Interior Paint

The past couple of weeks have been packed with both small and large tasks that are in preparation for riveting the forward top skin on.  One of those tasks was painting the interior.  I don't really like painting on the interior because there just isn't a good way to orient the paint gun in a consistent manner.  So, it is what it is.  I am pretty happy with it for the most part but I haven't seen it out in the full light of day either....

A little masking and then some epoxy primer in areas I plan to paint.

Overhead console masked off and paintable areas primed.

Paint complete in the passenger and baggage areas.  Note that the areas not painted are going to be covered with interior panels.

Forward part of the fuselage interior painted.  no paint on the firewall for fire purposes.

Hard to see but this is the overhead area at the door openings.

Taking shape...

Once again I was out of town for the majority of the week so not much work got done on the 10.  I managed to get the engine out of the crate and up on the engine stand so I can begin the disassembly process.  I also got some time to work on the hangar finishing up the drywall hanging.

I do have some exciting news though..the 9 is almost ready.  Yes I know I said I was going to pick it up this friday but as I suspected would happen it got delayed.....again.  However, they have been sending me pictures so I know it's being worked on.

Masking for the red and blue....the design is starting to show.

More masking...without the actual design its hard to see where this is going... ;-)

Ok, a little more detail but the color can be deceiving... that's all I'm going to say.    

Lets play name that part....

Finally out of the crate and ready to put on the yellow engine stand.

I got the engine up on the stand and found that there was still a lot of oil in there.  In this picture you can see where I am draining the oil from the prop governor pad cover.  At least its up on the stand now and I can begin the disassembly process.

Drywall is done, now I'm waiting for the mud to dry so I can do another quick pass and then paint it.

Here is my new wallpaper....its the laminated RV-9 plans that I got from Jeff.  I decided they would look great on the wall so I started the hanging process while I was in the hangar today.

First peek....

Not much to display this week.  I did get some time to work on the elevators but that was mostly drilling and deburring which is not much fun to take pictures of.  I did get some work done on the hangar though.  Its not complete but at least its ready for the airplane to come home....hopefully next Saturday.

Speaking of the airplane I got a picture in email this week which means they are working on it!  Next Friday pickup is a very real possibility at this time!

Here she is with her white base coat of paint!  If you look in the paint booth in the background you can see some of the other parts of the airplane (cowling, control surfaces, fairings)

Another view of the first coat of paint

This is what the hangar looked like before I started....

This is what the back section of the hangar looks like after this weekends work.  I still need a few sheets of drywall, some mud work, and some paint but its getting close!  I have a lot of crap stored back there for now just to make room for the return of the RV-9A.

Airplane-less

I don't know if Airplane-less is a word but it certainly fits my situation right now.  I have finally dropped the airplane off for painting!!!!  Jeff and I flew to Chilliwack BC on Friday to deliver the airplane to Upper Valley Aviation.  I will hopefully write up another post later on with more pictures that Jeff took.  I'm hoping to have it back in the next 3-4 weeks!

In the meantime I got a chance to get back to the RV-10 yesterday.  I started working on the trailing edge of the rudder and was able to get it riveted with better than expected results.  I used the 3M double sided tape to hold the AEX wedge in place as recommended by Vans but there was a slight wave in the unfinished product.  I decided to go buy a 1/2" stainless steel bar that was long enough to fit the entire trailing edge.  I then clamped the rudder to that bar (after putting in my rivets and tape) and then proceeded to rivet the edge together.  As you can see in the picture it came out great!

I also started on the leading edge roll process but wasn't able to finish that completely.

You can see the stainless steel bar I used as a bucking bar to rivet the entire trailing edge without moving the rudder.  In this picture I had not quite finished the process...still had to flip the rudder and do some back riveting to flush the shop side of the rivets that you can see slightly poking up.  For the back riveting I used my tungsten bucking bar and moved it from rivet to rivet as needed.

This is as far as I got with the leading edge of the rudder.  Should be able to finish it up this week and move on to the horizontal stabilizer.