Recommended Paint Product - Light Grey for Inst Panel and Cockpit

[gmcjetpilot]

What brand, color and vendor do you all have to paint the interior.

I want two part epoxy shot from a gun... no rattle can. It has to be durable.

Not against car paints. I know the aircraft is good but also expensive....

What source is best to buy from. I am guessing local paint distributor might be a good place to start.

 

[Kyle Boatright]

EastWhat brand, color and vendor do you all have to paint the interior.

I want two part epoxy shot from a gun... no rattle can. It has to be durable.

Primers tend to not be as "slick" as finished paint. They trap and hold grease, dirt, and other stuff better than paint would. Personally, I used Kirker/Summit Racing/Eastwood single stage urethane over Southern Polyurethane's epoxy primer on the interior of the -10. That combination was inexpensive and easy to spray. Looks good too. Time will tell about durability, but the airplane is hangared so I'm not too concerned about UV. The paint seems plenty tough regarding abrasion and normal wear.

 

[Steve]

Back in 2007, when Dupont paint was still available, I had the local automobile paint supplier mix up a quart of Light Smoke acrylic enamel with a flattener added to eliminate glare from all interior surfaces. I used it on the entire interior, including the panel. It's has worn through a bit on the side rails where my shoulders rub and my hands grab getting in and out (slider canopy), but after 16 years, it held up well.

 

[Snowflake]

If you want durable, have it powdercoated. And if you like taking pictures out the window while you're flying, I recommend a darker colour for the panel. A lighter-coloured panel will reflect in the canopy and show up in pictures when you don't want it to.

 

[PaulvS]

I used 2-part polyurethane top coat with flattener added to achieve a satin finish. The brand is Nason over 1K etch primer for good adhesion to the aluminum. It took 3 attempts to get the right shade of grey. The first was too light and showed up every speck of dirt. The second was too dark,and dreary, like an old elephant. For the third and successful mid-grey color I got half a dozen big sample swatches from the interior decorater display and looked at these in the cockpit for several days in various lighting conditions before deciding.
The 2-pack polyurethane is hard wearing and resistant to most fluids e.g. brake oil, avgas, sunscreen and peanut butter.

 

[Mark Curley]

I used gray Southern Polyurethane for my interior also, and basically all priming on my airframe. The visible areas got a medium wet coat that shows a low gloss finish. In addition, Southern Poly has some UV protection in it, not every primer does. This is important if you are not going to top coat it.

 

[togaflyer]

3m vinyl wrap works great too.

 

[terrye]

Sherwin Williams Jetflex WR (water reducible) is a single component polyurethane paint specifically made for aircraft interiors. I used their formulation P09511 which is a light gray RAL 7035. This is an exact match for the light gray powdercoat that Vans used to use on their ferrous parts. It's pretty viscous and needs a good gun to apply, I used a Tekna 703008 HVLP. Aerotronics built my panel and they used Sikkens Autobase Plus RAL 7040 with a Masterpro flat clear finish. I specified RAL 7040 gray because the RAL 7075 gray was too light a gray for my panel. IMHO you don't need to consider a two part epoxy, Jetflex WR is VERY durable.

 

[georgemohr]

What brand, color and vendor do you all have to paint the interior.

I want two part epoxy shot from a gun... no rattle can. It has to be durable.

Not against car paints. I know the aircraft is good but also expensive....

What source is best to buy from. I am guessing local paint distributor might be a good place to start.

We also used Jetflex Water Reducible, in Light Gray. Very happy with the ease of application (HVLP gun) and the result.

 

[Carl Froehlich]

I used the same medium gray and dark gray for all four builds. The medium gray is for most of the interior. The darker gray is for the panel itself, control sticks, rudder pedals and engine plenum and aluminum side baffles. This gray goes with most any seats covering and such you might want to use. Panel glare has never been an issue.

This is PPG single stage urethane paint. I prime with PPG DP-40LF (the same primer used for the plane). This stuff is amazingly durable.

Carl

 

[JonJay]

I did the same as Carl. PPG “Concept”,
Dark grey, almost black, for the panel, with a flattening agent to dull it down, and a light grey all inside panels.
Has held up very well.

 

[mulde35d]

JetFlex E09775 with about 75% reducer. Tried Jetflex E09013, but it seems a little too light gray. Up to you though based on the other interior colors. Two to three quarts necessary for an RV10. probably 1-2 quarts for anything smaller.

 

[gmcjetpilot]

Keep the advice coming. Just what I needed. Thank you.

 

[JonJay]

Also, don’t forget to integrate your canopy parts, rails if you’re a slider,seats, and glare shield. These are all part of the interior finish scheme.
Here’s mine.

Glare screen is black leather, canopy parts painted to match the panel, canopy rails anodized black, seats are grey leather, etc…..
Nothing is reflective, except my stupid antenna’s which should have been mounted under the cowl.
I left rudder pedals stock, as they are not noticeable to me, but some folks go to lengths to match those up.
Panel upgrade coming later this year as mine is a bit long in the tooth.

 

[PilotjohnS]

I used the sherwin williams Jet Flex for the interior, over P60G2 wash primer. This paint is tough, easy to spray, and did I mention durable?. When I did the interior painting, I had all the fuselage pieces ready to assembly. Sprayed it in my back yard hanging from a clothes line. The day started out cool got hot, and then a little foggy at sundown. I didn't change the mix ratio from the recommended and the paint sprayed well the whole time. It skims over quick, so the bugs were not a problem. I think I sprayed it over 5 years ago and it held up well during the build, and is holding up well during my flying.

I picked a beige color to add a little warmth to the cockpit, since I will be looking at it constantly during my flying; and would light up well at night with the panel illuminated by and glare shield LED strip

 

[bmellis11]

I picked a beige color to add a little warmth to the cockpit, since I will be looking at it constantly during my flying; and would light up well at night with the panel illuminated by and glare shield LED strip

I like that color and am thinking of using something similar. Do you notice any reflection issues due to the lighter color?

 

[JonJay]

I should have mentioned my primer ha!
SW P60G wash primer, same…..
Even campy frames and roll bar, which where powder coated from the factory, where roughed up and primed with P60G, cause that’s what I had.
Even though you don’t need a self etch primer on steel, I am super happy with how well it top coated and has held up.

 

[PilotjohnS]

I like that color and am thinking of using something similar. Do you notice any reflection issues due to the lighter color?

Funny you should mention that. The top of the glare shield is a Jet Flex grey. I was going to use tis grey for the whole interior before I decided to make it warmer. But for the beige, never any reflection and it is a semi matte finish anyways. I have re sprayed some sections near the floor a year later and the match was perfect. Even thou it is semi matte, it matches well and is easy to flow. I think the lighter color is important for night flying because it brightens the interior. Also, flying over the featureless desert at night is kind-of-unnerving in of itself; I cant imagine how it would be with a dark interior. It would probably be like flying into a black hole.

Even with the darker grey glare shield top I get reflections off the windscreen. I think the only way to squelch that would be to use a fabric covering over the glare shield.

 

[JonJay]

Even with the darker grey glare shield top I get reflections off the windscreen. I think the only way to squelch that would be to use a fabric covering over the glare shield.

I used black cow hide. Doesn’t off gas like vinyl and is easy to clean which fabric isn’t. I think if you added enough flattening agent you could use paint. It’s as much about the finish as it is about the color.

 

[blaplante]

My choice would be Southern Polyurethane's Epoxy Gray primer. I used their epoxy white primer. It was easy to shoot and has been very durable for 8 years.

One tip. Gotta be grease free surfaces. You'll get fisheyes unless you really carefully degrease.