years. So I stripped them, prepped them, and re-primed them, in preparation for having them painted along with all the other interior pieces. That way, they will match the others perfectly.

  Aug 02, 2020     Prep for painting interior parts; shop prep for canopy. - (3.3 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. Cleaned and reorganized the shop and prepped my large table for the canopy.
2. Began stripping all paint from the two previously-painted parts of the throttle quadrants. These will be repainted with PPG. Also prepped the RCP stick-well cover.

  Jul 13, 2020     Instrument panel painting - (0.8 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. Dropped off and picked up the instrument panel, side panels, switch panels, and throttle quadrant from my friend Jim. He did a great job painting them with Dark Gray PPG polyurethane.
2. Began wet-sanding the panels with 320 grit in preparation for labeling.

  Jul 11, 2020     Prep for paint - (1.7 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

Stripped last remaining instrument panel components, then cleaned, etch-primed, sanded, and tack-cleaned them

  Jul 01, 2020     Painting prep + wiring prep - (1.9 hours) Category: Paint / Decals

1. Primed and scuffed more interior panels, in preparation for painting.
2. Installed a passthrough tube for the four wires that will connect to the flap microswitches. This will safely get the wires through a very convoluted area of the structure near the flap torque tube, flap pushrods, RCP left seat belt attach point, and sidewall.

[No photo]

  Jun 30, 2020     Paint prep - (1.1 hours) Category: Paint / Decals

1. Sanded down yesterday's body work.
2. Continued cleaning, priming, and scuffing interior pieces, floorboards, etc. [No photo]

  Jun 29, 2020     Prep interior panels and pieces for paint - (3.7 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. Filled a spurious hole in an interior piece near the rear throttle quadrant, and filled two blind rivet heads on the forward floorboards. Did some minor repair of another floorboard that had a slight buckle in it.
2. Scuffed most of the interior panels that had already been primed. Cleaned and scuffed several others in preparation for priming. Labeled all pieces with permanent marker, indicating what they are and how they fit. (You're welcome, someday future owner, whoever you are.)
3. Installed nutplates for CO detector in fuel selector panel.
4. Organized and inserted all the printed avionics installation manuals into notebooks.

  Nov 22, 2010     Canopy center rail prep - (.3 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

I just had time to mask, prep, and prime a stripe under where the center canopy rail will be mounted when it gets back from the anodizer.

  Jun 18, 2009     Access cover painting - (.5 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

painted the inside of the rudder pedal access panel, and the outside of the gear tower covers. They are ready to install (someday), and they'll be stored at my house so they don't get scratched.

  Oct 16, 2008     Paint misc components; Strobe mount - (.4 hour) Category: Paint / Decals

In preparation for installing the fuel valve, I prepped and painted the various components of the valve mount, and also painted the attach angle that would have been used to mount the right side cockpit switch panel. (Instead, the angle will be used to attach a couple of Adel clamps for holding wiring.)

I also began measuring for the new strobe pack installation.

  Sep 02, 2008     Battery box painting; Interior paint touchups - (1.3 hours) Category: Paint / Decals

Primed the Odyssey battery box.

Touched up the paint in some area in the interior.

  Sep 01, 2008     Battery box; Avionics access door painting - (2.5 hours) Category: Paint / Decals

I bead-blasted the battery box to remove the original powder-coat. I'll repaint it tomorrow.

I also put the final coat of paint on the avionics access door.

  Aug 31, 2008     Miscellaneous painting - (1.1 hours) Category: Paint / Decals

Shot the second coat of paint on the forward floorboards and spar.

I also began stripping yesterday's paint off the battery box because I didn't like how it looked over the pre-existing powder coat. I removed as much as I could with the chemical stripper I have -- I'll clean up the rest of it in the bead-blaster tomorrow.

I also applied the second coat of paint to the avionics access door.

  Aug 30, 2008     Interior painting; Battery box painting - (0.5 hour) Category: Paint / Decals

I shot the first coat of paint on the forward floorboards and spar. It looks great -- I hope it adheres properly this time.

Painted the battery box, using high-temperature gloss-black enamel.

  Aug 29, 2008     Interior prep/prime - (1.0 hour) Category: Paint / Decals

Scotchbrited, cleaned, and primed the forward floorboards and the spar. In addition to using a different primer this time (SEM), I also scuffed the surfaces much more deeply and uniformly. I'm hoping this will solve the paint adhesion problems I had before.

  Aug 20, 2008     Paint stripping - (5.1 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

Two steps forward, one step back. Two months ago, after I painted the interior, I noticed that the paint in some some areas, notably the spar and forward floor, appeared to have some adhesion problems. I decided to wait a bit and let the paint cure fully before making judgements about it. Today, I ran my fingernail firmly along the spar and managed to remove a strip of paint and primer, right down to the bare, anodized metal. Not good! I was able to do the same on a few areas of the floorboard, right where my feet will go. Also not good.

So, out came the masking paper and tape. I masked off the offending area and completely stripped it using Aircraft Remover, plastic spatulas, and lots of paper towels. I'll have to go back and touch up the stripped area with acetone, but for now, I got most of it.

Now I just have to figure out why the primer and paint didn't adhere properly in certain areas, and find out what to do to make it work correctly next time.

  Aug 13, 2008     Avionics access door - (1.0 hour) Category: Paint / Decals

Stripped, sanded and primed the avionics access door for the third time. This time, I sanded the door with a palm sander and 150-grit paper, then finished it off with Scotchbrite pads and fine-grit paper before priming it with SEM High-Build Primer. I FINALLY got all the little visible nicks out of the door. In the next week or so, I'll paint it for what I hope will be the last time. Yeesh. Nothing like turning a half-hour project into a weeklong odyssey...

  Aug 12, 2008     Avionics access door - (.4 hour) Category: Paint / Decals

I painted the avionics access door again, but I'll be darned if there aren't still nicks and variations in the finish quality due to the sanding I did previously along the forward top edge -- right where it will be seen the most. I thought the primer would hide the marks, but it didn't. I simply cannot live with the door looking like that, so I'll have to strip it and paint it again -- after I sand the heck out of it, of course.

  Aug 09, 2008     Avionics access door - (1.1 hours) Category: Paint / Decals

Finished stripping the avionics access door, then sanded, prepped and primed it.

  Aug 05, 2008     Avionics access door - (1.0 hour) Category: Paint / Decals

Began stripping the avionics access door due to some issues with the paint that I want to correct before mounting the avionics buses. I'll repaint it in the next few days.

  Jul 02, 2008     Interior painting - (.7 hour) Category: Paint / Decals

Painted several seat and floorboard components -- ones that will not be installed for a long time. Anything that stands a good chance of being scratched during the rest of the airplane's construction will stay unpainted for a while.

  Jul 01, 2008     Interior paint - (.5 hour) Category: Paint / Decals

Touched up a few minor areas of the interior paint that needed attention, mainly the undersides of a few flanges that got missed the first time around. This is where the rotisserie is so helpful. I donned a respirator, sat on a stool, and rolled the fuselage up over my head with one hand. Sweet.

  Jun 25, 2008     Interior painting - (.7 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

This evening I removed the masking paper and tape from the inside of the fuselage. The paint job looks pretty good!

Over the past few months, I've been hearing some small objects rolling around under the forward floorboards as I rotated the fuselage. This evening I inserted a high-pressure air line with a rubber tip into the nooks and crannies and blew out four un-driven rivets, one drilled-out rivet, and one brand-new nutplate -- a few remnants from the QB construction process, I suppose.

  Jun 22, 2008     Interior painting - (.5 hour) Category: Paint / Decals

Did the last few touch-ups on the interior paint. I think it's as good as I'm gonna get it.

If anything, this experience has reinforced my desire to let someone else paint the exterior. :-)

  Jun 21, 2008     Interior painting - (.8 hour) Category: Paint / Decals

I sanded and touched up a couple of spots on the interior paint that needed it. My forward floor, in particular, had some "orange peel" that I got rid of.

No photos today, mainly because it all looks about the same as the last entry.

  Jun 18, 2008     Interior painting - (5.1 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

This was a pretty good day. I primed and painted the interior, from the aft bulkhead of the aft baggage compartment all the way to the firewall. I didn't fully appreciate how much surface area there is in this space, and how tricky some of the job would be. Not that it was actually complicated, just that I had to screw my body into some interesting contortions in order to reach everything. The rotisserie helped immensely.

There are one or two places where I'll have to so some sanding and touching-up. One was where a single drip of paint dripped out of the paint gun -- and it happened twice in the same place, on the right sidewall of the rear cockpit. Oh well. There are also some other small places where a second coat will be required.

Overall, a rewarding day in the construction process! I'll now be away for a few days, and that will allow the paint to cure for a while before I begin re-installing stuff.

  Jun 17, 2008     Interior paint prep - (4.3 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

I spent the evening continuing the prep & cleaning of the fuselage interior. The 48-hour weather forecast is perfect, so I think tomorrow will be Painting Day!

After masking off the aft fuselage and all the various things I don't want painted light gray, I lightly scuffed everything, cleaned it all, made sure all the holes and edges had been deburred, vacuumed every nook and cranny, flipped the fuselage every which way I could (multiple times), vacuumed again, and finally ran a tack cloth over every reachable surface. I think it's as clean and ready as I can get it. Despite the fact that I roughed up the powder-coated fittings at the bottom of the gear towers, I'm a little concerned about how the paint will stick to it. After masking off the firewall, I'm envious of the non-quickbuilders who don't have to do this (if they choose not to).

I also prepped all the equipment I'll be using (HVLP gun, new air line with moisture filter, Hobby Air respirator, drop cloths for the floor, etc.) I'll spend a little time practicing with the new paint gun before I shoot the interior.

  Jun 16, 2008     Interior painting prep - (1.5 hours) Category: Paint / Decals

With help from a friend, I mounted the fuselage on the rotisserie, then spent some time cleaning and prepping the interior of the fuselage for priming and painting.

  Jun 15, 2008     Interior painting prep - (2.0 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

I spent a couple of hours prepping the interior of the fuselage for painting. I removed just about all the components -- everything except the elevator control rods, bearings, and the control yoke and sticks. These I masked and taped. They'll stay in the plane for good, I think.

Since no one seemed to be around the airport today, I attempted to rig up a way that I could lift one end of the fuselage with my engine hoist, allowing me to move the fuselage between the low floor-stand and the rotisserie by myself. Using a strap, I hung the tail from the hoist's hook, then jacked it up about six inches. I went up to the nose of the airplane to have a look at the nose, when I heard and felt a tremendous crash. In a moment of dain bramage, I'd forgotten to secure the legs of the hoist with pins, and the hoist had fallen over. Most of the noise was the hoist hitting the floor. I was extremely lucky -- the hoist arm merely nicked the fuselage skin near the aft fuselage deck. I felt like a dummy for most of the evening. Disaster averted by the grace of God. Lesson learned.

  Sep 25, 2007     Interior paint tests - (.3 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

I tested a two-tone gray paint scheme for the cockpit, using the throttle quadrant components as a guinea pig. The results are nice, but I'm just not sure about it. I wish I had a design consultant on staff. :-)