Refinishing gelcoat

It struck me the other day that the materials used to cover R/C models these
days could be used to 'refinish' ships on which the gelcoat had
deteriorated. We are already 'happy' to stick .5m wide pieces of orange tape
to the surfaces of gliders and do so with impunity.

Solarfilm ( a trade name ) can be obtained in 10m long rolls up to .7m
wide. I'm fairly certain that a roll would do the upper surface of a 15m
ships wing. If the wing was lightly sanded first to remove any raised edges
of the cracked gelcoat and to restore the profile, the material could be
laminated to the wing leaving an incredibly slick finish. These materials
are surprisingly srong and an entire roll weighs very little.

Even if the job was only good for a year or two it would be economically
viable. A refinish on a 15m ship these days runs from £5000 to £10000
depending on who, where and how its done. I'm sure a few hours work, perhaps
10 or 20 at the most would result in a job that would fool the best of us!
The materials for an upper surface recover would cost less than £100.

Continuing in the same vein, the BGA's recent investigations into collision
avoidance colour markings would appear to support the idea that the so
called flourescent tape applications that gained a lot of popularity over
the past few years are in fact the worst at making a visibility difference.
It would appear that a reflective finish may be the best at achieving this.
Solarfilm makes a chrome finish covering material that is almost a flexible
mirror, the stuff is very reflective. Adding a band of this to a wing and
the fuselage or the fin could be very effective.

Ian

"tango4" wrote in message
...
It struck me the other day that the materials used to cover R/C models
these
days could be used to 'refinish' ships on which the gelcoat had
deteriorated. We are already 'happy' to stick .5m wide pieces of orange
tape
to the surfaces of gliders and do so with impunity.

Solarfilm ( a trade name ) can be obtained in 10m long rolls up to .7m
wide. I'm fairly certain that a roll would do the upper surface of a 15m
ships wing. If the wing was lightly sanded first to remove any raised
edges
of the cracked gelcoat and to restore the profile, the material could be
laminated to the wing leaving an incredibly slick finish. These materials
are surprisingly srong and an entire roll weighs very little.

Even if the job was only good for a year or two it would be economically
viable. A refinish on a 15m ship these days runs from £5000 to £10000
depending on who, where and how its done. I'm sure a few hours work,
perhaps
10 or 20 at the most would result in a job that would fool the best of us!
The materials for an upper surface recover would cost less than £100.

Continuing in the same vein, the BGA's recent investigations into
collision
avoidance colour markings would appear to support the idea that the so
called flourescent tape applications that gained a lot of popularity over
the past few years are in fact the worst at making a visibility
difference.
It would appear that a reflective finish may be the best at achieving
this.
Solarfilm makes a chrome finish covering material that is almost a
flexible
mirror, the stuff is very reflective. Adding a band of this to a wing and
the fuselage or the fin could be very effective.

Ian

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

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

Bill Daniels wrote:

'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.'


To take Bill's point further, if the film could not
be shape changed somehow then there is no way you could
get span length roll of film to fit tightly to the
curves of a glider wing along its full length.

John Galloway

John,

The application of heat, a little more than the average hairdryer delivers,
both shrinks the film and activates a quite powerfull adhesive that is on
the underside of the film. The adhesive is strong enough to remove the
surface of underlying balsa structures when trying to remove the film to
repair an RC model..

I'll have a word with Jim Hammerton and see if he'll let us try it out on
the Ventus ( which has some surface cracking )

Ian



"John Galloway" wrote in
message ...
Bill Daniels wrote:

'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.'


To take Bill's point further, if the film could not
be shape changed somehow then there is no way you could
get span length roll of film to fit tightly to the
curves of a glider wing along its full length.

John Galloway

I like the idea of a reflective band.. wing flash as it were instead of the
bright orange.. (not that we use that in the US).. information from the
major manufactures would be needed on effects of wings covered with such..
many only allow a certain percentage of color other than white because of
the detrimental effects of colors absorbing heat at a different rate and the
effect on it's wing strength,

BT

"tango4" wrote in message
...
It struck me the other day that the materials used to cover R/C models
these
days could be used to 'refinish' ships on which the gelcoat had
deteriorated. We are already 'happy' to stick .5m wide pieces of orange
tape
to the surfaces of gliders and do so with impunity.

Solarfilm ( a trade name ) can be obtained in 10m long rolls up to .7m
wide. I'm fairly certain that a roll would do the upper surface of a 15m
ships wing. If the wing was lightly sanded first to remove any raised
edges
of the cracked gelcoat and to restore the profile, the material could be
laminated to the wing leaving an incredibly slick finish. These materials
are surprisingly srong and an entire roll weighs very little.

Even if the job was only good for a year or two it would be economically
viable. A refinish on a 15m ship these days runs from £5000 to £10000
depending on who, where and how its done. I'm sure a few hours work,
perhaps
10 or 20 at the most would result in a job that would fool the best of us!
The materials for an upper surface recover would cost less than £100.

Continuing in the same vein, the BGA's recent investigations into
collision
avoidance colour markings would appear to support the idea that the so
called flourescent tape applications that gained a lot of popularity over
the past few years are in fact the worst at making a visibility
difference.
It would appear that a reflective finish may be the best at achieving
this.
Solarfilm makes a chrome finish covering material that is almost a
flexible
mirror, the stuff is very reflective. Adding a band of this to a wing and
the fuselage or the fin could be very effective.

Ian

I think that reflective is likely to absorb less energy than even white, but
yes you are right someone would need to test it!

Ian

In article ,
says...
It struck me the other day that the materials used to cover R/C models these
days could be used to 'refinish' ships on which the gelcoat had
deteriorated. We are already 'happy' to stick .5m wide pieces of orange tape
to the surfaces of gliders and do so with impunity.

Solarfilm ( a trade name ) can be obtained in 10m long rolls up to .7m
wide. I'm fairly certain that a roll would do the upper surface of a 15m
ships wing. If the wing was lightly sanded first to remove any raised edges
of the cracked gelcoat and to restore the profile, the material could be
laminated to the wing leaving an incredibly slick finish. These materials
are surprisingly srong and an entire roll weighs very little.

I've had some Monokote (Solarfilm equivalent) and a wing tip sitting
on my bench for several months now, planning to experiment with
covering up small dents in wings, bridging the depression caused by a
shrinking spar, and just adding some decoration. Ian's posting
motivated me to actually try sticking a few pieces on to the wing tip
(left over from fitting winglets).

It's going to take some practice to get it on smoothly, I can see.
Part of the problem is the temperature required to activate the
adhesive (instructions say to set the iron at 275 F), which is well
above the epoxy limit. Another problem is avoiding air bubbles when
covering large areas. I'm sure these can be dealt with.

The biggest problem I can see is ensuring that the covering doesn't
peel up in flight, perhaps rendering an aileron or elevator unusable.
Determining the effects of long term exposure (longer than a year,
say) will be important, as gliders typically spend far more time
outdoors than model airplanes, so their experience might not be a good
guide. What will sunlight, desert temperatures and wave flight chills
do to the material when applied over fiberglass or carbon structures?

Even if you convince yourself it's safe and sane, regulatory and
insurance issues need to be dealt with. In the US, a covering on the
flying surfaces might need an FAA approval, and I'd like to be there
when the first pilot goes to the insurance company and explains how he
is going to cover his glider with a plastic sheet, wants to know how
that might affect his coverage.

So, maybe someone with some wrecked wing parts lying around can try
the idea, and set the panels outside for exposure testing. Flight
testing with a full chord, 10 inch wide strip of white material near
the wing root probably wouldn't be hazardous, even if the strip
peeled. Ditto for pieces on the turtle deck. Or maybe on a spoiler cap
- if it peels up and acts like a small spoiler, it's in the right
place!

--
!Replace DECIMAL.POINT in my e-mail address with just a . to reply
directly

Eric Greenwell
Richland, WA (USA)

"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

"John Galloway" wrote in
message ...
Bill Daniels wrote:

'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.'


To take Bill's point further, if the film could not
be shape changed somehow then there is no way you could
get span length roll of film to fit tightly to the
curves of a glider wing along its full length.

I think that may depend on how much the stuff will shrink.

Is this material anything like the stuff they use for those advertising
wraps on busses?

Vaughn