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Question on thick/thin filler - RV-10 Interior

az_gila

Well Known Member
I tried asking this in the fiberglass section but only got one reply. :)

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I am just about ready to start filling on my RV-10 canopy cover.

It is an early kit (2005) and the finish can be described as "somewhat crappy"

I need to add a lot of filler, ranging from a skim coat to perhaps 1/4 + inch thick over most of the forward canopy cover. The rear portion will be taken care of with an Aerosport o/h console and the rear trim around the rear windows.

What filler would be recommended for that application?
 
Gil, are you filling small surface pits and voids, or trying to modify the surface contour?

The reason you may have not gotten answers is that void filling is a lot like primer wars- many different solutions, and it seems all are imperfect.

Just one guys experience here and DanH has some good tips. Filling voids I like epoxy resin with some microballons, (I) mix until the tips of the mixture will still round off and fall over (it is still fluid) and before it gets like a cake topping where the tips stay sharp. For me that is too dry and becomes brittle. Apply (several applications) with a hard squeegee to ensure it gets in the voids, and scrape in several directions to most fully fill the holes. Several runs at this are typically needed. Dan likes neat epoxy, and is good unless it runs off. I don't like the way epoxy sands and find it hard to maintain the original contour as the matrix will sand off faster than a film of pure epoxy. Thus the microballoon additive.

A hard squeegee can be an appropriately sized piece of stainless, like firewall material. Deburr it! Like mudding drywall, it needs to fill voids not coat the surface, then a light 320 grit sanding will get ridges and nibs off.

For filler, I use the same micro mix, but add a touch of cabosil to thicken enough to spread, and not run off. A whipped tip will not be sharp, but not melt back either. It spreads nicely and sands pretty well. I have used talc as an additive to get better spreading properties, more buttery, but don't like the dust when sanding. Wear a good respirator.

Personally, I find that it is very hard for me to see the contour with all white and add just a touch of black tint to make a light gray mix for large applications. Using the hand for contours is best, but subsequent applications it is easier to see the feathered edges with a touch of color as the surface is refined.

This could be worth less than you paid for it, but may be a starting point.
 
Hey Gil

I am definitely not a fiberglass person. I was struggling with trying to finish the top as well and finally tried another approach. When the top was still off the plane, I flipped the cover upside down, covered it with packaging tape and used it to mold a headliner cover from scrap fiberglass cloth and than bought some headliner material from JoAnns. This part is the front half, not sure if this approach may work to mate with your existing cover?
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I did the same to create my own headliner for the rear, i was very pleasantly surprised how well the headliner material conforms to bends\transitions. I do not think this would work for a show plane but will work for me & my wife.

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I also had the green top with it's terrible quality. I used resin for some parts of the fwd areas where serious clean up and shoring up is required. Also used 3M Hi strength repair filler. For the balance I used Poly filler (Rage). I did all my sanding with 100 grit, then shot 2 coats of epoxy primer + 3 coats of 2K primer, followed by 220 grit block sanding. Then shot final coat (epoxy primer in my case, others would require a finer grit).

I skim coated the entire rear area to deal with larger pinholes/scarring and also the center bump (later covered by o/h console), as well as the window flanges. The first 2 coats of primer were allowed to setup for a day or so (critical step) before applying 2K primer. This took care of any remaining pinholes after the 2K primer went on.

It came out nice. I simply don't have the patience to wait a day for each application of filler to cure and in my experience poly filler works quite will if you understand it's limitations.

PM me with your number if you want to discuss ideas and approaches.

Larry
 
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Gil

You might consider Zolatone for your interior. I used it on my -10 and the Rans. It looks good is tougher than nails and is light. The best thing is that it covers up pinholes and small defects in the surface.

The worst thing is that takes a spray gun with a pressure pot and very large nozzle. It is also messy to shoot, the overspray will go a long distance and does not dry til it hits something.

Here is a link to my build log where I did the interior.


http://www.mykitlog.com/users/displ...&project=2128&category=8022&log=175337&row=59
 
I need to add a lot of filler, ranging from a skim coat to perhaps 1/4 + inch thick over most of the forward canopy cover.

What filler would be recommended for that application?

1/4" thick filler can lead to visible cracks due to the shrinking of the cured epoxy, and it is heavy. For a contour correction that thick, consider adding foam, sanding the foam to the profile that you need, and then adding two layers of fiberglass. If you have any composite aircraft people nearby then they can help you with this relatively easy (and standard) composite work.
 
1/4" thick filler can lead to visible cracks due to the shrinking of the cured epoxy, and it is heavy. For a contour correction that thick, consider adding foam, sanding the foam to the profile that you need, and then adding two layers of fiberglass. If you have any composite aircraft people nearby then they can help you with this relatively easy (and standard) composite work.

It's not that simple. With the poor contours the thickness will vary greatly.
 
South Florida Sport Aviation..

I went with South Florida Sport Aviation's interior because their kit covers everything except the doors. I didn't hardly have to do any fit and finish on the canopy interior, since it all gets covered. Now, since I'm an idiot, and first thought I'd simply paint the inside of the canopy, I spent a lot of time sanding and filling to get it in decent shape. Now I won't even see my hard work. :eek:
 
As a rule, any neat epoxy will exhibit less shrinkage than a neat polyester.

Most epoxy shrinkage takes place in the cure cycle. Polyester shrinkage continues for a long time.

Both epoxy and polyester exhibit far less shrinkage when combined with a filler material. Dry micro has the least shrinkage. It combines minimal epoxy resin with a high volume of stable glass spheres.

I have tried laminating pour-in-place foams into structures as core. There may be a foam formulation which works long term, but my examples tended to either crush or expand with pressure change, creating lumps and waves in the surface contour. Too brittle. Same was true of pour-in-place inside pre-molded glass like wingtips. Live and learn.
 
Gill glad you are working on this project. Visited you two years ago when you just had the canoe. I used poly fibers smooth prime as recommend in my 2015 build manual. water based and much like thin sheet rock mud but great at filling pinholes and is Uv resistance. West system and micro balloons are my go to filler strong and easy to sand.

Tom Spencer
 
Cabin interior is where I felt I really ?cut my teeth? with fiberglass fill work. Here was a post I made, the conversations really helped me out.

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=143659

I did quite a bit of hand custom shaping which in retrospect probably wasn?t needed. If I had to do it over I would have spent more time on the initial sand, keeping much of the original shape. Then do a micro for fill and a number of skim coats. I don?t know what the 2005 cabin interior looks like but if you could sand it and retain the basic shape then that?s what I would do.
 
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