Cleaning my plane before re-covering, material removal.
 

I am in the process of stripping my Ultra stick for recovering. Really no problem with the covering it's self, just getting the bonder from the Balsa without damage.
The covering is of the transparent type..........Any ideas?

I would heat the covering with a heat gun and when soft, then peel it off. Most of the adhesive should come with it. For anything left on the balsa, acetone will usually help remove it.

I have used brake cleaner on a rag to remove the glue and color after peeling off the covering. It will also soften the glue of the little bits of covering here and there.


Buzz.

peal covering off, any glue residue can be removed by taking packing tape or even scotch tape,, rub onto surface,, pull tape straight up,, this will remove 99% of the glue, sanding removed the rest

good luck

Thanks guys, several good ideas. Have been using heat but just is not cutting it ! It"s a strange transparent covering and the plane was in storage for in N. Cal.for a number(very hot summers) of years before I obtained it NIB and built it several years ago. It has a ton of flights on it and was getting shabby.........

I was given a plane that needed to be recovered. I tried everything to get the monokote off and still had lots of it in places where nothing would work. I got mad at it and broke out a detail sander and put that on it. I had that finish down to bare naked balsa in 10 minutes. I used a coarse grit and stopped sanding immediately after I got the monokote ground off. A little more fine sanding and I was ready to recover.

Carl

Thanks,
I have used the tape method with heat. It's working well and with a light follow-up sanding I shall be ready to start covering soon.

Thanks

Awesome,, glad I could pass that tip along, a club member should that to me recently

good luck