Refinishing gelcoat

"Peter Seddon" wrote in message news:3fa3cff6I once owned an ultralight aircraft called "American Falcon". Some of you may recall their adverts on the back of some flying mag , with Chuck Yaeger' face endorcing the little high wing canard.

It's wing is/was covered in Tedlar. This is a Du-pont product that is
stuck to the top of ribs etc with a foam backed doubled sided tape,
and subsequently heat shrunk. i recovered the wing myself with the
help of a couple of friends.

My guess is that with a strip of polyester doubled sided tape along
the trailing edge, top and bottom just ahead of the aielrons etc, a
perimeter of this around the airbrake box, place some more around the
root and tip, this would do a great job.

Tedlar is used as a decorative/protective coating on all those
compound panels you see around windows in 737's etc.

It has a huge shring rate, and would certainly give a wrinkle free
finish if applied correctly. Better still the roll of Tedlar I got (in
white ) was 1.5m wide.


Cheers

Mark

...
Ian, I think you are on to something.

I read several years ago about an aircraft finishing system that involved
an
thin film that was heat shrunk onto metal skins covering joints, rivets
and
all.

Bill Daniels


Solarfilm has been around for years so the available info on its propeties
should be somewere on the net. I can vouch for its strength, I've seen balsa
models after a crash that look like a bag of bits, the film virtualy intact.

Peter S
DLA