Finishing speed fairings

[Dorsal]

About ready to put the fairings on my lift struts and wondering how I should finish them. Given (for my plane) they will be flat white has anyone just cleaned the PVC and left them un-finished? or used (oh the horror) Krylon Fusion plastic paint? Also is there any need to glue the trailing edge snap joint?
All comments, opinions or suggestions appreciated.

Note; The plane is flying so I plan to fit, finish then install the fairings on the struts.

[Andrew G]

Dorsal, I spray painted my 20+ year old black PVC shutters with high gloss, widely available specialized spray paint and one year later it's as good as the first day it was applied. No peeling, fading, etc... The shutters are in the sun all day.

My contribution to your thread is that the plastic spray paint (PVC application) works as advertised.

[HighWing]

I definitely don't think you will want to leave them unpainted. PVC seems to be a magnet for all kinds of stains. I painted the interior cockpit tubing on my current project with hardware store paint, granted it is not as tough as urethane would have been, but it is very simple to touch it up if necessary. I think the Krylon idea sounds reasonable. I don't think the aft joint has to be glued. That is tough stuff to get apart.

On my fitst Model IV, I was a bit fussy and sanded off the molding ridges with a belt sander then faired it in with micro for the final finish. It came out real smooth, but took some time. I would probably do the same this time if I decide to use the PVC fairings.

Lowell

[akarmy]

Here are a few pictures of how the factory finishes them. I would love to have a set looking this nice! It's on my project list to pull my struts and sand / fill them this winter. In talking to John about it, it takes about 20 hours to fully finish them and lots of labor...

http://www.teamkitfox.com/Forums/picture.php?albumid=110&pictureid=2174
http://www.teamkitfox.com/Forums/picture.php?albumid=110&pictureid=2173
http://www.teamkitfox.com/Forums/picture.php?albumid=110&pictureid=2168
http://www.teamkitfox.com/Forums/picture.php?albumid=110&pictureid=2167

[War Eagle]

We added epoxy glue in two places on the strut fairings. One place was where the fairing met the metal strut and then we also glued the end where the fairing snaps together. We felt we would have a more rigid structure that way and there would be less chance for the fairing to be knocked around and loose the nice airfoil shape.

We then sanded them smooth and used hi-fill primar to fill in any imperfections and then painted them with urethane. 12 planes had the pointed end wrapped with aluminum and then filled in with body putty to make it smooth and fill in the gaps. On my plane I finished the end with the same dacron cloth used on the rest of the plane. I felt this was more consistant look and it wouldn't crack like the body putty did on so many of the planes.

Finishing the struts to look nice took a fair amount of work.

[Dorsal]

Thanks for the feedback, bottom line is there are a range of options and it appears they all work. I think I will try the Steve method initially so I can spend the next several years thinking "I should really get around to finishing those". Oh well for me it is mostly about the flying not the looking though I do try to make her at least presentable