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Main Wing Spar

AboveMSL

Well Known Member
Just finished inventorying my wing kit. I thought the -14 wing spars were clear anodized, mine are gold, anyone else receive gold anodized main wing spars?
 
I thought they were all gold anodized. All of mine have been gold anodized. 6 RV’s over 22 years. Maybe they’re doing something different now. I don’t think it makes any difference. Can’t see it unless you start taking things apart. I built a set of RV14 wings when they first came out (I was #16), but I don’t remember what color the spars were. I thought they were gold.
 
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My RV-8A spars were gold anodized, my RV-14A spars are grey (clear?) anodized. But I've seen pics of some more recent 14 wing kits with gold anodized spars, so it appears Vans has gone back to using gold.

They all fly the same ;)
 
re-

Hi Scott,

The -14 wing spars, historically, have been clear anodized. There's even a note on the first page of the instructions stating such, I assume because it's the odd case for RV spars, as your experience points to, and they were likely getting a bunch of questions about it. I was surprised by the gold ones and now I'm pouring over the drawings to make sure I have the correct ones. With all the changes happening at Van's to meet demand, they may just be anodizing the -14 in gold now.
 
Mine were gold in my Fall '21 delivery. I too saw clear used previously. Pretty sure they are anodized.
 
Are they really anodized, or are they actually Alodyned?

They anodized the wing spars, not alodyned. I wish they were alodyned and epoxy primed instead of anodized, I believe anodized aluminum gets brittle.. Actually I wish all the new spars were laminated like the -4 and -6 spars as opposed to machined.. if a crack were to develop in a laminated spar, it won’t propagate through the other layers..

But to stick to answering your question, yes they are anodized.
 
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