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My RV-12 is painted!! Finally!

pstraub

Well Known Member
Well, almost a year to the day after my first flight, my RV-12 is finally painted! A huge thanks to Synergy Air, they did such a great job. Nobody will believe I built the plane, it looks too good! I flew the plane home from Eugene, OR on Friday afternoon, about a 3.5 hour flight down to my hangar at Lodi, CA. For anyone that is interested, I can highly recommend Synergy Air, the painter is just an awesome guy and super talented. BTW, I received ZERO compensation for saying this, just a super happy customer!!

As most of you probably know, Synergy Air has been building the SLSA version of the RV-12 for years (they are also a major 'builder assist' center for all Van's models). The painting was always outsourced to a local custom painter in Eugene (cars, bikes, motorhomes, etc). Last summer at Oshkosh, Vaden (Synergy owner) shared with me that they were ramping up to bring the painting in-house for better control. I was really excited about that, given their expertise in working with the RV-12. So I asked him to keep me posted since I was planning on painting my -12 in early 2018. He let me know when they were ready, so I scheduled everything and flew up there to start the process.

The entire experience was great, I stayed a few days to finalize paint scheme and colors, and also assist with taking my plane apart so I could do the stabilator and AST Service Bulletins in their shop (which allowed all the new hardware to be painted). I came back up after the painting was complete and performed my annual while everything was still apart. Kudos to Vaden and the entire Synergy team, all of them were a pleasure to work with, super professional and fun to be around. I am posting pictures, but they do not do justice to the paint job. Everything is painted, the logo, N-number, placards, checker, etc. (no vinyl)!! In a couple of the pics in their hangar, you may see the white buffing compound because he was still polishing.

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Very nice

Great color choices and the scheme is what makes the plane look sleek and speedy. Nice! Enjoy!
 
How much weight did the pretty paint add to your plane?

Very good question, I also installed all my leather and carpet interior panels while I was up there. I guess about 40 lbs total, but I will be weighing the plane this weekend and will post it here.
 
Did they paint the interior also? And, if so, did you do any priming to the exposed interior parts? The paint job looks awesome by the way, congratulations!
 
Did they paint the interior also? And, if so, did you do any priming to the exposed interior parts? The paint job looks awesome by the way, congratulations!

I painted the interior while I was building the fuselage. I just scuffed all the panels and used Rustoleum 2x satin granite.

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Paul,

Nice looking bird Paul! Truly like the overall paint scheme ... well done!

Happy flying,
 
Paul,

Great looking paint job and design.
I need to get my 12 painted do you happen to have their contact number?

thanks
 
Paul,

Great looking paint job and design.
I need to get my 12 painted do you happen to have their contact number?

thanks

Absolutely, I am excited to recommend them! You won't find much info about painting on their website yet, since they are just going public with it. But they are definitely in the business. Here is the website....

http://synergyair.com/

They are great people, and RV-12 experts with a super talented painter!!
 
That?s B-E-A-utiful Paul!

Thanks Ron!!!

Gorgeous paint! Your design or a pro?

I designed it, but I must admit that it's heavily based on the new RV-12iS that Van's showcased at OSH last year. I made several adjustments and chose my own colors. The other great thing is that the design is replicated on the bottom of the wings and stabilator, so looks beautiful when flying overhead :)
 

Exactly...I didn't care for the solid wheel pants, or the way the copper color on the wings and stab died directly into the dark fuselage. I also wanted a different line on the checkered flag and a narrower stripe at the front, among other things. Rumor has it that this scheme was designed by John Stahr and somebody else??

I did say it was "heavily based" on this RV-12iS, I just improved it a little ;)
 
Exactly...I didn't care for the solid wheel pants, or the way the copper color on the wings and stab died directly into the dark fuselage. I also wanted a different line on the checkered flag and a narrower stripe at the front, among other things. Rumor has it that this scheme was designed by John Stahr and somebody else??

I did say it was "heavily based" on this RV-12iS, I just improved it a little ;)

John did the initial concept drawings and then between combining a couple of his drawing and adding some other personal touches, we ended up with what you see.

I agree that something less plain on the wheel pants does jazz it up a bit, but veteran RV owns learn that the wheel pants are the most abused part of the airplane. Single color makes it real easy to do a repair and then shoot it all one color.
With a fancy paint scheme on the pants, it can be a big job.....
 
John did the initial concept drawings and then between combining a couple of his drawing and adding some other personal touches, we ended up with what you see.

You guys did a great job, it was obviously my inspiration. I think both 'versions' are beautiful. I did have John design an RV-12 scheme based on the 1970 Martini Porsche Le Mans 917, but I chickened out and went with something more traditional. Maybe for my RV-14 ;)
 
How much weight did the pretty paint add to your plane?

OK, I can finally answer this question. I did a new weight and CG calculation today. Since my original weigh-in last year (741.3 lbs, 81.38 inches), it looks like I have gained about 46 lbs!! (787.4 lbs, 82.78 inches).

Since my original weight, I have installed....

2nd SkyView display, 3 lbs
Wheel pants, 10 lbs
Full Flightline leather interior and carpet, 12 lbs

So this seems to tell me that my paint job and 3 coats of clear have added about 21 lbs to my empty weight. I am hoping that sounds reasonable!!
 
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