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Should the control surfaces be removed before painting an airplane? Has anyone painted with them on?


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Removing them is easy and I think getting a good paint job with them off would be easier as well.

Yes. You will want to remove them. You will get all sorts of runs and dry spots while trying to spray the rear spar with the control surfaces attached. The paint will also bridge the hinges and crack when dry. At a minimum you will have to pull the ailerons to rebalance them after painting. Don't balance before you paint otherwise you will have to add lead back on to offset the paint weight.

Keith
#554

kmacht wrote:Yes. You will want to remove them. You will get all sorts of runs and dry spots while trying to spray the rear spar with the control surfaces attached. The paint will also bridge the hinges and crack when dry. At a minimum you will have to pull the ailerons to rebalance them after painting. Don't balance before you paint otherwise you will have to add lead back on to offset the paint weight.

Keith
#554

Thank you for the advice guys. I will remove them.


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I am ready to rivet my Onex ailerons. Would it be ok to paint the ailerons and then rivet the hinges on top of the paint? I know it would look nicer. Also, I don't want paint clogging the hinges. But is it acceptable to have a layer of paint between the hinges and the aileron.

John,

You could rivet the hinge on after painting, but it's really simple to keep paint out of the hinge loops if they're already riveted on. Simply insert an old hinge pin and a scrap section of piano hinge onto the aileron hinge before painting. The pin and scrap hinge will keep the paint from pooling inside the hinge loops. Chances are you've got some extras of both laying around. If you do get paint inside the loops, you can make a reamer from a spare hinge pin. Flatten the last 1/4" of the hinge pin to about 2/3 it's normal diameter, then grind the end of the pin back to just about the end of the flattened section. What you'll get is a slightly wider, flatter hinge pin, with a sharp, square face on it. Chuck this pin into a hand drill and spin it into the paint-clogged loops. The square face will ream the insides and clean out your hinges.

Jeff

For a whole of aircraft paint job, what surface area you are using to determine the amount of paint required

Come on, surely someone made a conservative estimate, of their Senex exterior surface area, before they purchased the paint

Skippydiesel wrote:Come on, surely someone made a conservative estimate, of their Senex exterior surface area, before they purchased the paint

Perhaps not! I polished, and kept buying more until I was done.

Would be easy enough to figure out. If you do it be sure to post it for the next person!

Bryan Cotton wrote:

Skippydiesel wrote:Come on, surely someone made a conservative estimate, of their Senex exterior surface area, before they purchased the paint

Perhaps not! I polished, and kept buying more until I was done.

Would be easy enough to figure out. If you do it be sure to post it for the next person!

Thanks mate - by the time I find out the aircraft will be mine/or not and my efforts to budget will have come to zero.