ORIGINAL: da Rock
Back in the 70s, I never saw tautening or non-tautening dope, but did see plasticizer and retarder. When I started flying C/L stunt (where a beautiful finish was part of the competition) both those additives were explained to me by a number of the top flyers. One happened to live in Miami (land of humidity) and yet turned out flawless paintjobs. He also could FLY even better. And I wound up living down there a couple of years. And retarder is wonderful stuff.
I noticed that Sig is still selling dope. And have not ever seen them sell 4 types. And they no longer seem to sell it in gallons.
So we've seen a link to Randolph's tautening nitrate. Which I think was what they sold years ago only without the "tautening" on the label. Because we could buy it at FBOs and additives to go with it. And the plasticizer was a necessity if you wanted the finish to last. Any link to anybody's non-tautening? Or a link to plasticizers?
Retarder was used to slow the drying to defeat fogging.
Plasticizer adjusted the shrink rate.
You can buy a retarder from your friendly local auto paint supply house. Just ask for their lacquer retarder, or better yet, just buy some slower thinner (that is not a joke, it really does exist) that will delay the kick off time for the lacquer. Automotive lacquer thinner is an effective thinner for both nitrate and Butyrate dopes. Instead of a plasticizer, try adding a few drops of Swan brand Castor oil to the Butyrate. It helps the dope flow much better before it dries. That is an old trick that we used to use 50 something years ago, and it still works well.
Bill, AMA 4720
WACO Brotherhood #1