The decision between painting the EZ myself and sending it to a paint shop is based on how bad I want to save myself $5000. I've decided that the only kind of paint I am willing to shoot myself would be a non-metallic which basically means white or black. Burt Rutan would KILL me if he saw that I was entertaining the idea of black paint, however because of new technology, black is no longer the hottest color under the sun :) Akzo Nobel makes a Solar Heat Reflective paint that I have now confirmed works incredibly well. I took a paint sample of this wonderful stuff and coated half of it in a Satin Clear coat to see if it would change it's ability to reflect heat. To my surprise it did NOT. The entire panel was put out in direct high UV sunlight on a 90 degree day and the paint would not get warmer than 147 degrees!!! My Epoxy won't even get soft at that point even without post cure! Looks like I'll be flying the first "safe" all black composite aircraft. To match my exterior I already have black sheepskin seats, Navajo White consoles and sides, and deep burgandy leather trim. I have now painted the interior of the nose probably 3 times including clear coat and after adding the clear to the black hammered paint I noticed that it became much more GUN metal grey than black. This is NOT ok. A great color, but ruins the theme I have going. So I had to sand the paint AGAIN and spray Satin Black over the hammered finish. This works out well because I still have the hammered texture, but now the color that I really want. in Fact, the Clear Coat made the color exactly what I was hoping for. Now I am waiting for the clear to dry and the nose paint will finally be finished.
