SonexBuilders.net

Hi all,
I see a lot of pictures and videos of panels and #1 turtledeck formers that are not flat black. Any reflection problems on the canopy? I am wondering if I will have issues with my orange trim color inside or should I wimp out and go flat black.

My turtle deck formers are painted gloss red. Panel is flat speckle Krylon. Glare shield is flat speckle Krylon. If I wear a white t-shirt, I get lots of glare on the glass panel screens and iPad. Not so much on the canopy, or at least it doesn't bother me. I do think if you had a bright glare shield it would glare badly against the windscreen. Many put a felt cover on the glare shield, but my rattle can job looks good and seems to work fine.

I painted my glareshield a medium gloss black during the build process and flew it that way for 2 years before I finally fitted a felt glareshield cover this spring. Out of those 2 years and maybe 100 hours of flight time, I had 3 different occasions where reflections onto the windshield were an issue on final approach. Nothing that couldn't be dealt with but still an annoyance, hence the felt cover.

If you decide to paint the glareshield, I recommend a paint with a matte (dull) finish, just in case!

I plan to paint the glareshield flat black, but would like the instrument panel orange.

I started with the glare shied cover by Sonex. However, it gave some glare. I went to JoAnn's Fabric and bought some "dark grey" headliner material. This stuff works great.
Here is a video of landing at OSH. I fly in and out of clouds and you can see there is zero reflectance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MWFFmgI3Q4

Bob Mika

Nice video Bob. What did you use to attach the fabric to the glare shield?

spray on adhesive I got at JoAnn's. Works great. you need to remove the windscreen to do this but that is not hard to do. BTW be sure to do the two little areas of the fire wall that show. I didn't and you can see reflection.
Bob

Thanks Bob, I should be able to pick up polishing material there also.

Dqvid

onex28 wrote:Thanks Bob, I should be able to pick up polishing material there also.

Dqvid

I was surprised. It's very hard to find 100% cotton fleece in regular sewing/fabric stores. It can be found online (IIRC, the Swift Association sells some 100% cotton fleece material that they've found to work well with the Cyclo polisher).

Ditto on the headliner material and spray adhesive. I think dark paint still gives too much glare.