Paint Problems..
 

Well I thought I did a lot of reading.. here and else where.. and now I read that Rustoleum Clear is NOT fuel proof.. and I am here to agree... It is not. Not with just raw Fuel, but with the exhaust. Where ever it ran back on the plane it is sticky. The other side of the plane is fine. So... my question is, Now what do I do? DO I have to strip it all the way down? If I sand the Clear off.. what Clear can can I use? I used Rustoleum Primer, Paints and clear. THe plane flys great and I am tempted once again to take it all off and monocoat it. Any Ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.

Jeff

RE: Paint Problems..
 

Sorry to hear that you found out too late that Rustoleum Clear is not fuelproof. Their paints, the base colors anyway, are suppose to be fuelproof up to about 15% nitro. I have painted with Rustoleum and it handles the 10% that I run with no problem.

Since you didn't state what you painted over (glass, monokote, etc) it might be a bit tough to offer suggestions on how to get rig of the sticky mess except maybe alcohol. I just tried using 91% alcohol on my benchtop that I sprayed with the clear a couple of weeks ago (and then proceeded to let fuel drip from an engine) and it helped take the "sticky" out of it after a few minutes of it drying. Another alternative might be acetone, but that could take paint and all with it.

Hope this helps in some way,

RE: Paint Problems..
 

Sorry to hear about the paint problems. As Crashmaster said, try using some alcohol to get rid of the stickiness.

FWIW - The LARGE cans (11 oz ) of Dupli-Color brand paint (usually labled truck paint) are USUALLY fuel proof. You need to read the back of the can. If it says "ACRYLIC LACQUER" it is fuel proof. If it doesn't say that, don't bet on it. All the large cans of clear I have seen say acrylic lacquer.

You don't say what type of surface you have the paint on, or what type of plane. IF you do decide to go with a film covering, I would highly recommend UltraCote instead of MonoKote. UltraCote is a low temp film covering that is VERY user friendly and has less aggrevation than MonoKote. If you want to go with a fabric, I highly recommend SolarTex. Again, VERY user friendly, low temp and SUBSTANTIALLY lighter than Coverite fabric.

Hope this is if some help.

RE: Paint Problems..
 

If you can just get the sticky clear cleaned up and want to preserve the color coats, have a look at this:

http://klasskote.com/index.html

Their product is very similar to the old K&B epoxy line. It will go over anything and withstand any reasonable fuel you might use. and probably some that aren't reasonable!

RE: Paint Problems..
 

Thank you all for the replys. Sorry I have not gotten back to you, I have been out of town.

As for the Covering.. I used Nelson Fabric covering. It is an Iron on Product which is meant to be apinted on. It went on nicely and painted well also. The paint caused the covering to lift some on the wing when painted. I found a work around for that by injecting CA under the covering and making it attach. I suppose if I used a precovering adhesive it would have been better - But it worked for the most part.
I have been thinking about it while I was fishing this week and I think the main problem is the CLEAR Coat. If I could get it to harden up, I will sand it down and re-clear coat it with something else. (more weight - yeah!) I will check into these ideas tomorrow and let you know how it goes. If not, I will take the covering off next week and and redo the scheme with Ultra or Mono Coat. thanks again.

Peace,

jeff