Surface prep before primer
 

Hey everyone,

I have a plane covered with Koverall and nitrate dope and will be priming with Klass Kote. What do folks use to clean the surface before primer? I've heard people mention alcohol, reducer, or some product called TSP. Any suggestions?
Thank you.
Ken

You really don’t need to remove / clean any contaminants unless the surface has got dirty / greasy / contaminated for some reason. I’d just very lightly sand the nitrate surface, remove dust with compressed air and a tac rag and apply the KlassKote primer.

Yeah what he said. You don't want to mess around with any type of solvent on Nitrate. It might attack it and make a mess. Make sure you wait a couple of weeks after the last coat of nitrate went on before you hit it with the primer. Otherwise, the nitrate might still be degassing and the bubbles will show up in your primer. I usually stick my nose in the nitrate and if I don't smell it, i'm ready.

carl

TSP is Tri Sodium Phosphate, a basic cleaner used mostly for cleaning raw wood decks and teak decking on boats, I would avoid using it because it can most assuredly leave a dusty residue, besides the fact you're have to dilute it in water for it to work,,, Not anything I would use in a model building/painting application