RE: Tore the covering off!
WHOW, that's interesting, I had the exact same number of flights on this bird, AND I too had gone over the entire plane with an iron prior to the first flight. Yes, I used my covering as a pattern too.
What I did find is that the sanding on the wing was very little. This didn't provide the old covering much surface to adhear to. I always sand to 400 grit. Makes a great surface for coating.