There is a warning in the Aircraft Spruce catalog that it can be difficult to remove if left on more than a year, not that you don't already know that. They sell Unmask right under it on page 75 for removing the masking paper, but I don't know if it will help any on the spraylat. I just bought some of the Unmask for when I remove the electrical tape on my Mustang in a few weeks.
Brian Kraut Engineering Alternatives, Inc. www.engalt.com -----Original Message----- From: krnet-boun...@mylist.net [mailto:krnet-boun...@mylist.net]On Behalf Of Mark Langford Sent: Friday, October 29, 2004 7:58 PM To: KRnet Subject: KR> the heartbreak of Spraylat NetHeads, I've spent 4 or 5 hours so far, and expect to spend many more, peeling the Spraylat off my canopy. Spraylat is the acrylic material that most canopy manufacturers apply to their canopies to eliminate scratching during shipping and subsequent construction. It seems that it hardens with age, and is seriously affected by primers. I read on the web somewhere that the cure was to spray a new layer of Spraylat on top of the original, but unfortunately I didn't have the good sense to order any yet. I finally got the hang of the inside and learned the big secret, which is start in the middle and peel outward toward the edges. That worked pretty good for the inside, and I expected similar results on the outside. But I've been scraping at it all afternoon, and it's gotten to be a real pain. It's easy enough out in the middle, but at the edges it has to be scrapped off a square millimeter at a time, which means by fingernail. Where it really gets tough is where Smooth Prime was applied to the Spraylat (accidentally, not thinking it would matter). Apparently there is some sort of hardening reaction between the two, along with some adhesion to the Plexiglas. It flakes off in tiny pieces. At my current rate, I'm stuck for another 10 hours. I'll order some Spraylat tonight and see how it goes, but for now, I'm warning you guys not to get primer, especially Smooth Prime, on your Spraylat. The easiest way to avoid this it to use several widths of electrical tape to make sure that the Spraylat never sees any primer of any kind. Electrical tape is THE ticket, as I learned from Don Reid several years ago. Masking tape will become a permanent part of your canopy if you use it. If you have masking tape (or duct tape) on your canopy, remove it right now to prevent further damage. Anybody with good ideas as to how to make this bearable is welcome to enlighten me, but right now I'm waiting 'till Tuesday when UPS can bring me some Spraylat to put on top of this mess... Mark Langford, Huntsville, Alabama N56ML "at" hiwaay.net see KR2S project at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford _______________________________________ to UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@mylist.net please see other KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html
