The paint job redux

One more air shot, with pilot Joe Coraggio at the controls. Photo by RV-8 driver Darryl Zook.

I built that gorgeous airplane!

All during the time I was building, people kept telling me, "don't worry, paint covers a multitude of sins."

I could've lived a more sinful 11 years, apparently, because Midwest Aircraft Refinishers has completed the paint project, they told me today. And it's beautiful!







I still have to figure out how to get up to Hibbing to pick it up. Because I still don't have a medical, it'll take two people to fly it home, which means we need two planes to go get it. Who's up for a flight to Hibbing?

If you need more information about the guys at Midwest, don't hesitate to contact me.

The painting of N614EF

It's been almost two months, since we dropped off the RV-7A in Hibbing. Not being able to fly (at least as PIC), and still needing to put a few bucks together to pay for as much of it as possible without adding to the outstanding loan on it, I told the great guys at Midwest Aircraft Refinishing to take all the time they needed to get it done.

But, I admit to being a little antsy about seeing the final product, of course, and George Virnig was good enough to send along some pictures.

Here's how it looked a couple of days ago:

There was a time when I considered painting the plane myself. I bought a larger air compressor than I really needed for construction. I bought the EAA book from Ron Alexander on how to paint your own plane. But I slowly came to realize that I couldn't possibly do anything dumber. I don't have the patience for the prep work that's required, I don't have the equipment or facilities, and I sure as heck don't have the expertise.

Not like the guys in Hibbing do.

Need proof?  Here's what George sent me today...

For reference, let's go back to the original design.

Things seem to be coming together nicely. I have an FAA physical next Thursday and pretty soon I'll have a determination whether I can get a special issuance to fly again.

A lot of people have asked me, "is the plane still for sale?"  Ask me next Thursday.

Paint update

The good folks at Midwest Aircraft Refinishing are about ready to start shooting paint on N614EF.

I heard from George Virnig today with some questions that came up as they were laying out the paint lines for the transition from the paint to the polished aluminum.

The fiberglass fairing on the vertical stabilizer/horizontal stabilizer presents some challenges. George said the original design didn't follow the line on the fairing and he felt it would look better if it did.

Sold.  I don't really have a huge emotional investment in the design. Like so many other things on the project, I rely on the expertise of others. George and his crew know more about paint and design than I do, and I'm willing to let their expertise guide the outcome.

That's what makes me a natural born leader, you see. :*)

Here's some pictures.

By the way, next month, the Twin Cities RV Builders Group is going to have a get-together and display all the RVs that have been painted at Midwest. Hopefully, I'll be one of them, but I'm still not sure I want to park next to this beauty that stopped over to Eau Claire on Saturday for breakfast. It belongs to Bernie Weiss. My guess is I've got 403-B's with less value than what this cost.

In the paint shop

I've never flown N614EF somewhere and then left it behind but I had to do that last Friday night/Saturday morning when we flew it up to Hibbing to drop it off at Midwest Aircraft Refinishing.

Here's the story I posted to Van's Air Force:

Over the years, I've often said the best part about building an RV is you make a bunch of friends along the way and at the end, you also have an airplane.

N614EF is due in the paint shop in Hibbing -- about 200 miles away if you drive -- on Tuesday and because I lost my medical, I need another pilot to ferry it up with me, which means we need two RVs to ferry the both of us back. Because of that fact, if it doesn't get done on the weekend, it doesn't get done.

Naturally, because that's just the way it goes with me, it often seems, the weekend weather was due to deteriorate.

As Friday dawned (I get up for my day job at 5:30), there seemed to be a good chance we could do it on Saturday, though it would be iffy. But as the day went on, the TAF deteriorated.

I was sitting at the Minnesota Timberwolves game on Friday night fretting (even though it was a great game). There was no way Saturday would work, Sunday didn't look any better, and giving up the slot seemed like a real possibility.

"You know, if we leave now, we could do it tonight. Just saying," Bryan Flood, RV-9A driver, posted in the Facebook conversation we were having on the subject.

I thought he was kidding. He wasn't.

"I'm in," Mike Hilger responded.

"Me too," said Brad Benson.

The game was still close and I was in Minneapolis, so I said I probably couldn't reach KSGS until 10:30. Fortunately, with Corey Brewer's 51 points and a last-second Ricky Rubio steal, the game didn't go to overtime (we would've left), and so the scurrying began.

Carolie and I had separate cars, so we said goodbye and I headed to the airport where my three friends were waiting. Still, this seemed like a crazy idea. The TAF in Hibbing wasn't that great starting at midnight.

But we launched with a general spirit of adventure, and, frankly, a little bit of trepidation. I haven't done a long X country at night in quite awhile.

We ran into some showers around Mora, the strobes lighting up the droplets like fireworks, but the visibility remained outstanding. But up in that area, it's no man's land at night. There's no place to go but down, and don't think I didn't think of that as we approached the area where Paul Wellstone was killed in 2002.

We landed, in crystal clear conditions, found a place to tie down, and scurried back in the waiting RVs for the ride home. Visibility remained fine but the turbulence was pretty rough. Armed with his high falutin' ADS-B, Bryan and Brad went East around it, we went West, Bryan calling out the likely smooth areas, and Mike flying like the old freighter driver he is.

Things did, indeed, smooth out around Princeton for us and as we approached KSGS, we saw the 9A landing ahead of us.

There was nothing left to do but buy some fuel, then stand around at 2:30 in the morning at the tanks recalling the adventure we just had.

"Where are we going tonight?" Brad messaged later on Facebook.

Tomorrow, I'll drive to Hibbing ( 3 1/2 hours each way) to finalize the paint colors etc.

That trip won't be anywhere near as fun.

I'll be by myself.

So yesterday I drove up to Hibbing to go over the final details of the project and to meet the owners, who got their start working for Cirrus when Cirrus was based out of the same two hangars and now spend the bulk of their time working on and painting Cirrus aircraft.

But, they've got a soft spot for RVers who have discovered this jewel of a shop.

In selecting the colors, I "blued" up the teal just a bit and eliminated the "olive" accent stripe that barely showed up in the designs I've posted over the last few months. First, I really hate olive. Second, I think olive and teal suck together mostly because olive sucks alone. And, third, when I looked at the paint sample, it was obvious that it would pull the eye away from where I want it to end up, on the polished metal.

We also arranged that the prop will be painted and balanced.

People who get their planes painted don't talk about the cost and that's always driven me crazy. They'll point out the cost of an instrument panel and the goodies they put into it, but they treat the cost of their paint jobs like it's their Social Security number.

The original estimate -- based on a very quick email many months ago -- was somewhere between $5,000 and $8,000. But in the design process, we got pretty fancy and I think it was worth it so the finally ballpark is $8,000, which includes the design work and the prop. I put $1,000 down months ago to reserve the spot.

Granted, I don't have $7,000, but I've been paying down the home equity loan on the engine in the last few years so I should be able to just add to it and it'll get paid off. Heck, the mortgage will be paid off in a few years; I should be OK.

It's also one of the reasons I said, "Take all the time you need," as I walked out the door.

They liked that. Those Cirrus owners are in a hurry.

But I need a BFR and, of course, I still don't have a medical, so it's not like there's a lot of flying to do. I have a neurotologist appointment on May 7 and that will begin the long process of trying to get pilot-in-command privileges back. We'll see.

Paint scheme finalized

The paint scheme has been finalized for the RV-7A. Many thanks for all of the advice from those of you who read the earlier post on the subject. This closes the window on anyone saying anything bad about the scheme.

A paint job for N614EF

The plane goes into the paint shop in mid-April, so the design team contacted me last week to begin working on what the possibilities might be. As you may know, I want to stress the polished aluminum, blending in the fiberglass components without straight lines, so you don't have the usual "this is where the fiberglass ends and the metal begins" that I see with a lot of polished RVs. I also want to modernize the classic Cessna-style paint job, which also takes care of the problem of having a fiberglass buildup on a section of the top forward skin.

Again, here is the "canvas."

Here are the three initial proposals.

1A

2A

3A

I should point out here that like the rest of the project, the paint job is a "working man's project." That is: I have a budget and I have a limited supply of money. Lots of people have suggested painting the whole thing but (a) I like polished aluminum and (b) I have a limited supply of cash.

I tossed 3A out of the mix right away, mostly because it didn't draw my eye where I wanted it drawn to: the polish. And I'm trying to avoid having too many colors of paint, especially on the cowling. To me, silver says "this isn't really polished aluminum but we want you to think it is." Also, I don't like the fully-painted tail.

I liked 2A but it didn't accomplish what I needed it to. I have fiberglass "skirts" I put on the side of the metal side skirts around my canopy. They must be painted without drawing attention to them. This didn't do that. A

That left me with 1A, but I didn't like the bottom stripe, so I suggested eliminating that. My flying partner, Joe, also noted the size of the stripe on the VS is too thick.  And also, since the rudder has a fiberglass cap, the paint job doesn't work there. The color has to be taken all the way to the back.

I also suggested changing the wheelpants to eliminate the third color.

With those notations, I got these updates.

1B

1C

 

The first thing that was confirmed for me is I'm not a designer. I really hated my idea for the wheelpants. So I've suggested going back to the original 1A wheelpants. You can also see the lower "weight" of the stripe on the VS and you can see that the bottom stripe is gone. I like that. My motto here is "less is more", and, besides, everybody is doing the big "swoopy " paint schemes. I also liked how the fiberglass wing tips (although mine are the "batman" style, which are cooler and suggest a manlier man) are blended into the wing.  I didn't care for the silver gear leg fairings.

From the front, 1C looks quite Lancair-like, which is cool. But, again, I didn't like the wheelpant style.

So, I'm going with 1B so far with the original 1A gear leg fairings. There's also the empenage fairing, which will block that stripe, that needs to be accounted for.

But I think for the most part this will be close to the final design.

How much will all this cost? Well, it's interesting. RVers are terribly reluctant to reveal the price of their paint jobs, which makes it very difficult to compare things. Judged only on my original one-color  picture of the old Cessna 195, the original quote was $5k-$8k. I presume adding in some colors here is going to push that a bit higher. I'll let you know.

Feel free to contribute to the paint fund. :*)