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J230 Paint questions


Lyndon

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I'm considering buying a kit and would like to paint it. Apparently being fibreglass this is questionable in a dark colour. Jabaru themselves won't approve it but say many do. Does anyone have any thoughts or real world experience in this. As you can probably tell I like the darker colours which get hotter.

Thanks Lyndon 

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Unless it's built of special high temp epoxies resins and then post cured by a oven, the answer is ...

 

No.

 

Sadly you need a very high reflection level from infrared and UV to stop the resin softening with heat. A hot day and a +4G aircraft can become 1-2G and due to heat soak the spar will still be soft until at height for extended periods. 

 

It tends to be only the very expensive prepreg carbon machines from Europe which are oven baked that can take the lovely darker  paint and not suffer.

 

You can get away with some colour decals on the vertical sides or cowl but anything else is suspect. If Jabiru say No, then it's No.

That also goes for the undersides of a wing, a dark underwing will soak heat esp from a hot concrete or worse tarmac surface.

 

Is it possible to do a ultra high reflectivity silver? Probably but the risk is yours. I personally love shiny silver.

 

If you want to go that way then test modules for heat transmission would be needed to see the effect of the paint. Not all paints are equal.

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I fail to understand why anyone would want a dark-coloured aircraft, car, or house in our generally hot climate.

 

Sitting on the tarmac on any day over 25°C in a light aircraft with minimal ventilation, and you soon start to feel like you're in an oven.

 

Dark colours increase internal heating by a sizable amount. Red is about the worst colour of all, for heating up.

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3 hours ago, WIngsWithoutBarriers said:

Is there a special batch/ colour code that jabiru uses or can it be any shade of white? 

matterhorn white is the jab colour.

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19 hours ago, facthunter said:

Paint adds weight also. More than you would think.  Nev

Yea but not much if you're only painting the mags😁

 

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7 minutes ago, Red said:

Yea but not much if you're only painting the mags😁

 

Gelcoat is heavier than paint and I am pretty sure jabirus are painted from the factory.

Edited by BrendAn
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1 hour ago, Red said:

Umm was a joke ..see the jab mag thread 

 

Sorry , didn't see you had commented on a different thread.

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10 hours ago, BrendAn said:

Sorry , didn't see you had commented on a different thread.

No worries, was a little tickler for Nev but he has resisted reacting😁

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Thanks for the input.

White on the horizontal and I can paint the vertical. Im also happy to paint any non structural parts.

One step closer to building a plane.

Thanks Lyndon 

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