I Did it Again... Anodized Canopy Side Rails
I Did it Again... Anodized Canopy Side Rails
I've been mulling this over for weeks. Wondering how I was going to finish the side rails. I have been trying to decide whether or not to paint them now or later, prime the underneath side for now, wait until after they are riveted on, or whatever. Then recently, when I attended the 2009 Vans Homecoming Fly-in, I was looking at a lot of airplanes.
One thing really caught my attention this time. The canopy side rails of all those planes. Go to a fly-in and take a look at the side rails of the airplanes present there. I'm talking about the tip-ups. They all had scuffed paint on the top surface. Every single one of them. I could not find an exception. From Van's factory demo 7A right on down the ramp, including brand new airplanes just recently finished. Scuffed paint. I know this area has a lot of wear-and-tear from entering and exiting the aircraft, but there has to be an answer. Something better than paint.
So I looked again at my brake pedals. You may have see that I had them anodized a bright fiery red color a while back. Then my son Luke came over with the threshhold to the front door to his house. He's doing a lot of remodeling right now, and he wanted to ask me if he could use my scotchbrite wheel to clean it up a bit. Guess what it's made of? Anodized aluminum! After all the years that door has been on their house, yes, it shows some wear and tear. But considering the abuse it has taken from daily foot traffic, the dog, and so on, it still looked pretty good. It has to be a lot more durable than paint! So I decided to have these parts anodized, just like I did with my brake pedals. Will they hold up? I don't know of anyone else who has done this, so I have nothing to go on. But my hunch tells me it will hold up a lot better than a coat of paint.
So then the next question comes up: what color? I don't know what my paint scheme will look like at this point. But one thing I know for sure. There will be some red in it. I love red. Not the whole airplane, but definitely a significant amount. So I thought, why not match the brake pedals and do the fiery red? So that's what I did. I took the F-721A's and B's down to the same shop that did my brake pedals and put in my order. My only regret is that had I known sooner, I could have had all this work done at the same time and saved a second shop fee. With that in mind, I racked my brain trying to look ahead and decide if there was anything else in the future that I can see getting anodized. That's not easily answered, but I can't think of anything at this point. So I went ahead. Anyway, here are the results. I am totally thrilled. So I thought I'd share the idea with all of you.
When I brought these home from the shop I had to immediately cleco them on to see how they look.
I like the contrast between this and the interior color. I hope to put an accent of the same color in the upholstery. I'm trying to imagine how great that's going to look.
One thing really caught my attention this time. The canopy side rails of all those planes. Go to a fly-in and take a look at the side rails of the airplanes present there. I'm talking about the tip-ups. They all had scuffed paint on the top surface. Every single one of them. I could not find an exception. From Van's factory demo 7A right on down the ramp, including brand new airplanes just recently finished. Scuffed paint. I know this area has a lot of wear-and-tear from entering and exiting the aircraft, but there has to be an answer. Something better than paint.
So I looked again at my brake pedals. You may have see that I had them anodized a bright fiery red color a while back. Then my son Luke came over with the threshhold to the front door to his house. He's doing a lot of remodeling right now, and he wanted to ask me if he could use my scotchbrite wheel to clean it up a bit. Guess what it's made of? Anodized aluminum! After all the years that door has been on their house, yes, it shows some wear and tear. But considering the abuse it has taken from daily foot traffic, the dog, and so on, it still looked pretty good. It has to be a lot more durable than paint! So I decided to have these parts anodized, just like I did with my brake pedals. Will they hold up? I don't know of anyone else who has done this, so I have nothing to go on. But my hunch tells me it will hold up a lot better than a coat of paint.
So then the next question comes up: what color? I don't know what my paint scheme will look like at this point. But one thing I know for sure. There will be some red in it. I love red. Not the whole airplane, but definitely a significant amount. So I thought, why not match the brake pedals and do the fiery red? So that's what I did. I took the F-721A's and B's down to the same shop that did my brake pedals and put in my order. My only regret is that had I known sooner, I could have had all this work done at the same time and saved a second shop fee. With that in mind, I racked my brain trying to look ahead and decide if there was anything else in the future that I can see getting anodized. That's not easily answered, but I can't think of anything at this point. So I went ahead. Anyway, here are the results. I am totally thrilled. So I thought I'd share the idea with all of you.
When I brought these home from the shop I had to immediately cleco them on to see how they look.
I like the contrast between this and the interior color. I hope to put an accent of the same color in the upholstery. I'm trying to imagine how great that's going to look.
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- Chief Rivet Banger
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Now that looks cool!
http://www.rivetbangers.com - Now integrating web and mail!
Current Build: 2 years into a beautiful little girl
Current Build: 2 years into a beautiful little girl
- Mike Balzer
- Class E
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Thanks, guys,Mike Balzer wrote:Looks Great!!!!,
How much did doing this set you back? Was it very expensive?
Mike, no, actually it's not bad at all. They had a minimum shop fee of $40 so that's all it cost me. I paid the same amount several months ago to get my brake pedals done. Had I known at the time that I was going to do this, I could have had it all done for $40 and saved the second charge.
Chad... I thought you would like this, but I never thought I'd catch you stammering... thanks, buddy!
Those look great Bruce, and if it proves to do what you hope it will, something tells me a LOT of people will copy that idea.
When I first saw the spars I wondered to myself how much it would cost to do the whole kit like that, or at least the entire cabin, but I never got around to finding out. Something sharp enough to scratch you can't do much about, but scuffing and rubbing of shoes/pants/hands should cause much less damage to the finish I would think.
Nice experiment!
When I first saw the spars I wondered to myself how much it would cost to do the whole kit like that, or at least the entire cabin, but I never got around to finding out. Something sharp enough to scratch you can't do much about, but scuffing and rubbing of shoes/pants/hands should cause much less damage to the finish I would think.
Nice experiment!
Don Sinclair
CYKF
RV-7A (Fuselage)
CYKF
RV-7A (Fuselage)
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- Class C
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- Joined: Sat Nov 13, 2004 8:37 pm
- Location: Sartell MN
Why the He double hocky sticks didn't you put this our three or five years ago when I was doing my slider rails
Red would have looked real good with my Red Fuselage. I primed and painted my slider rails black. The paint was scuffed before I had the wings on it
They are a real pain the lower postier to take on and off!!!!!!! I may break down and do that in a year or two.
Red would have looked real good with my Red Fuselage. I primed and painted my slider rails black. The paint was scuffed before I had the wings on it
They are a real pain the lower postier to take on and off!!!!!!! I may break down and do that in a year or two.
About 10 months later... Riveted on! Finally.
Well, I thought I would drag up this old thread and post an update, since I finally got them riveted on. Riveting the side rails turned out to be a bit more of a job than I originally thought it would be. But I managed to get 'er done without screwing anything up.
I started on the forward end, seen above, and worked my way aft.
As you can see, I managed to get a flush rivet in every single hole. You can check out my log entry from August 8th if you would like to see more details, and a discussion of how I got it done. It's not hard if you have the right tools:
http://www.europa.com/~swayze/RV-7A/Fus ... 00808.html
Here are a few more shots. This one shows the matching brake pedals below. I really like the contrast of the gold rivets against the red.
The right side:
I started on the forward end, seen above, and worked my way aft.
As you can see, I managed to get a flush rivet in every single hole. You can check out my log entry from August 8th if you would like to see more details, and a discussion of how I got it done. It's not hard if you have the right tools:
http://www.europa.com/~swayze/RV-7A/Fus ... 00808.html
Here are a few more shots. This one shows the matching brake pedals below. I really like the contrast of the gold rivets against the red.
The right side:
- Joe Parish
- Class D
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- Location: Sioux Falls SD
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- Class C
- Posts: 625
- Joined: Sat Nov 13, 2004 8:37 pm
- Location: Sartell MN
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- Chief Rivet Banger
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- Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 8:40 pm
- Location: Baltimore, MD
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That color is really nice. It looks great against the color of the rivets. The riveting sequence called out in the manual looks like complete pooh if you are building a tip up.
Nice job dude!
Spike
Nice job dude!
Spike
http://www.rivetbangers.com - Now integrating web and mail!
Current Build: 2 years into a beautiful little girl
Current Build: 2 years into a beautiful little girl
Dave,
Anodizing isn't like a coating at all. Or plating. You aren't adding anything to the surface of the metal. You're chemically changing it. It's an electrolytic process for producing controlled aluminum oxide films on aluminum. The electrochemical process both thickens and strengthens the naturally-occurring aluminum oxide. The resulting finish is extremely hard and exceptionally wear resistant, according to what I read. I learned that you can get aluminum anodized in a rainbow of different colors! They add a dye to the bath that the parts are immersed in.
Do a google search and you can read all about it, and find anodizing shops in your area. I was surprised to find out how many shops there are. Chances are, there may be one right down the street from you.
Anodizing isn't like a coating at all. Or plating. You aren't adding anything to the surface of the metal. You're chemically changing it. It's an electrolytic process for producing controlled aluminum oxide films on aluminum. The electrochemical process both thickens and strengthens the naturally-occurring aluminum oxide. The resulting finish is extremely hard and exceptionally wear resistant, according to what I read. I learned that you can get aluminum anodized in a rainbow of different colors! They add a dye to the bath that the parts are immersed in.
Do a google search and you can read all about it, and find anodizing shops in your area. I was surprised to find out how many shops there are. Chances are, there may be one right down the street from you.
Shameless idea stealer here...
I finally got around to doing the same thing. Mine aren't as colorful. Instead I had the brake pedals and side rails bead blasted and clear anodized. The bead blasting puts a nice matte finish on the parts. Kind of reminds me of the finish on my MacBook
Thanks for the idea Bruce!
Thanks for the idea Bruce!
Bruce Hill
RV-9A N5771H flying over 1100 hours!
Build Log at http://www.overthehills.com/RV-9A-Project
Blog at https://flyingoverthehills.wordpress.com/
EAA Tech Counselor, A&P
RV-9A N5771H flying over 1100 hours!
Build Log at http://www.overthehills.com/RV-9A-Project
Blog at https://flyingoverthehills.wordpress.com/
EAA Tech Counselor, A&P