Mr Charles
Well Known Member
Purchased RV-4 a few years ago, built in 1993. Fiberglass cowling and intersection fairings need some work, to say the least! I have studied every thread I can find, and have got a pretty good crash course in fiberglass work, but most seems aimed at new fabrication...so I have a few questions...
1) Have some rivets that hold hinge section pulled thru FG, what is best way to epoxy in hole to redrill and install new rivet? Cut out and repair area much larger than old hole? Countersink and fill/redrill? What mix? i.e. flox?
2) I believe the cowl is polyester, has gel coat, and painted w two colors...I have no idea type of paint, but would guess maybe acrylic enamel? (how do I tell?)...have a few cracks in gel coat...If I sand down and do repairs to the gel coat, and use procedures outlined by Dan and others, when I get to the step of layering on a coat (2-3 coats?) of epoxy with a spreader to fill pin holes and provide the outer "shell"...where do I stop? at some point I will have sanded/repaired area abutting already painted area...how do I blend together? I plan on repainting the white areas, and keeping same design, but changing color on the second "accent" color.
3)And how about the use of the DPLF epoxy primer? Again where do I blend to old finish? Or do I clean/sand/prep entire cowl and spray DPLF over entire cowl?
4)To paint, do I need to stay with original type of paint, or get better two stage urethane etc color matched to rest of plane? If I stay with acrylic enamel, can I spray it on the K36?
Sorry for all the questions...I've done FG and painting some, but not on an airplane and am really pretty green! Appreciate whatever help you can provide...
Charles
1) Have some rivets that hold hinge section pulled thru FG, what is best way to epoxy in hole to redrill and install new rivet? Cut out and repair area much larger than old hole? Countersink and fill/redrill? What mix? i.e. flox?
2) I believe the cowl is polyester, has gel coat, and painted w two colors...I have no idea type of paint, but would guess maybe acrylic enamel? (how do I tell?)...have a few cracks in gel coat...If I sand down and do repairs to the gel coat, and use procedures outlined by Dan and others, when I get to the step of layering on a coat (2-3 coats?) of epoxy with a spreader to fill pin holes and provide the outer "shell"...where do I stop? at some point I will have sanded/repaired area abutting already painted area...how do I blend together? I plan on repainting the white areas, and keeping same design, but changing color on the second "accent" color.
3)And how about the use of the DPLF epoxy primer? Again where do I blend to old finish? Or do I clean/sand/prep entire cowl and spray DPLF over entire cowl?
4)To paint, do I need to stay with original type of paint, or get better two stage urethane etc color matched to rest of plane? If I stay with acrylic enamel, can I spray it on the K36?
Sorry for all the questions...I've done FG and painting some, but not on an airplane and am really pretty green! Appreciate whatever help you can provide...
Charles