Brief Description: Fuselage Interior Tear-Down For Painting - Part 01
The time has finally arrived to start tear down for final interior painting! I spent the good part of two and a half days disassembling everything on the inside of the fuselage. If I could unbolt or unscrew it for power coating, and it wasn't structural, I did. Everything else will get epoxy sprayed. As you can see from one of the pictures, there are a great many bits and little pieces to be fabricated in the construction of the RV-8 interior! The cardboard box on the upper left hand side of the picture is literally FULL of parts.
In preparation for taking the fuselage to the paint shop, I also took the Fin, Rudder, Elevators and Horizontal Stab off the fuselage. This presented a problem in that with the engine and prop on now, fuselage was very nose heavy and wanted to tip over and bend the prop. I was able to wrap up 75 lbs worth of bar-bell weights in a blue blanket and then use duct tape to attach them to the rear of the airplane. 75 lbs was exactly the right amount and allows the tail to be lifted pretty easily, but the fuselage won't tip over on the nose no matter how high its lifted (within reason).
All of the various parts including the canopy frame and skirts are currently at the paint shop getting either power coat or epoxy spray. All will be coated in a micro-textured, semi-flat black color similar to the engine baffle pieces. Kraig Maas of the Maas Brothers power coaters was able to come up with an epoxy spray paint that matches the power coat color and texture exactly! Amazing!
All of the avionics are out of the fuselage now and sitting on the right wing as can be seen in the pictures. I had no idea I'd put so much stuff in there!
Cont. Next Log...
Fuselage Tear-Down For Interior Painting
75 LBS Of Bar-Bell Weights For Balist While Tail Is Off
