Thread: Fabric covering
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Old February 10th 08, 02:36 AM posted to rec.aviation.homebuilt
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Default Fabric covering

cavalamb himself wrote:

I haven't heard of a water based system from Randolph.
But they do have a traditional nitrate/buteyrate dope system
http://www.randolphaircraft.com/


Ins't Blue River a water based system?
http://www.bluerivercoatings.com/faq.htm


Blue River doesn't make aircraft finishes anymore. It was a
terrible product. My uncle used it on a Champ, and the airplane ended
up way overweight and the fabric would stretch and sag on cool, damp
days. Apparently this was all too common.
And I am, at the moment, recovering a Citabria that had the Blue
River stuff on it. The finish was cracking and peeling something
awful, the tapes were lifting, and the airplane was overweight. The
fabric and finish were only ten years old. There's no way at all I
would ever use any water-based system until I've seen it work very
well on other people's airplanes and survive the weather for some
time. I've seen and heard of too many wasted cover jobs.
Stits is now known as Poly-Fiber. It's also owned by the same
people who own Randolph. Go to http://www.conaircraft.com/
Be careful. When you buy an STC'd covering system to use on a
certified airplane, you must use the entire system to stay legal.
Can't, for instance, put Imron topcoat over Poly-Fiber fabric and base
cover coats. Of course, a homebuilder can do anything he wants, but
some folks have been disappointed at the results when mixed systems
don't work well together. And some, like Steve Wittman, have had
catastrophic failures in flight.
Dan