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Should I primer interior rivet heads?

S

smash

Active Member
I've been priming the interior of all my parts before assembly. Now, after shooting thousands of rivets, I'm looking at all those bare rivet heads and wondering if they should be primed after assembly? While there is a huge volume of posts about priming, I haven't been able to find any posts that mention what to do about rivets after assembly. Aren't the heads of rivets inside the airframe just as subject to corrosion as skins and other structural components?

In looking at hundreds of build pictures in many blogs, I haven't found any that show evidence of the builder coating rivet heads after assembly. Should I worry about this or build on?
 
I myself personally would not worry about the rivet heads other than if interior paint is going to be applied. I would think the top coat would peel off without primer. I did prime all the alum. in the RV-10 but did not prime the interior of the 14 other than items being top coated.
 
Rivets have a corrosion inhibiting coating on them. There is a raging debate whether it is alodine or anodizing so I am not going to start that again but just know there is no reason to coat a driven rivet. They will be just fine as is. Besides, un-painted rivets are an indication that the structure was primed prior to assembly which means that the now mated surfaces are also primed and providing corrosion protection to somebody looking at the build down the road.
 
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No paint

xblueh2o said:
Rivets have a corrosion inhibiting coating on them. There is a raging debate whether it is alodine or anodizing so I am not going to start that again but just know there is no reason to coat a driven rivet. They will be just fine as is. Besides, un-painted rivets are an indication that the structure was primed prior to assembly which means that the now mated surfaces are also primed and providing corrosion protection to somebody looking at the build down the road.
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Agree. Plus they look cool. I am painting the interior before assembly. Rivets will contrast to the interior color. :D
 
Paint them each with a Q-tip, but be sure to use a different color primer and you don't want to overlap the paint beyond the edge of the rivet.. :D
Just kidding. The rivets are anodized...
..so be sure to remove the anodizing, scotchbrite each rivet head (and tail), wash with Dial soap, then rinse and then prime. :D :D :D
 
So my take away from all this is that I should not prime the rivets because a future buyer would not realize that I pre-primed the parts before assembly. However, I should carefully scotchbrite each rivet (without marring the existing primer) and then carefully annodize each rivet head using a q-tip. Is there a recommended q-tip brand for this operation?:cool:

Should I treat the clear anodized (silver) verses the dichromate (gold) rivets differently?:rolleyes:




Note to future readers- ignore the above. The AD rivets provided with the kit are anodized and do not need additional corrosion proofing.
 
I'm with you Mike except I would use an artists brush and mask off each rivet head first just so that the contrasting color doesent get on the original primer.
 
A different point of view.........

I think you should "polish" the rivet heads. This will contrast the painted panels and give a real "ShowPlane" effect!
 
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Polish

Mel said:
I think you should "polish" the rivet heads. This will contrast the painted panels and give a "ShowPlane" effect!
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Heck yea. I'm getting the dremel ready! :D
Now what to do about the other 99% of the airplane to win a Lindy. :eek:
 
rv9builder said:
I'm thinking of doing the same thing. I like the way it looks.
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Same here. I like the contrast:
E69DDDCE-3363-49F4-A725-C565774B57BF.jpg
 
You guys are lightweights. I was going to hire my wife's nail salon lady to come in and to a custom painting on each rivet head.

:rolleyes:

Maybe laser-etch the N-number on each one.
 
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