Dark or Light color for the top half of cowling?

[C5Engineer 1170]

In preparation of making my cowling mods I am trying to decide on a new paint scheme for my cowl. As most of you know I bought a FWF from John Miller's B model when he switched to the Jab many years ago. The cowling was pretty close to the rest of my plane so I never did anything else with it. For those that have flown lots of different planes which do you prefer..White on Top or a dark color on top for reflections, landing picture, etc? The new cowl will be a combo of Navy Blue and White. Here's a shot of when John and I finally got our planes together at Johnson Creek back in 2012. Kind of funny to look at how the stripes line up. He never really took the time to match his new cowl set up either. This pic also shows how much taller the Bush gear is over stock bungee gear. He was running 21" dessers on a 6" wheel and I was running the 21" Nanco's on an 8" wheel in these pics.

 

 

 

 

Edited 23 Oct 2015 by C5Engineer

[C5Engineer 1170]

Am I overthinking this again?

[EDMO 1078]

Am I overthinking this again?

Joey,  Its good to think ahead for changes you want to make.  I have flown some planes with shiny colors on top of the cowl, and a few times I have wished that the top part that you see from the driver's seat was painted a flat black like my one plane.  Most of the time the sun reflecting on the top of the cowl didn't bother me.   I think your cowl looks good - its just the rest of the fuselage that needs some color (Well, that was my wife's comments!) ...The main thing is what you are happiest with.

No matter what color I paint my new cowl, the top part will be flat black.

EDMO

Edited 30 Oct 2015 by EDMO

[KFfan 151]

My $.02

What have been your experiences with vehicles you have driven? I imagine the same would hold true for the top of the airplane cowl. But then, I'm not yet a pilot and don't play one on T.V.

Lou

[EDMO 1078]

My $.02

What have been your experiences with vehicles you have driven? I imagine the same would hold true for the top of the airplane cowl. But then, I'm not yet a pilot and don't play one on T.V.

Lou

My personal experience is that the Plexiglass or Lexan used in the airplane windsheilds is more glaring than the windshield glass in a vehicle, and maybe you get more glare - I also want the top of my IP glaresheild to be flat black because of that.   Bright colors wont blind you completely, but might be a distraction or a headache for a long flight.  Some pilots want the complete interior to be dark gray or black because of reflections in the Lexan.

EDMO

[akflyer 1427]

I don't have any issues with the top of my old cowling being a flat red, and I have not had any issues with my MK IV cowling being white.  I do think I did prefer the flat color a bit more, but neither was enough to be a real serious game changer for me as long as its not a highly polished or gloss surface it shouldn't be too big of a deal.

 

[wypaul 448]

I just painted the hood of my Pete white, it was maroon with the clear coat missing.  The really interesting thing is that darn base coat reflected more than the white, that I treated to slightly flatten it.  That said my cowl on the MK IV is dark metallic blue and have never noticed a glare that has bothered me unlike the Pete with that big big flat hood.  I am thinking that it will make little difference so pick the one that tickles your fancy best.  2 cents worth

Paul

Edited 30 Oct 2015 by wypaul

[C5Engineer 1170]

Thanks for the thoughts. I kind of like how John had his done. Keep in mind I sprayed my fuse with latex paint to cover up some bad stuff on it 6 years ago with plans of it only be temporary. I have some plans for a new fuse down the road so I will probably just leave it alone at this point.

[EDMO 1078]

Thanks for the thoughts. I kind of like how John had his done. Keep in mind I sprayed my fuse with latex paint to cover up some bad stuff on it 6 years ago with plans of it only be temporary. I have some plans for a new fuse down the road so I will probably just leave it alone at this point.

Joey,

I think the scallops on your wings and tail look good - Always thought it would be a PIA to make all those round curves on fabric with ribs.

I think I am more comfortable making straight lines - my curves could look like a crooked road sign!

EDMO

[C5Engineer 1170]

Thanks for the thoughts. I kind of like how John had his done. Keep in mind I sprayed my fuse with latex paint to cover up some bad stuff on it 6 years ago with plans of it only be temporary. I have some plans for a new fuse down the road so I will probably just leave it alone at this point.

Joey,

I think the scallops on your wings and tail look good - Always thought it would be a PIA to make all those round curves on fabric with ribs.

I think I am more comfortable making straight lines - my curves could look like a crooked road sign!

EDMO

Thanks Ed I like how it came out. I just never did much with the fuse and cowl and they were both in relatively good shape compared to the rest of the airplane and I just wanted to get it into in the air.

[Av8r3400 1179]

Go with white. 

Im putting yellow on the top of mine.  Like was said, you don't have a flat black hood on your car, right?

[TJay 1041]

I like the darker colors myself

[1avidflyer 1983]

My brother had a trucking business for many years and it seems all his trucks were white except for the hood.  He would always paint then flat black to cut glare.  As far as the scallops on the wings goes, it's not to hard to do other then time consuming. I did two sets of wings like that so far.  I used rosin paper and rolled it out on a plywood platform 4'X16" long.  Swung the arc using a long stick with a nail in it at the right point that was tapped into the plywood and a pencil held on the other end to do the marking.  Cut it out and used the small cut off to lay out for the blue masking tape as seen in the first picture.  Then I taped the bigger piece of rosin paper to the blue tape as seen in the second picture.  Masked everything, shot white paint on the taped edges to seal the tape, and then shot the red color (third pic).  Fourth pic is the result.  Fifth is the Kitfox that's still waiting patiently for me to get back to it.   Jim Chuk

[EDMO 1078]

I had a 1978 Chevy Blazer with the Bronze and White paint - The hood glared so bad that I painted two wide stripes of flat black lengthways on it, leaving only about 6" in the middle and 3" on each side the original Bronze.  Never had a glare after that.

EDMO

Edited 31 Oct 2015 by EDMO

[Av8r3400 1179]

MTV over at back country made a great point. The glare shield (dashboard) finish probably makes much more difference than the cowl top in regard to glare in the sun. 

Ive never had issue with my yellow (mostly) glossy cowl.  My glare shield is a black Naugahyde type material in the yellow plane.  The Mangy has grey carpet on the glare shield. 

Edited 31 Oct 2015 by Av8r3400

[jjbaker 73]

Fly inverted.

I'd go with a matte paint on the cowling and cover the top of the instrument panel with something that doesn't reflect either.

[Bandit 286]

I've never owned a vehicle that shined.

[efil 01 74]

i too wondered about black peint all over the cowl, but i am most a summer sunny day pilot and thought about how hot can it be under when the plane stands hours under the sun; so i finally decided to go white 

[TJay 1041]

I have also wondered hot hot things get under dark colors, Makes me think how hot does it get in side of dark colored fabric wings, wonder if it would ever be enough to start shrinking fabric and screw things up.

[EDMO 1078]

TJay,

I have, sometime in the distant past, seen a chart of temperatures for light and dark colors on a surface, and there was a huge difference, but I cant remember what it was.  Maybe there is something on the internet about this?  As far as the cowl temperature, the engine after shutdown probably raises the temperature of the cowl more than any outside sunlight.  I would imagine the small 2-strokes don't put out as much heat on shutdown as the air-cooled 4-strokes...

EDMO

Edited 1 Nov 2015 by EDMO

[KFfan 151]

I've never owned a vehicle that shined.

I always have problems with pieces of metal catching in the buffer pad when I polish the redish-orange areas