Is it just me, or is Towerkote the worst (expletive deleted) ever invented?

I have a pretty extensive background in building FF airplanes, so I know how to build and cover. At least I thought I did. I bought a sealing iron and a Hot Sock and everything, but the TowerKote (dark blue) is a royal pain to apply. At low heat settings, it doesn't stick. At higher heat settings, it takes some effort to get it to stick, but not to wrinkle. Forget stroking those wrinkles out. And the HotSock does not prevent scratching. The Towerkote looks like I was using it to line a wolverine cage.

What am I doing wrong here? Should I have spent the extra money for Monokote? Or should I stick to silk and dope for future projects? Has anyone used Sig CoverAll?

Should have gotten the MonoKote. I've used it on a lot of my airplanes and always have had good success. Towerkote is crap and as you can see, very difficult to work with.

My 2 cents worth...

I've found that a few dollars saved per roll winds up being no savings at all. I tried to use Econokote on an airplane, and it looks like it. Monokote is good stuff for the money. Glen

Total crap!! Mono is better but I switched to Ultracote some time back and would never go back. Lower heat, better and easier to remove the wrikles and it doesn't sag out in the sun after you have it shrunk A time or two. JMO

It seems I am learning the hard way. I was wondering whether it was the Towerkote or it was me. I even a look at a Monokote job I did as a kid, and it wasn't good by any means, but it still looked better than this (expletive deleted).

So, anyone know a good way to remove Towerkote from an otherwise decent fuselage?

Probably the best way is to use your heat and use it to slightly heat up the material (to get the advesive to release) as you pull it off. More then likely you will have to do a light sanding over the whole fuselage with a fine grade sandpaper to clean up your work. Don't worry about the color left behind (if you are going to use the same color in MonoKote) just make it smooth. Then follow up with a tack cloth to remove the dust. This will help the MonoKote stick better. Sorry you had to learn the hard way but hey, least you won't make the same mistake again....Right?

Cheers,

Believe me, I am not buying that (expletive deleted) Towerkote again.

What do I do if I wanted to try a different MonoKolor in MonoKote?

If you go with a lighter color then you'll have to probably sand more to get the old crappy stuff off. Otherwise you see it through the lighter color MonoKote. If staying with a dark color then just as I stated before, work to get it smooth and let it go..

Good luck....

I covered a 80" Extra 300 Profile in towerkote and it came out beautiful. Now by no means is it as nice as monokote, or ultrakote, but for what it is it works just fine. Once I got the hang of putting it on, I had no problem. I even trimmed it with tower over tower dark blue over white. Looks great.

I was gonna stay out of this one but I agree with this. After using monokote using this stuff sucks but once you ajust the heat it works OK. If your not using a heat gun I can see the problem, you need one with this stuff. I wouldn't use it for nice models but cheap planes like trainers and profile jobs it alright.

I also found it more difficult to work with. I didn't have problems with wrinkles, I didn't think it stuck to well. I covered a small plane and wanted the weight savings. I'll be covering another small plane and thought I would brush with Sig Stix-it, sand, then cover. Mike

I just covered a Kouger MK II with Towercoat and was not happy with the finished job. It didn't stick as monocoat did and already it is showing spots it is coming up. I will not use it again.

tear it off and get monokote

Exactly what I ended up doing. The results turned out pretty good, although YMMV.