painting rail lugs

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Schuyler

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I just built a Performance G3 and a decided to use PML rail lugs. I like them but I don't think thier off-white color will look good with my planned black and yellow paint scheme. I afraid that if I try to paint them they will not move smoothly on the rail. Also, I would expect the paint to wear off fairly quickly. Has anyone had any experience with painting rail lugs?
 
With paint on them, you may find them too thick to fit easily in some rails. It will also wear off fairly quickly, if it even adheres to the plastic.

-Kevin
 
Get them powder coated or repaint them after your done launching for presentation. Even powder coating will leave wear marks from rail contact.

If they're plastic, ignore my powder coating suggestion. If your really concerned about it, I would get some black rail buttons.
 
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There isn't really much you can do about it. Painting it will make it hard to get it to fit in the rails well.

You can order some rail buttons that are already black, and only $0.25 a piece.
 
I've already epoxied the rail lugs on. In the future I'll just go back to buttons. Or maybe they'll come out with black rail lugs.
 
I did want to follow up on this thread. I have painted rail lugs (Acme brand) and they fit/work just fine. Latest example was this Dark Star Lite flown on April 11th at the Thunderstruck launch in Lafayette, IN. Not only did this fit, it didn't even have scratches on the lugs afterwards (obviously, the paint will eventually come off, but I have a pretty healthy coat of Future on the rocket that protects the paint--including that on the rail lugs).

IMG_0024.jpg
 
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