Paint for fuselage tubing

Any recommendation for a good brush on paint for corrosion control?

Would love to find something not too volatile if able as my only heated region this winter is attached to the house.

Larry S.

Polyfiber has a good epoxy primer that is recommended by Kitfox. I used it and it can be sprayed or brushed. However it is quite volatile and you will want to use a respirator.

Check out Stewart products.

Larry,

I'd second Jim Ott's recommendation on the Poly Fiber Epoxy paint.

Its true...it stinks bad and you have to be careful not to gas yourself, but it is a great product for painting steel. I would be a little reluctant to brush paint the epoxy...it has a tendency to crawl if there is any un-evenness (which is hard to avoid with a brush)....sprayed on it is great.

FWIW, I bought my fuselage bare, sandblasted it, epoxied it and finished with Aerothane. Photos attached

Sincerely,

Dave S

KF7 Trigear - Flying
912ULS Warp Drive
St Paul, mn

That poly fiber epoxy primer has a nice hard "plastic like" finish. Its great; but use the respirator.

Looks great! Thanks for the feedback.

definitely don't bother trying to brush the poly fiber primer , you won't be happy with the results . the small hvlp paint gun works good .

I agree brushing the epoxy primer won't give you a finish that looks great on exposed surfaces, but brushing works fine in areas that don't show. I brushed it on my wing spars and cross braces, the aluminum door surrounds, aluminum longerons, various fabricated parts & pieces, and steel frame tubing touchup.

Google a search for "water base metal primer". You will get lots of hits. Some good products made by Sherwin Williams called Pro Industrial. Another product is Tuff Coat available at Bass Pro or Through Overton's. Overton's also hs a number of water based epoxy coatings.

John

Buy an airbrush, it makes this kind of painting a LOT easier. A Badger
350 works very well. You can mix paint (epoxy, and polyurethane in
small batches), which can typically be put in the freezer for a day or two
mixed and won't cure. This way you don't have to pour out so much
left over. Just let it warm up for an hour or so, and mix in a little thinner
when ready to start spraying again.

N85AE has been flying more than ten years with freezer stored, and
re-warmed Aerothane that was as long as a week old, and I had ZERO
problems with it. For trim paint I did this a lot, and used the Badger for
doing most of that work.

Also a lot less paint spray in the air with the polyurethane, so if you're
careful and have good ventilation the need for a forced air mask is a
lot less when doing the small stuff.

I also used the Badger for Epoxy primer a lot as well.

Much more economical than any of the HVLP, or small spray guns.

Jeff.