Paint: The Devil in the Details

There are hundreds of little things that make a paint job work in the long run—and no, I am not talking about the design (I can go on and on about that another time … ). I’m talking about little things that painters learn over the years that make a paint job stand up or work better from a maintenance perspective. Here is just one example from our F1 Rocket, painted by John Stahr. Notice the 1/8-inch-wide ring of bare aluminum around the edge of the fuel filler hole? That was intentional. John has found that if you run the paint right up to the edge of the aluminum, it creates a spot where chipping can occur more easily. And no matter how careful we are with that fuel nozzle, everyone eventually bumps the edge of the hole while gassing up. This little detail seals the edge of the paint to the aluminum a little bit better. How well does it actually work in practice? Ask me in a few years and a few hundred hours …

Below is the paint on our RV-6 where it went all the way to the edge of the aluminum. Granted, this is a 35-year-old airplane, so it has seen its share of rough fueling (all from previous owners, of course), but you can see how fuel gets under the edge and makes it easier to chip. Not going to repaint—the original paint was done by builder Mike Seeger in his garage … not bad for an amateur job done that long ago!