Category: Hull and Paint

Picked up newly painted hull – 3/26/17

Our hull was finished being painted so we transported it home. Total cost for getting the hull painted was $3K. This involved a lot of labor as the hull needed a lot of filler work per the painter. This is the paint we used      

Gas tank and Megahatch – 5/25/16

Today we took a look at the megahatch we ordered from Recreational Mobility and we worked on the gas tank. We pressure tested the tank with water and some lime had built up on this tube. Must have been some type of galvanic corrosion that attracted the lime?  Anyway, we needed to descale it so…

Taking the hull to get painted – 5/20/16

Took the hull to get painted! We’re going to use this paint – white color on the trailer, ready to go! Rihn DR109 that was in the shop Laminate wing spar for the Dr109 – good to +/- 20 G’s Can we modify the Searey rudder to look like this?

Hull Attach, cut gear holes in hull – 11/27/2015

We worked 6 hours today and made some good visible progress!   Spent a lot of time with levels trying to make sure the frame was the same height on both sides.   Drilled stringer holes to attach hull using a right angle air drill. Space is pretty tight, good luck using a normal drill!…

Trial fit fuselage in hull 10/29/15

We worked on trial fitting the fuselage in the hull. We cut some holes in the rear of the hull and also changed the pedal footrest to provide more legroom.   We need to get a hoist, this thing is getting heavy! Rounding off the push/pull aileron holder because it was hitting the hull. We…

Painted inside of hull 10/20/15

We spent a couple of hours painting the tuffcoat paint on the inside of the hull. We weighed the hull afterwards and it appeared to gain less than 4 lbs of weight. This paint is a dark gray with shredded tire rubber to make it non-slip. It took 10 minutes to stir with a drill,…

Primed inside of hull, Rudder, Elevators 10/18/15

We sanded the inside of the hull and washed it to prepare for the 2 part epoxy primer that is the first step for the tuffcoat paint that we have chosen instead of carpet for the inside of the hull.  It is a rubberized, textured paint.  I’d read about one other Searey builder who had…

Painting gas tank – 10/10/15

Ethan had a friend help him paint the gas tank with green primer on 10/9.  That took about 3 hours to rough it up with scotchbrite pads and paint. He brought over the gas tank  on 10/10 and we spent an hour doing riveting and looking at some lime buildup inside of the tank.  We’re…

Hull touchup, Build Elevators, build Floats 10/7/15

We worked on touching up the hull today and building the elevators and float attachments. The hull had some small gaps in the corners that we filled with West Epoxy Adhesive 610. The thinking there is that water could get in the crevices and damage the hull if it froze.  Someone on the STS site thought…

Drilled Bilge plugs, built stabilizers 10/4/15

Today we drilled the bilge hole plugs which was a little scary because you don’t want to make a mistake. We used a 1 inch hole saw, put tape on the front and held a board on the backside. The hull is pretty thick,  after drilling we had a 13/16 inch plug in the back and a…