Paint inside fuselage or not - Poll
 

Hi,
Sometimes I leave the insides of the fuselage as delivered by the manufacturer.
Sometimes I coat the wood with epoxy or polyurethane.
One time I painted it.
Chime in on your preference.

I like to fuel-proof in white paint when practical. Looks great and will show any seepages pretty quickly.

Looks good
also ads weight

Choice is yours :)

If you paint it you’ll at least be able to wipe it clean of spilled Kerosene.
If it otherwise soaks in , it’ll never stop stinking up your trailer / vehicle .

I always fuel proof the wood parts with epoxy, poly, or paint. It pays off in the long run. I sometimes paint inside just for looks when I think the look is important to me and when the small weight add is insignificant.

At a minimum seal the wood, I use thinned down laminating resin and typically apply two coats. It seals the wood and strengthens the wood joints.

I always have plenty of thrust to over come the slight weight differential of cosmetic interior detailing -
The many options for interior detailing are endless & adds that little bit of professionalism I feel

Always seal wood with ZAP/PT40
I paint most of my interiors. Done right it adds little weight. It will be in my next RCJi article

My go to was light gray KlassKote Epoxy .
I’d normally thin it out a bit and it would penetrate whatever you brush it on.

Years ago I spent a lot of time detailing interiors. I slowly progressed to a coat of something fuel proof and only then in areas of exposure. For example, the floor of the fuselage in limited areas but not the sides. I spend a lot of time altering structures to lighten things. Also failure planning and ease of repairs, particularly landing gear. It should pull out rather than damage the wing.

Incidentally, a few pin holes in the bottom of the fuselage, where fuel might accumulate is a good idea.

No more pilots nor cockpits. 'Maybe a clever picture of a cockpit taped to the underside of the canopy at most. Be creative.

ali

I painted the interior of a jet with black paint once. That made it so hard to see inside it. I like light colors better.
I have good luck with water based polyurethane. It drys realy hard and is fuel resistant. Clean up is easy and no mixing of two parts. But I also found Klass Kote primer can be brushed on easily.

I painted one, didn’t paint another. Hindsite, I wish I painted the one I did not. It adds VERY little weight. I think it all depends on the plane in question. If it’s a small high wing loaded plane.. perhaps skip it. If it’s a 2m or bigger.. go for it.

I paint them, they look so much better and adds such a small amount of weight. Painted the entire inside of my Diablo, grey primer followed by stone paint and it added a total of 3oz. And that includes the inside of the canopy. It fuel proofs everything and makes it so you can clean up spills when you have them.

In planes with a radio tray (the Diablo doesn’t really have one) I paint the radio tray gloss white. It’s a really nice combo with the stone paint, again fuel proofs it and it brightens up the inside so you can see in there.

They always get a ton of compliments at the field.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...68d87b2cc.jpeg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...38f3cde66.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...7e00ff895.jpeg

What kind of stone paint do you guys use?

These are what I use.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...4f0d1069a.jpeg

Does the Rustoleum hold up against fuel?

Your airplane looks awesome.

It has so far, if you clean it up right away. I’ve had a couple of pretty large smoke oil leaks fill the bottom of the plane and it stood up to that just fine.

The key for me with the stone paint is a coat of grey primer first then a light coat of the stone paint on top. It is way easier to get light weight coverage than with just the stone paint alone.