I will chime in. I painted our RV-6 at my house. I believe it
took about six months of steady night and weekend work plus some vacation days.
People tell me it looks very good and I think so, too. Paint
was Dupont Imron over Variprime, three colors. Surface was etched
but not alodined.
It was a big and difficult job, but then nothing about these projects is easy
in my opinion. This was my first airplane. I would do it again
Talk to painters with experience first. They will have many good tips.
I painted parts in a room in my house and later in the garage when the
weather got warm. In both places we rigged a powerful squirrel cage
fan (from a buddy--it was like what is in your furnace) to exhaust the fumes
to the outside. We built a wooden exhaust plenum with three
round outlets to split the exhaust into three flexible 6 inch dia. ducts
about eight feet long that lay on the ground spread apart with bricks in
them to hold them down. The idea was to diffuse the exhaust so
as not to paint the outside of the house. For the inlet to
the room/garage, we built a plywood door panel with two large furnace filters
in it and a latch mechanism to alow ingress and egress.
In a separate room away from the fumes we had a Hobbyair respirator and the
hose went through a hole in the wall to the paint room.
When painting I wore a Tyvek paint suit, painter's stretchy hood (like
a balaclava) and gloves plus the respirator mask. I always had fresh
air flowing into the mask and could not smell the paint. My understanding
was this paint will kill you and you should take no chances on fumes.
We have a large air compressor. We bought a $400 system that goes in
the line to dry the air, remove all oil drops, and remove all debris.
The cannister with silica that dries the air lasted the whole job without
needing to be replaced. I used a Devilbiss HVLP gun.
We filled all the rivets, not to go faster (unlikely), but to make the paint
easier to flow out. This is a lot of work but it sure is pretty later
and it is easier to paint especially on the unavoidable vertical surfaces like
the fuselage sides. Still looking for a filler that goes on easy, sands
easy, and is smooth. We tried various. Because we essentially
sanded it all off, weight gain was negligible.
I'm remembering now what a pain the filling of pinholes in the fiberglass
parts was. I hate them pinholes. Not sure what a professional painter
would do about them.
I'm not sure of our exact costs. I'm guessing paint, equipment, endless
paper towels and gloves, sandpaper, etc, probably came to $3,000. I did
a lot of things over as I learned, Imron can be sanded and I did plenty
of that.
The difficult part is the art of paint application--too little and you have
orange peel, too much and it runs. The distance between the two is narrow.
Here's the thing. When it's over, you forget the misery and the time.
You fly and you're happy.
LeRoy Johnston and David White in Ohio. RV-6 Esperanza--flying.