Monokote Trim Solvent

[Chris Fretz]

Monokote Trim Solvent... What a disaster that crap is!  Not for me apparently!

[Mike Haverly]

A little dab will do ya'.  Lay the Monokote down with Windex, squeegee out the bubbles and let it dry.  Apply the solvent sparingly around the edge of the trim pieces with a cotton swab.  It takes practice.

[Chris Fretz]

A little dab will do ya'.  Lay the Monokote down with Windex, squeegee out the bubbles and let it dry.  Apply the solvent sparingly around the edge of the trim pieces with a cotton swab.  It takes practice.

So only the edges hold it down? I thought the whole thing got the trim solvent.

[Mike Haverly]

You can do that but you will probably end up with a gooey mess.  But, you know that by now.

[Steve Helmick]

So only the edges hold it down? I thought the whole thing got the trim solvent.

The objective is only to seal the edges from fuel intrusion. How that works exactly, I don't know, but Dirty Dan recommended doing this. DD used film coverings for several decades.  Steve

[Mark Mc]

I use it to seal the edges of trim as above, but I find that I use it most often to clean up the edges of MonoKote where the the color smears a bit when ironing a dark color over a lighter color.  It is a solvent, so it works great.

[Mike Griffin]

I tried it with Ultracote and it does not work with the adhesive on Ultracote.  I do not know if it is proprietary to Monokote or not but if you are not using the Monokote brand, you might want to test it first.

Mike

[peabody]

It seems to seal the edges of the plastic covering that Brodak uses of late....but will give you a hangover

[Dane Martin]

I've always used it. I use it for a few different things while doing monokote. See this thread.

https://stunthanger.com/smf/old-time-stunt-discussion/ringmaster-s1-monokote/

I don't like to do really huge layover pieces. If the layer is big enough, I'll just piece together different colors as one sheet, then apply the covering

[MikeyPratt]

A little dab will do ya'.  Lay the Monokote down with Windex, squeegee out the bubbles and let it dry.  Apply the solvent sparingly around the edge of the trim pieces with a cotton swab.  It takes practice.

Mike has it right, just a little around the edges with a cotton swab and let it set until the next day.  I've added checkerboards, trim, and lettering cut from monocoat many times and it works just fine.  Place you trim in place and iron it down.  Dip a swab into the solvent and gently apply it to out side edge, it will wick into the underplaying adhesive and bond the trim in place.

Mike Pratt

[Skip Chernoff]

Mike do you cut the monokote trim ,then install it with like windex,then wait for it to dry, then seal it with your iron at a lower temp,then use the solvent on the edges? Thanks,Skip

[MikeyPratt]

Mike do you cut the monokote trim ,then install it with like windex,then wait for it to dry, then seal it with your iron at a lower temp,then use the solvent on the edges? Thanks,Skip

Hi Skip,
I've tried both ways without problems.  I like to iron the trim down (lower temp) and seal it with trim solvent.  Most don't allow enough time for the solvent to work.  Also, make sure the base film is clean before starting the process for good adhesion of the trim.

Later,
Mikey

[Chris Fretz]

Thanks guys you've saved the day again yet again. Anytime I try to iron on trim it turns into a bubbly wrinkle mess no matter how low the heat. Hopefully the Windex trick cures that.