Joshua's RV-9A Project

After some reflection, and staring at the primer coat for awhile, I think I’ll just let it be.  If it still bothers after I’m flying, I’ll pull the cowls and redo them later.  Otherwise, a pro painter will sand it all down to make it pretty anyway (someday).  Until then, Allison has agreed to stand guard at any fly-ins and stare daggers at people who laugh at the bumpy cowls.

Also discovered a cosmetic scratch in the empennage fairing.  Darnit.

Tonight I discovered how easy it is to turn over a month of sanding and prepwork on the cowlings into absolute garbage in under 60 minutes.  With the K36 surfacer sanded down smooth on all the parts — cowl, spinner, oil door, top skin — I mixed up a fresh batch of DPLF and set out to spray what should have been the final coat until finish paint.  Instead, I ended up with a giant mess of orange peel.  Still not sure what happened, since I’m using the same gun/settings/mix ratios/etc as I have for all the previous DPLF, including the emp fairings which turned out nice and smooth.

So unless some miracle happens overnight, it looks like the whole disgusting thing will need to be wet-sanded (because the DPLF isn’t designed for sanding, it gums up paper instantly…oh joy), and resprayed.  Plans for moving to the airport in the next week or so are out the window, I expect the sanding will take the better part of a week of evenings.  And then, hope the next try doesn’t go as poorly.

Anyone want to buy an RV-9A project?  Nearly done, except for the fiberglass finishing…  Bring your own sandpaper.