Waxing your plane? Paint to touch up Polyfiber?

[SpecialT]

Does it help to wax, or put some kind of coating on your Polyfiber plane after washing? What kind of paint can you touch up small blemished to the finish? Does it need to be a Polyfiber paint product. I had a repair to the rudder and it never got painted, I'm wondering if I can use something sourced locally or I need to order.

I tried a search, and came up with a bazillion threads and didn't think I had time tonight to read through them all, but I will start.

[M Towsley]

Re: Waxing your plane? Paint to touch up Polyfiber?

Talk to Polyfiber. If I remember no silicones can be used. They recommended a 3M product, but cannot recall at this time. Just give them a call and ask. Though I am far from an expert, you should use the system for the covering system on the plane, or rudder in this case.

[3Dreaming]

Re: Waxing your plane? Paint to touch up Polyfiber?

For Polytone I would use a carnauba wax. For Aerothane you can use fust about anything. The silcone based waxes cause problems with paint doing a repair.

For touch up on Polytone I would get some more Polytone. For small touch up on Aerothane any enamel should work.

[Scott]

Re: Waxing your plane? Paint to touch up Polyfiber?

Poly fiber only includes Aerothane, Ranthane or Polytone in the STC. The manual states that any other top coat invalidates the certification.
Aerothane and Rathane and urethanes that give a high gloss finish. Some waxes may actually reduce the gloss but they can't hurt the paint integrity. Polytone is less glossy and less tolerant to chemicals. Waxes will actually remove a little paint each time you uses them so I'd say if the finish is a little oxidized a natural wax may bring it back some, but you won't want to do it too often. I like the detailers like mother's california gold. great for removing bugs and pretty much everything else and much less harsh compared to detergent. I suspect it does contain silicone however which certainly means more care is necessary before doing any touch ups.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Waxing your plane? Paint to touch up Polyfiber?

Got to agree with Tom Baker (3Dreaming) on the wax. We used to to Concourse cars at shows and the beauty of Carnauba (in the metal or plastic tub containers, not the liquid with Carnauba as an "ingredient") is it is a hard wax that must be rubbed onto a cloth and then rubbed into the surface in small areas, then buffed off (do too big an area and you will be buffing concrete for hours!) The beauty of Carnauba is it will dissolve in detergent. A good wash with dish washing detergent will remove all of it (not SOAP, DETERGENT!) Carnauba is more work, but well worth it, and can be removed completely for touch ups.

Hank

[3Dreaming]

Re: Waxing your plane? Paint to touch up Polyfiber?

Poly fiber only includes Aerothane, Ranthane or Polytone in the STC. The manual states that any other top coat invalidates the certification.
Aerothane and Rathane and urethanes that give a high gloss finish. Some waxes may actually reduce the gloss but they can't hurt the paint integrity. Polytone is less glossy and less tolerant to chemicals. Waxes will actually remove a little paint each time you uses them so I'd say if the finish is a little oxidized a natural wax may bring it back some, but you won't want to do it too often. I like the detailers like mother's california gold. great for removing bugs and pretty much everything else and much less harsh compared to detergent. I suspect it does contain silicone however which certainly means more care is necessary before doing any touch ups.

His airplane is experimental. By small I meant chips. Of course the STC only applies to th he fabric covered areas. If it is larger than that and on fabric I would match what it is painted with.

[Robert Lees]

Re: Waxing your plane? Paint to touch up Polyfiber?

...A good wash with dish washing detergent will remove all of it (not SOAP, DETERGENT!) Hank

I must disagree: never use detergent (washing-up liquid etc). It contains aggressive salts. A soap-based cleaner is better.

Rob

[N95334]

Re: Waxing your plane? Paint to touch up Polyfiber?

Ref to touch up areas, how old is the Polytone? Do you have any Polytone left over? I assume not. What colour
are you wanting to touch-ups? Over the years the colour does change mostly fades. To obtain the correct match will be hard. You can buy the colour you want but most likely it will not be the same. I had to recover my rudder on my blue
Aeronca due to a tail spring breakage I had to order more Polytone and when I painted it the blue was different shade but not much. It was not that long after I painted the whole airplane. So if I had just a dab of white I could match it correctly. But what would it look like in 5 or 10 years? I did a small spot where you can't see easy to try and see how high gloss I could obtain. Started with rubbing compound and then polishing compound and finished with car wax. Turned out good. But would not want to do the whole aeroplane Lol! I think Polytone satin finish with pinked tapes look better on these older aeroplanes.

[SpecialT]

Re: Waxing your plane? Paint to touch up Polyfiber?

2004 from what I can tell in the logs. I did not cover it. Luckily it's white, so the match should be better, except it has red checkers on the tail. The rudder stops were not adjusted far enough out and so I have some cracked Polytone where the elevator hit the rudder in a couple places, and that is where the repair is.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Waxing your plane? Paint to touch up Polyfiber?

I must disagree: never use detergent (washing-up liquid etc). It contains aggressive salts. A soap-based cleaner is better.

Rob

You don't want to leave the detergent on the finish. It is only used to remove all of the wax, then you clean with a mild soap to remove any detergent. Problem is the soap will NOT remove the Carnauba. I have seen people use Prep Sol to take the wax off, but it is much harder on the finish than a short term exposure to the detergent. I would only use the Prep Sol to clean the area I was actually repainting to remove any soap residue. You really wouldn't ever need to intentionally remove the Carnauba unless you were planning to retouch the paint. Like all wax it will wear of on its own, but touch up paint will not stick to it.

We used to have a list of solvents and cleaners from mildest to harshest we would use when we painted Navy aircraft. The mildest you could wash your hands with safely. As I remember the two harshest on the list were MEK and Toluene. Too much exposure to those two could kill you. When prepping we would start with the mildest that would do the job and clean with milder to remove the cleaner. Last step for really critical components and specialized finishes was de-ionized water. Rarely needed to go that far.

Hank

[PA1195]

Re: Waxing your plane? Paint to touch up Polyfiber?

To the OP...wash and wax your plane twice a year. Repair with thinned Stits Polytone and a small spray device used for automotive or home projects: https://preval.com/all-products/

I've mentioned my dislike for Polytone before...not the Stits process but the longevity of Polytone and its affinity for aerial contaminants. I'm in a severe climate +90 to -60F so that has some bearing. Aerothane lasts and resists cracking far better here in my experience

For cleaning and preservation of Polytone all Stits could offer was clean with soap and use carnauba wax. But soap or detergent won't remove contamination in my experience. Contamination being airborne winter pollutants from vehicles and heating sources, and forest fire smoke residue in summer. The only thing that has so far is charcoal lighter fluid. Nothing else like detergents, alcohol or vinegar based products, or whatever does the job.

Gary

[SpecialT]

Re: Waxing your plane? Paint to touch up Polyfiber?

Now you have me wondering. I had some douglas fir needle sap or black contaminate type stuff on the trailing edge of the horizontal stabilizer and elevators. I used a much diluted vinegar and fabuloso mixture to get it off. So is this a no-no? I did notice that it took the sheen off. I couldn't find the ingredients of fabuloso, but it smells good! I like the idea of a a thinned Polytone treatment.

[3Dreaming]

Re: Waxing your plane? Paint to touch up Polyfiber?

You really need to figure out which top coat it has before doing any touch up. I don't think Polytone over Aerothane would be a good choice.

[PA1195]

Re: Waxing your plane? Paint to touch up Polyfiber?

You really need to figure out which top coat it has before doing any touch up. I don't think Polytone over Aerothane would be a good choice.

I've yet to have a problem telling Polytone from a Urethane or two part based covering, especially one that's aged some. But if someone does have a problem then wipe it with Isoporpyl alcohol or Stits solvent or thinner. The Polytone and Randolph dope will come a runnin' on the cloth. The Aerothane will just get cleaner. Top coating or spraying Aerothane is a hazmat process best done fully clothed and wearing a fresh air mask.

Gary

[3Dreaming]

Re: Waxing your plane? Paint to touch up Polyfiber?

Aerothane lasts and resists cracking far better here in my experience. Gary

I don't know that I have ever seen a Polytone finish with cracking, but I have seen several Aerothane finishes that have cracks. That is why I suggested that he figure out for sure which finish he has, because he said he had some cracking.