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Paint

Robin8er

Well Known Member
Is there any paint that can be applied without primer or clear coat that looks good and holds up well? Is that a thing?

I emailed stewart systems and they basically said their ekocrylic paint fits that description, but without their primer it would be susceptible to corrosion because their paint has no corrosion inhibitors in it. I've already epoxy primed all internal parts with Sherwin William aerospace epoxy, so I'm not too concerned about corrosion.
 
No.
This was demonstrated to the students at the Sherwin-Williams paint School. It goes down real nice and looks terrific. It peels off in one nice thin layer.
 
I too primed internally with Ekopoxy. On the exterior I also wanted a simple system as I was going to be painting it myself. I ended up using wet on wet technique, with a zinc rich self etch primer then a few hours later top coating with a 2 pack polyurethane. Surface prep was simple wax and grease remover, scotchbrite, then wipe down another couple of times with wax and grease remover. The only issue I had was that I didn't get a good gloss on much of it because I painted in the middle of winter, and should have added more thinners to deal with the viscosity issue caused by the temperatures. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the etch primer is going to be about as simplistic as you can get, because Alclad is notoriously difficult to get anything to stick to without priming, and there no point going to the effort to paint your aircraft, then have it peel off later, as any way you cut it, painting an aircraft is no small task.
Tom.
 
Is there any paint that can be applied without primer or clear coat that looks good and holds up well? Is that a thing?

Google polysiloxane paint. Different chemistry than polyurethanes and acrylics, higher bond energy so weathers much better than polyurethane. Used for boats and bridges. I'm testing the PSX700 system from PPG with various pigments, will report what I find. Don't know about weight yet (3 mil coat recommended), but it thins readily with Xylene and levels beautifully.

Pluses: very tough, goes onto bare metal, can be recoated with itself without sanding many years later, low VOCs and low toxicity (no isocyanates).
Minus: no other paint will stick to it--once applied you're committed to that resin.

I emailed stewart systems and they basically said their ekocrylic paint fits that description, but without their primer it would be susceptible to corrosion because their paint has no corrosion inhibitors in it. I've already epoxy primed all internal parts with Sherwin William aerospace epoxy, so I'm not too concerned about corrosion.

Epoxy makes bad exterior paint in my hands: doesn't level well and needs to be shielded from UV with a topcoat--heavy.
 
If you're willing to put in the work, alodine will take care of corrosion protection with no weight gain. IIRC, most of Van's early prototypes were painted without primer under the paint. At least that was the rumor, a couple of decades ago. Worth asking them, if you can find anyone that was around back in the early days.
 
PPG PSX 700

Dan,

What did you find regarding weight?

Anyone have total sq ft needed for an RV-4?

Finn

(Still trying to decide between paint and vinyl for lightest coverage -- have the numbers for vinyl; paint not so much.)
 
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Aeria

For paint coverage cube your wing aeria. Ie; 123 sq ft times 4= 492sq ft. Should cover the whole of the ac. With little leftover.
 
Single stage

You're talking single stage paint. No clear coat. Clear would be two stage.
I wouldn't spray a top coat without primer. That's it's job.
That said, aluminum has to be prepped to remove aluminum oxide then painted before it reforms. I sprayed several test parts and used gorilla tape to test adhesion. Nothing came off.
Kirker EnduroPrime 2K epoxy primer and Kirker UltraGlo single stage urethane. After Cut & Buff you can easily shave in the reflection. Pics on my blog. However, I am planning a vinyl wrap on the aluminum. The only painted parts are fiberglass.
 
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