My first covering job left a lot to be desired, but looked ok for a beginer, however after just one trip to the field and a few weeks living in the ever hotter south Texas garage it has began to sag alot. No problem, break out the heat gun right? Thing is, decals are all around some of these loose spots and I don't know how to avoid messing them up. Would a cool wet cloth keep them safe or am I just S.O.L. on the decals? (Yet another thing that plane has taught me!)

You can try heating the areas around the decal this may be enough to pull it tight, keep the nozzle pointed away from the decal as much as possible. You can also use an iron to shrink the covering. Turn the iron to a higher setting and keep it moving.
I personally would try using the iron 1st and you can iron right up to the decal. If your careful you can use the iron to shrink the covering without the iron even contacting the film.
Good Luck!!
Anthony

Man, you learn soooo much here! We get pretty hot here in N.C. too and I am building/storing in my garage as well. Is there something to do to keep from having this calamity happening too!!!!!!!!
Decals, oh man I hate this for ya!!!!!!!!!

"after just one trip to the field and a few weeks living in the ever hotter south Texas garage "

Not necessarily due to your covering expertise, or lack of. I once built my own camper shell because there were none comercially made that satisfied my requirements. We live in San Diego, where the humidity is high. On our virst summer vacation trip to Arizona, the wood I used, dried out, shrank, and put wrinkles (across the grain) in the trailer type aluminum siding I had used. A few days back in San Diego, and things were back to normal.

Les

its snowing in chicago ill today,on sunday was near 60,[:@] summer over [X(][]

95 here today,...And still 20 - 25 mph of wind. Your winter may be hanging around, but my build season is the windy season! Wish I could get out there consistently enough to be comfortable to through a beater ARF into the wind and see what happens. (I no longer have any love for an ARF)

I have been told by Allen Brickhaus ( A Nats Judge) That you put the plane out in the sun, let the covering get loose and take your heat gun out to the plane.. This will give the best results.. I have not tried it but Allen is a good builder so his work is great!
Good luck! Terry B

Thanks for the tip Terry, I'll be sure to do that next time, too bad it won't help this time around. []

So puttng the plane in the sun 1) before shrinking tight on the initial covering job -o do you mean 2) when you notice sags after covering /shrinking and its been a bit of time.. will soften the coverinng before re-shrinking it tight with the gun and this gives the best results Do I have that right??... and is it the first or second case.

I live in Tampa where humidity is second to none during the summer and store my planes on racks in the garage. Have not had a problem covering sags described above but I will get a small amount in corners and things that like that. It seems to me anyway that ultracote fairs better than monocote.

The method I use is this: Cover and shrink as usual. Get it to look good. Place model in sun for a few hours. Bring it inside, and let it cool down. Re-shrink as necessary. Place it back in the sun for a few hours. Bring in and let cool. Re-shrink.

I follow this process until there is little to no change in the covering. It makes no difference what covering is used.

I understand that you can do this any time during the life of the plane not just when you first cover it... Plus, what would it hurt? Not really something you have to do but when I have my contest planes out in the sun during the summer, I lay a towel over the plane to shade it....Seems to help Just a thought...Good luck!

so turns out the iron was the ticket, guess I fell into the thought that the iron was for tacking and the gun was for shrinking, but the iron turned up high pulled everything back tight and nice. Thanks guys!

Sometimes the force of the air from the gun will blow the covering material into a bowl, instead of shrinking merely shrinking it.

Les