Ian,

With respect, you cannot establish good practice by
totting up numbers of for and against contributions
to RAS. Bob Lacovara's contribution says it all.

If you come to resell the shortcut refinished glider
will you make clear to potential purchasers that the
condition of the glider laminate is unknown and can
only be checked by removing the new and underlying
old finishes?

John Galloway


At 09:36 20 December 2003, Ian Forbes wrote:
Time for a round up.

I started this thread 4 days ago and I asked:

There has been quite a bit on refinishing on RAS recently.
Most people
advocate that when gel-coat starts cracking up, it
is essential to remove
it ALL.

There has been lots of advice and theory as to why
the above is true. No
doubt it is the recommended approach - recommended
by many who are not in a
position where they might have to pay for the work!

However there was little response to my question:

Does anybody out their own a ship which was refinished
without removing
all the gel-coat? What is the service history of these
gliders?

So far there have been two postings of problems with
re-finishes. Neither of
these involved a polyurathane finish. Gliders re-finished
with extensive or
complete removal of the old gel-coat have held up -
at least as well as the
original gel coat.

So I will extend the question. Does anybody anybody
know of gliders that
have been refinished with polyurathane and subsequently
experienced
problems?

I can answer that by saying I know of one glider that
was re-finished with
polyurathane about 10 years ago. There is some localised
paint cracking on
the tailplane and rudder which suggests that there
were some areas of poor
preparation during the refinish. I suspect that the
glass skin on these
areas is thiner more flexible which results in a finish
that is more
susceptible to cracking. This was not an 'expensive'
refinish job, for
example the ailerons and flaps were not removed during
the respray. But
overall the glider still looks very neat and I think
I can say this finish
has lasted as least as well as many factory gel coat
finishes.


Ian