Attempting to get my fiberglass fairings, etc. ready for the paint shop. Have a few questions about how the finished fairing will look prior to paint. Since I have very little experience with fiberglass, how smooth the final finish should be is a question. I have studied many of the forums, pictures, etc., and am still not completely confident of my finished product. I will post pictures with my progress, but any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks
Van's Air Force
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fiberglass finishing
- Thread starter rwarre
- Start date
flyingriki
Well Known Member
This subject has been discussed thoroughly on the forum. Do a search and you'll find some great advice and pictures from Dan, who is very good at composite work. Cory Bird, who built arguably the most beautiful composite plane ever, developed a great way to kill pinholes that has been tried and proved among the canard crowd many times over and Dan explains that also.
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flyingriki
Well Known Member
Great picture! The bottom of his wings are more optically perfect than most composite planes.
Randy, if you haven't found Dan's instructions and photos yet, here is a link to one of his finishing threads concerning pinholes:
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=22931&page=2
Randy, if you haven't found Dan's instructions and photos yet, here is a link to one of his finishing threads concerning pinholes:
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=22931&page=2
CarlosF@grtavionics
Active Member
Here's another...
This is my friend Andy's Velocity. We started this when we were just "kids", ie. a lot younger. It just came out of the paint shop. All that's left is final assembly, plumb the engine and configure the GRT Avioincs/Garmin panel (shouldn't take more than 15-20 minutes)
.
It helps a lot if you have someone that knows how do the finishing process. Other than that its just a lot of work.
Regards,
Carlos
This is my friend Andy's Velocity. We started this when we were just "kids", ie. a lot younger. It just came out of the paint shop. All that's left is final assembly, plumb the engine and configure the GRT Avioincs/Garmin panel (shouldn't take more than 15-20 minutes)
.It helps a lot if you have someone that knows how do the finishing process. Other than that its just a lot of work.
Regards,
Carlos
flyingriki
Well Known Member
WOW again!!!
Nicely done!
Nicely done!
Bill Wightman
Well Known Member
Sherwin-Williams Spread and Spray
SW product #CM0480922. "Spread and Spray"
I'm getting fantastic results with this product. Its specifically designed as a high build, high solids surfacer for final surface prep on glass parts. It has excellent adhesion and sands easily. As the name suggests, it can be spread on thick, or reduced and sprayed. Very versatile and lighter weight than straight epoxy for final surface prep on your glass parts.
Spread and Spray uses a 4:1 adduct, and can be reduced for spraying or for rolling on a thin film. Its light gray in color.
I'm actually rolling it on with a very low nap 4" cheap disposable roller. This works like a dream to fill pinholes. The roller's pressure against the surface forces the filler into the pin holes. It goes on kind of like latex paint, but thicker. Only downside to rolling is the cheap roller tends to leave lots of orange peel behind but this sands off fairly easily. Perhaps thinning 10% would help that.
The idea here is to apply a thick first layer for pinhole filling and fine contour repair. This coat is 320 wet sanded with a soft rubber pad as a sanding tool. Then a second thin coat will be sprayed on, and sanded 400 wet to take off surface irregularities and to break the gloss off it. Then the part is ready for top coat.
SW product #CM0480922. "Spread and Spray"
I'm getting fantastic results with this product. Its specifically designed as a high build, high solids surfacer for final surface prep on glass parts. It has excellent adhesion and sands easily. As the name suggests, it can be spread on thick, or reduced and sprayed. Very versatile and lighter weight than straight epoxy for final surface prep on your glass parts.
Spread and Spray uses a 4:1 adduct, and can be reduced for spraying or for rolling on a thin film. Its light gray in color.
I'm actually rolling it on with a very low nap 4" cheap disposable roller. This works like a dream to fill pinholes. The roller's pressure against the surface forces the filler into the pin holes. It goes on kind of like latex paint, but thicker. Only downside to rolling is the cheap roller tends to leave lots of orange peel behind but this sands off fairly easily. Perhaps thinning 10% would help that.
The idea here is to apply a thick first layer for pinhole filling and fine contour repair. This coat is 320 wet sanded with a soft rubber pad as a sanding tool. Then a second thin coat will be sprayed on, and sanded 400 wet to take off surface irregularities and to break the gloss off it. Then the part is ready for top coat.
