Painting #1

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

Time: 0 Hours

We are lucky enough to have a very talented painter that lives on our airpark. He has a paint booth large enough for a car and can curtain off his whole hangar for full airplanes like mine. He has all the right equipment to ventilate and spray big projects. The other nice thing is he is also an accomplished aircraft builder, winning Grand Reserve at OskKosh in 2017 for his beautiful SkyBolt. Because he is a builder and a friend he is allowing me to help where able which allows me to continue the education/recreation that building an experimental aircraft is all about. Being that a great paint job is not only about the correct preparation but equally about the artistry of the painter. I have no such talent and I’m happy to allow him to handle this for me.

The first items up were to wet sand off all The filler primer I had put on the fiberglass parts to protect them over the last couple of years. Not really anything to show with this step but one of the days a neighbor, she’s a 777 Captian for us at United, brought a close friend over to see the RV-8. I apologized for looks sweaty and dusty but that sanding duty was in full affect. She understood and knew all about what it takes to build RV’s. My neighbor introduced her to me as Dick’s niece when they pulled up on the golf cart. After a few minutes of talking I asked “Dick who” as I couldn’t think of another neighbor named Dick. She said you know Dick VanGrunsven! My eyes got big and I was now really embarrassed at my appearance. She was nice enough to take a photo with me as I kept says I’m sorry I was so messy.

You just never know who you will meet at the best Airpark around, C77 Poplar Grove.

I was going to do a lot of typing at each stage of this painting process as the painter worked. I decided that wasn’t really necessary and that photos would do a much better job at detailing this process. So that’s what I’m going to do and just add all the photos I have taken during this incredibly fun stage. This is the benefit of having the paint shop only a block away on our airpark. I can stop in and watch durning every step.

Service Letter SL-00014

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

Time: 4 Hours

Yesterday Vans aircraft came out with a new service letter that applied to the RV-8. It appears they have had some completed aircraft have issues with the skin on the sides of the fuselage at the very tail end. The problem stems from rapid turns on the ground while hitting bumps causing a side load to the skin. The few aircraft had some creasing of the skin in the affected area. So Vans came up with a fix which adds a piece of angle aluminum riveted to the skin at an angle. This helps carry the increased stress of side loads. There isn’t a requirement to complete this step but recommended. When I got up this morning we had already planned on moving the fuselage over to the paint shop.

I asked the painter if he would mind me working on the fix while in his hangar and he didn’t have an issue with that. His hangar is only a block away from our house/hangar so moving tools back and forth wasn’t an issue. The install was pretty straight forward and allowed me to buck some rivets which I hadn’t done in a while. I didn’t take many photos as it was hot and I didn’t want to stop working so I wasn’t in the painters way. He spent most of the day laying out the left wing paint masks and figuring all his measurements.

Here is a look at the two angle pieces I created and in place on the outside of the skin for drilling purposes. Once they were all done I cleaned the edges and primed them before riveting them in place. I’m glad this service letter came out when it did and I could complete it before the painting started.