I've thought long and hard about how to finish the interior of the plane.  I originally thought that a fully decked out leather interior was the only way to go.  Then reality set in and I'm thinking that leather seats still might be a possibility, with some cloth on selected interior surfaces, and paint everywhere else.  By the time I'm done, cloth seats will probably do just fine.

I've also thought a lot about various colors, and was just about to go the typical light grey route,  but decided at the last minute to go with a kind of off-white/cream color.  The official name is "Tractor White" from the Sherwin Williams automotive finishing store.  This sounded appropriate for an airplane to me.

I've separated the garage in two sections with a clear plastic dropcloth to keep one side "clean" and the other dirty.  Clean air is sucked into the garage through a perfectly sized dog door on the clean side using a Delta Air cleaner and it goes out though the slightly opened garage door on the "dirty" side.

#1) Priming with a dull primer that dries in seconds is easy.  Painting with a glossy paint that takes a while to dry is extremely difficult.  Dust specks will show up everywhere unless you have a paint booth with filtered air.  Runs and sags are all too easy to create because of the numerous angles and surfaces in the interior.  Overspray onto a previously painted surface will ruin a nice glossy surface.  I'm about to find out if some rubbing and buffing compound will help.

#2) Don't use syringes to measure the paint.  It might work for primer, but the silicone lubricant in the syringes will cause "fisheyes" like you won't believe.  Any oil or dirt on the surface will cause similar problems

#3) Paint fumes are nasty.  The respirator I was using with 2 large filter cartridges would seem like it was working because you can't smell the fumes, but I didn't feel right for several hours afterwards so I knew something was getting through.  I borrowed a forced fresh air mask from Doug Reeves and I'll never paint without one again.  I'm also wearing latex gloves and a Tyvek coverall to keep the paint off of me and the lint off of my parts.

Here's the interior after the first coat.  I'm not painting the forward floor or firewall because they'll be covered with carpet and insulation.

I finally attached the left and right steps with the help of an RV8 builder in town.  I'm glad I left these off for as long as possible because I've already hit my shins on them several times since they were installed. 

I've been working on the upper front fuselage between paint sessions to keep my sanity.  (I hate painting)