Paint and chip repair

Rickw

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 19, 2022
Messages
131
Location
Milford,DE
Hi guys,need a little help with repair.Largest is about the size of a baseball after smoothing out the chip.I need to apply uv silver first,sand with 320 then apply silver?How long dry time before sanding with 320 wet?Drying time before applying Daytona White?Everything being done with Randolph butyrate,thanks,Rick ,being done on my 7ac
 
Tough repair. You'll really need to build several layers of silver. If you've popped the silver (and even if you haven't ) clean the fabric thoroughly, with solvent, both sides if you can get to the back use some J-3000 BUTYSOLV REJUVENATOR, then clean that residue with acetone.

Next, thoroughly saturate the fabric with nitrate (randofill). Often buterate will be splashed on without rebuilding the Nitrate, don't make that mistake, the dacron fibers will only bond with Nitrate, and over time the bond can weaken as many do not properly saturate the dacron, this is one of the reasons we see cracks and ringworm, the other is dope just gets brittle.

Feather the edges best you can before all of this and use a touch up gun to get the silver built up, it can take many coats before you have enough on to feather into the surrounding silver..... be patient.

After your dope is on wet sand and polish it in, wait at least a week and shoot J-3000 BUTYSOLV REJUVENATOR on the whole plane this will help bring some elasticity back to the dope, but like I mentioned it sounds like you've lost some nitrate/fabric bond. I have brushed thinned nitrate albeit sparingly onto the backside of the fabric, don't know if it helped, but those planes haven't come back so who knows.

Ultimately a recover sounds like it's in your future, plan on that as a winter project, don't be afraid, just keep in mind that you don't have to strip and powder coat the fuselage, that isn't a recover... that is a resto, resist the "while I'm in there urge" or you'll be aog for years. You can clean and repaint your longerons without totally stripping the frame.

If you want a restored airplane, buy a used stripped fuselage and then get it prepped and covered so all you have to do is swap the pp and interior.

Stay flying

Guy
 
Last edited:
Tough repair. You'll really need to build several layers of silver. If you've popped the silver (and even if you haven't ) clean the fabric thoroughly, with solvent, both sides if you can get to the back use some J-3000 BUTYSOLV REJUVENATOR, then clean that residue with acetone.

Next, thoroughly saturate the fabric with nitrate (randofill). Often buterate will be splashed on without rebuilding the Nitrate, don't make that mistake, the dacron fibers will only bond with Nitrate, and over time the bond can weaken as many do not properly saturate the dacron, this is one of the reasons we see cracks and ringworm, the other is dope just gets brittle.

Feather the edges best you can before all of this and use a touch up gun to get the silver built up, it can take many coats before you have enough on to feather into the surrounding silver..... be patient.

After your dope is on wet sand and polish it in, wait at least a week and shoot J-3000 BUTYSOLV REJUVENATOR on the whole plane this will help bring some elasticity back to the dope, but like I mentioned it sounds like you've lost some nitrate/fabric bond. I have brushed thinned nitrate albeit sparingly onto the backside of the fabric, don't know if it helped, but those planes haven't come back so who knows.

Ultimately a recover sounds like it's in your future, plan on that as a winter project, don't be afraid, just keep in mind that you don't have to strip and powder coat the fuselage, that isn't a recover... that is a resto, resist the "while I'm in there urge" or you'll be aog for years. You can clean and repaint your longerons without totally stripping the frame.

If you want a restored airplane, buy a used stripped fuselage and then get it prepped and covered so all you have to do is swap the pp and interior.

Stay flying

Guy
I've already done what you suggested getting ready to apply silver,is 320 wet the right grit,how long do I need to wait on silver before top coat of white,thank you very much for your help
 
Just a day is enough, unless you've pounded many coats of buterate down.. that I'd give 3 days then sand then paint.
 
2 places I have to touch up is front edge of stab,paint just got thin,main spot on top of rear fuseluge was done by previous owner when washing,brush popped off handle and hit caused a very minor chip,which by the time I prepped it properly it's the size of a baseball,lol.All the fabric and dope is perfect.Couldn't find much info for touch-up repair for dope.Again,thank you very much for your help,was really needed,Rick
 
Back
Top