Paint firewall stiffeners pre-assembly?

jwyatt · Post by **jwyatt** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 11:40 pm

A question for those of you who have assembled/painted the cabin area already: should the firewall stiffeners be painted with the interior color, or just primered? I don't know how visible they are when sitting in the plane. I'm thinking I will paint the interior with the Rustoleum Hammered stuff, and it seems like it would be simple to paint those stiffeners before riveting them to the firewall, even just hit them with the matching color spraycan paint.

I sure didn't expect to be dealing with interior paint choices this early in the fuse build!

Post by **Spike** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 7:45 am

I did mine with regular primer. Ill hit the visible interior parts with my interior color later in the build. Go forth and spray young Skywalker.

Post by **bullojm1** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 8:19 am

Josh-

I will suggest you figure out your interior paint as soon as possible and paint the firewall stiffeners. The lower 1/3 of the firewall is visible from the cockpit and anyone looking in. I ended up priming the stiffeners, and then once I chose the interior paint, masked off the whole firewall and painted the stiffeners. What a pain.

BSwayze · Post by **BSwayze** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 12:04 pm

I'm with Mike, Josh. I primed mine and riveted them to the firewall, and later on I had to mask the whole thing off to put the interior topcoat on. Even though I did that before riveting the firewall to the fuselage, it was still a big pain. It would be even worse once the fuselage is together. I'd choose a color and material now, and paint as you go.

Post by **Spike** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 3:20 pm

Rut row, i stand corrected it sounds like. They are farther than I am so I might need to think about this while I can. Thanx guys!!

jwyatt · Post by **jwyatt** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:22 pm

Excellent, thanks for the replies, gentlemen. It seems like painting parts before assembly is the way to go, even though it means more messing with the spray gun. If I want to get anything done this winter, I'm gonna need to figure out a spray booth that can be set up & taken down with ease.

Semi-related -- anyone want to share what they're doing for firewall insulation, if anything? I've read the latest thread "over there," but I do wonder if it's all too easy to get caught up in chasing the things that "could" be done (engine-side insulation, Monel rivets instead of aluminum, et cetera), and never finish the darn thing. Right now, I'm thinking make cardboard templates while it's easy to do so, in order to do something like the ceramic blanket on the inside, and call it good.

Post by **Spike** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 7:56 am

I have not thought of doing that and probably won't. I am well past the 'just build it' line in the sand

TomNativeNewYorker · Post by **TomNativeNewYorker** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 9:21 am

jwyatt wrote:Monel rivets instead of aluminum, et cetera),

Monel rivets are such a pain in the a$$ to shoot, even with a 4X gun.