Red Anodize Prep HOBBS 1082.5 hrs

Fellow RV7A builder Bruce Swayze, someone I have actually never met face to face, and is mutual friends with the Zilik's and Mills's, gave me this idea. I am doing a red anodize finish on not only my rudder pedals, but also my canopy side rails, upper canopy support brackets, along with a few other misc parts. Bruce was great, answering all of my questions as I fired them off to him by email several months ago. I've said it before, but again I'll say, it sure is nice to have great people willing to share their time and expertise for other builders. You will find a lot of the "pay it forward" mentality with most builders. This is a great hobby with some fantastic people involved.

The thinking behind this strategy is, I will have a red paint scheme...I've always liked the look of anodizing...it has good wear characteristics...and if I don't like the way it turns out (doubtful) I can always paint over it and I would just be out the cost of the anodizing...not the worst thing. I will post more on this later when I get the parts back from the anodizer...just an update that I took my parts in Monday afternoon. So, hopefully later this week I will get them back...I'm pretty stoked about this, cant wait to see how they come out!

I had my mind made up that red anodizing was the way I wanted to go for the reasons already stated. My only dilemma was...what do I do with the surface to prep it? Usually you will see parts "timesaved", which gives it a nice uniform grained look. Its kinda like using a big belt sander on the surface...purely for cosmetic reasons. Since my parts were already formed (i.e. not flat sheet metal), timesaving probably isn't viable for me. Bruce just left his untouched and he said it looked good, but that any defect in the surface will definitely show. So...I thought, why not "DA" (using a Dual Action orbital sander) the surface...that will give them a uniform appearance and kinda looks cool to me with the swirls...should catch the light for a exotic appearance. So, that's what I did...and it sure looks cool to me...we'll see how it translates to the red anodize finish?

I got the parts prepped and then put a new sanding disc in the sander so it would look uniform for all pieces. After sanding for awhile, the paper loses its bite and has a very subtle, different look which I wanted to avoid...it starts to look more matte. So, keep a fresh piece of sandpaper in your sander...swap out often to keep it consistent.

Remember, you can click on the photos to enlarge them...wadda ya think? Will that dog hunt?? ;) (haha....some 'good ol' boy' humor from my past)

Again, I am a nervous wreck...as I dropped off this box of parts to the Anodizer, I felt like I was dropping off my kids at the baby sitter. Please, please take care of my babies and return them safe and sound and in one piece!! haha! And dont lose any of them! Later this week we'll see the results...cant wait!