I have several of the arf's and the covering is coming off. I've tried C/A, oil remover, box tape, hot glue. thumb tacks, epoxy glue. Nothing seems to work for me, SO!!!! the big question: "WHAT'S THE ANSWER, WHO KNOWS HOW TO GET THE DARN COVERING TO STICK AGAIN??? I tried to drive nails thru the covering and that didn't work either, what the hiccup doc? HELP!!!!!HELP??

   My first guess would be heat. But I think you would do better stripping it off and covering with something better - preferably before the first flight.

     Brett

Peel and recover. Aside from that, peel back non stuck covering and spray K2R (the dry cleaning/talc in a spray can) on balsa. Remove talc dust. Do again in order to suck out fuel residue. Do again. Balsarite works better than anything else I've found. Not 100%. I've hopes for my new ARF Vector. After ironing down the covering, carefully, I have sealed and sealed again and sealed again all the covering edges with trim seal.  One fellow I met at Brodak who had a spotless prissy looking ARF said his secret was to scotch bright all the covering intersections and seal them with dope, 4 times. Another fellow, after heat sealing, sprays his new ARF with two part urethane clear. He says the covering definitely does not lift. Got to hand it to the new poisonous paints with a nuclear  half-life.

    Maybe the use of the Monocote liquid trim sealer, can resolve the problem? I used it on my tutorII a few years ago, and the trim around the engine area, never came loose again.
   

I know that I'm not going to offer any constructive advice on this and for that my apologies.
I stopped buying the precovered ones long ago like after the second one was developing leprosy and shedding it's covering. I buy the ARC version simply because it makes it easier to inspect and redo anything that I don't like. Also I generally want a different design on mine then every other of the same arf on the fiels.
Most of the precovered models have this problem I guess simply because they allow no overlap to seal the edges. On my first one there actually was a bare spot that they apparently forgot to do.
The arc's have been useful to me for practice ships and also some were models that I would ordinarily not have built.It gave me a chance to sample them and then I bought a kit.
Dennis

On my Score I covered all the edges of the white base color and trim colors with strips of clear Monokote. It took about a week of evenings to do this. It was a little tricky because the Score is not covered with Monokote even though it is advertised as such. The Score's covering, and especially the colored adhesives underneath it, will not tolerate the very high temperatures of Monokote. Nevertheless I eventually did it with relatively little over shrinkage and color bleed of the stock covering. The effort was worth it. After 3 seasons of flying with an ST .60 and cleaning off the heavy Castor residue, the covering is still intact. I have an ARF Flite Streak flying (a lot) since 2002 and there are no problems with the stock covering. Ditto with 3 ARF Noblers that have been flying for 6 to 7 seasons. Those early ARFs seem to be covered with real Monokote. All I did was go over the seams and any trim color lines with a hot iron and/or trim tool. On the Score and most of the Brodak ARFs except the SV-11 and T-Rex, the coloring will peal off relatively quickly unless the trim lines are sealed with clear Monokote. A somewhat easier alternative is 3M clear vinyl tape. It's good for 2 or 3 seasons but Monokote lasts as long as the model.  EWP   

Some use simple hair spray on a clean model before the engine is fired.

ARFs are CHEAP. The quality given the price is amazing. Lots of folks assemble and fly ARFs the way they came out of the box. Tweaking this and that. Or ignoring this and that. Imperfections drive me nuts. At least the ones I have the ability to judge and see. Especially when it comes to the straightness of the bird and durability. Hard for me to trust crimped lead outs. Period. Well, I've seen many fly crimped lead out planes for years. Warps can be difficult or not so difficult to rectify. Peeling covering can be coped with. Warps are inevitable given the balsa construction and the trip these birdies take across the ocean. After doing four or five ARFs I am begrudgingly coming to the opinion that building my own stuff will probably be the way I go.

Chris, It was made in the same factory as all of the others and to tell you the truth the example that I got didn't impress me a whole lot.In fact there was so much wrong with it, it is still unfinished. And at the time it was the most expensive ARF on the market. You do not necessarily get the best for your money when dealing with Chinese merchandise. And to be fair the other importer stands behind his product and will replace anything deemed defective. I have no argument with Steve Moon but I also have no idea on how quality issues are addressed by him. and no I didn't contact him on my kit. Sometime I'll rebuild it. While I'm sure that he does an admirable job I have nothing but affirmatives for JB and his products.
Dennis

Hi Dennis,
Oh man, too bad. Mine is straight as a string and well glued, even.
Unfortunately I won't be building it now that the AMA rules are now against using ARC's in competition. Too bad that has happened as now the event seems doomed. It also seems that kits designed for construction of other than balsa wood are systematically being negatively effected.

In 1991 the Adamisin's had a kit that was sheeted foam wing, fibreglass fuse. It was killed by what I call the "Guillows crowd". (Guillows estimates that 90% of their sales of kits are never built!!!)
 
I'll probably never fly Stunt again. Not enough time to build ships from sticks. He)), I can build an RC Scale model in less time, fibreglass fuse kits have been allowed for 35 years!
Chris...

Too late for me. With Bill's "new sheriff in town" letters and the recent news from Trostle, then my reading the AMA rule book, it seemed that there was a new backlash against progressing to newer materials and pre-fabrication. Even pre-sheeted foamers against the rules, even though they've been OK since 1966. I simply stopped construction and changed my plans.
Oh well.
Chris...