Poly-Tone acts very much like the old Acrylic Lacquer we used to paint cars with. It even smells like it and if you want to get some idea of how it finishes out of the gun go along to a local car painter and he would probably be able to show you with AL. Done properly it will come out with around a semi gloss finish at best. You will only get a high gloss after using a rubbing compound and polish. It will never get the look of the Urethanes unless you put the time into it that a show car would get after painting. One heck of a lot of work. Blushing and dull finishes are caused by a number of things: Temperature, too hot and it dries too fast and is dull in appearance. Add retarder to slow the drying process. Too cold and you get that white blushing effect. There is a additive for this too but the best way is to have the right temperature when painting. Around 75 would be nice. None of the additives would improve the gloss that a correct painting temperature would get. To get the best gloss start putting down a finish, allow to dry and then rub back gently with 800 wet and dry paper. Shoot some more coats thinning the paint out as you go so that the last coat is almost thinner with very little paint. This is where skill is required as it is very easy to get runs. By rights you should rub back after each coat with 800 but I find that is ok if you are looking for a show finish but for me just keep putting the paint on as pointed out above.
I have yet to meet a painter that will agree to mix paint manufactures products. It may work but then again it may not. You should use the same manufacturer all the way from prep coats to finish coats. There would be some painters who have had considerable experience and experimented with different makes of paint but that would be more common in the automotive area than aircraft. You can add stripes etc over Polytone with no problems. Try and do it as soon as possible after the main coat has dried as it assists bonding. This does not apply if you shoot any Urethanes etc over a previously painted surface. You must make sure that the original surface has dried completely as the Urethanes seal the surface and can trap thinners etc underneath. It does strange things with the paint when you put it out in the hot sun. Stripping? you are on your own pal. The worst job in history and should be given to hard labour prisoners. A friend of mine who is a professional painter once showed me a good test to check compatibility of paints. Get a piece of fabric and prep and paint as you would the finished aircraft. After drying take a piece of this fabric and put it in your pocket and over the next month squash this fabric with your hands so that the surface gets a real workout. If any cracking or separation takes place you know not to shoot that onto your aircraft. Polytone will survive this sort of treatment as I am sure the other aircraft brands will, but some automotive paints will not. At 06:28 20/10/99 , you wrote: > Coup Painter Guru's, > > For painting fabric, how shiny does Poly-Tone turn out? I don't want > to go with their glossy urethane . They say you can add de-blushing > stuff to Poly-Tone to make it shinier- does this work? Any other > tips? > > Also, we would like to add a small stripe the leading edge of the > wings. Can I paint this over the Poly-Tone? The paint we're using > for the fuse is a PPG urethane I believe (I'm not the painter as you > can tell :) The directions on the Polyfiber say you can put *their * > urethane over Poly-Tone so why couldn't you put another urethane over > it? They warn against cracking but in the area we are striping there > is aluminum underneath so I'm guessing that the cracking will be > minimized. > > Also, also, any tips on stripping the old paint from the fuse? I'm > guessing its going to be a bugger of a job but am hoping to make it as > easy as possible. > > Thanks, ya'all are the best!!! > > Joa > > Oh, on another note- any of you have any familiarity with the V6 STOL? > Regards, Brian Garrett ************************************************************************** **** Manager-Projects & Systems Environmental Systems & Services Pty Ltd e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 405 Tooronga Rd Ph +61 3 9864 5300 Hawthorn East 3123 Fax +61 3 9822 8028 Australia ************************************************************************** ****
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