Lynn S

I used this material for the first time on my P-51 and then the Extra. It seems to be coming unstuck. I guess I should have used Balsarite to make it stick down better. All small strips get fuel soaked and just lift off. Where I made small pieces to fill in just come right off now. I had to replace the elevator hinges I made with this material, they were just laying in place. I don't know if fuel is soaking in the edges or all of the material soaks up the fuel. It seems to be a woven material and not like monokote.
I'm thinking about giving the entire plane a coat of primer paint to seal this covering and stop it from coming off all over.Then spraying a coat of paint over the primer.
It may not get any worse, but I have the wing off for repairs and thought I needed to go ahead and fix the problem now before I try to fly it.
Will Rustoleum(sp?) spray primer work?
I guess clear polyurathane would work but I think the primer will seal it up better.

Andrew

Lynn --

If its lifting that badly, your initial heat may have been a little low and you didn't get a real good stick the first time. I think the primer/paint approach might add quite a bit of weight unless you can sand much of the primer away.

I don't care for the polyester films, but when I have used them, I wiped the seam areas with denatured alcohol to clean them, then sealed them with clear butyrate dope. Where the film edge was against balsa, such as the wing saddle and nose, I would add a second or third coat of dope -- when dry, the dope adds almost no weight at all.

the "other" Andrew

Lynn S

Andrew,
I guess the fuel is getting in around the edges, so small pieces are able to get soaked from the edges. I pulled some covering from the top of the plane and the balsa was dry. I think all I need to do is to spray all the seams and areas with small pieces of covering with clear polyurethane. That should stop the problem.
I will say that this is very strong material. It takes a lot of pressure to push a T-pin through it.

ajcoholic

My Feedback: (10)

I have found as you that this covering is hard to get stuck down in the long term... My fix was to runa wee bit of thin CA along the seams.

Its similar to Solarfilm to me, it works well on smaller planes but doesnt stick as good as Monokote or Ultracote.

AJC

johnvb-RCU

My Feedback: (1)

I've found that some good quality clear nail polish run along the seams of film covering seals the edges against ingress of fuel.

Lynn S

thanks for the ideas

I think its going to be OK, no need to coat the whole plane with polyurathane. I gave it another going over with the sealing iron set as hot as I could without melting the foam wing. That helped take out the loose spots. At the places it had started to lift off, I cleaned with with alcohol and used Balsarite to stick the covering down and then put some trim sheet material over that. I'm going to seal all the seams with polyurathane. I sealed around the engine area with polyurathane when I covered the plane and that area is holding up fine. I guess it needs that done on every seam and patch. I had coated some areas with spray on clearcoat after I covered the plane and that didn't help much at all. It needs a good sealer at the edges like polyurathane.
The covering itself is fuelproof, its just easy for fuel to get under the edges if its not coated to keep fuel out.
One thing about these planes, you learn something everyday!

rrragmanliam

My Feedback: (1)

Also when you cover a plane go from back to front whenever possible. This makes it harder for any gook to work it's way under the seams. The airflow is pusing the covering down and not trying to work it's way under a seam facing the wrong direction. Sory for the lame explination I couldn't think of another wat to say it

Darren

Lynn S

I do the back to front when I can, but when doing patch work you always have an uncovered edge.
I got the wing back on and covering all patched up... and it does look patched. I used some bright red monokote in places with the dark red Black Baron. The monokote does seal down better. I took a small foam brush and went around all the seams with clear polyurathane. I think the covering will stay on now.

MikeSell

My Feedback: (2)

I have black baron on many of my planes. On .40 size planes it seems to stay on better. I use lower nitro and synthetic blends on the larger craft. The high nitro and higher oil content of my 1/2a fuels takes more toll on the covering. After about 15 air hours the film started separating from the color/adhesive at the front of my fuse and required recovering the forward section of the fuse on my Herr Cub. Black baron does resist puncture quite well and stretches very well but if cut it tends to tear easily. Reinforce any holes early not later or you may regret it.

Lynn S

It seems to take a coat of polyurethane very well in those areas that need extra fuel proofing. It looks good.I hope it stays on.

Schu

My Feedback: (5)

I gave away all my Black Baron covering to who ever wanted it- it was like rubber and would not stay on. There are lots of other coverings out there that work well- just not that covering! My opinion only, Dale