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Nearing the point where my airframe is just about complete, and i am torn between diving right into all of the systems installation, or should i start to work on the cowl and then paint everything while the weather is still warm and do the systems after paint. I know most everybody paints at the very end of the build, but did anyone regret this? Would it have been easier to paint sooner rather than later? Or is there something i am missing that would make this a bad idea?

I'm in the process of painting. I waited until everything else was done. Wanted to get it painted before I move into the hangar and put the wings on. Once all the rivets and bolts are installed, I really can't say it would be too early to paint. Like you, I wanted to get it painted before it gets too cold and I have to heat the garage.
The only negative thing about painting early is you will have to be more careful around the plane.

Everyone will have their own thoughts and opinions on this one, so it's really up to you. The little that I painted was done after the plane was running and I was finishing taxi tests. When you're fitting the cowling you'll be installing and removing it a ton which will probably scratch it up, so I would at least do that first. As for the systems....you can paint first but if you do, I would consider covering the paint up with either plastic or paper so nothing gets scratched. You're correct in that it would be easier to paint now while the wings are off. Plus, once it's flying you won't want to down the plane for a month to paint..you'll be having too much fun flying!

Yea i go back and forth with this almost every day. One of the things holding me back was that i wanted to wait as long as possible before riveting the aft bottom skin on.. i will have to commit and do that if i decide to paint.

Fastj22, just out of curiosity what paint system are you using?

PPG Shopline auto paint. Epoxy primer, base color coat, clear top coat.
The control surfaces came out great. doing the bottoms of the wings today.

BTW, HVLP guns keep overspray to a minimum and are pretty efficient at paint transfer. You just need a good size compressor to keep up with it.

My progress today. Wing bottoms done.

More of todays progress.

That's a cool paint scheme!

dbdevkc wrote:That's a cool paint scheme!

Yeah, I've had a few years to think about it. I always liked the G-Bee and thought the Sonex was a bit boxy. Maybe this will make it look rounder! Lots of sitting with colored pencils on computer prints of Waiexes. And a couple of women at the house to give me the thumbs up/down.

The red was left over paint from my Bahia Red Karmann Ghia. Its a pretty deep red. But I like how it offsets the yellow. The yellow is a stock GM yellow the paint store had. I also had some left over black from a nose repair on my Audi and decided to do the pin striping with that.

I also got some stencils made at a local sign shop that allowed me to use the red for the lettering on all the control surfaces.