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Building Tips and technical articles. => Paint and finishing => Topic started by: Mike Griffin on May 07, 2017, 11:49:51 AM

Title: Removing doped on Polyspan
Post by: Mike Griffin on May 07, 2017, 11:49:51 AM
I have a profile Cavalier that I need to recover.  It is currently covered with doped on Polyspan and the color was yellow dope.  What is the best procedure for removing the current covering down to the bare balsa?  The fuselage was not covered with any type of covering, just painted with the dope.  IF anyone has a tried and proven step by step process for getting the model back to the bare balsa skeleton, I would appreciate the help.

Mike
Title: Re: Removing doped on Polyspan
Post by: Gerald Arana on May 07, 2017, 12:04:52 PM
Mike,

Get your self a roll of paper towels and a gallon of acetone. Cut each (full) sheet into quarters......a couple dozen or so, wet them out with acetone and start rubbing! Do about a 3-6" square at a time. It'll take some time but the results are worth it.

That's all there is to it! 

Good luck and let us know how you are doing, Jerry
Title: Re: Removing doped on Polyspan
Post by: Mike Griffin on May 07, 2017, 12:30:56 PM
Thank you Jerry.

Mike
Title: Re: Removing doped on Polyspan
Post by: Serge_Krauss on May 07, 2017, 07:46:27 PM
I used Dad's paint stripper (suggested by Randy Ryan), after acetone failed to work fast enough. I worked  more than an hour to remove silkspan from one (of four) panels of my 500 in2 "Primary Force" wing. The paint stripper did the other three in a fraction of that time, with less damage to the balsa from my prying. I don't know why the acetone was so less effective, but at least for my Brodak butyrate, the stripper was superior.
Title: Re: Removing doped on Polyspan
Post by: Larry Renger on August 07, 2017, 11:44:41 PM
Amazingly, it was recommended to me to just carve it off with a razor plane! Dang if it didn't work. Careful setting of the cut depth let me take it right down to the wood with no damage to the structure.

Take a look at my Sky Sport in the 1/2 A section to see the result!