Bearhawk Builder
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In the woods
No. The only time I’ve had that is if the primer was a different color. Yellow sucks.
Any of you Stewart’s experts have this color variation between fabric and metal?...all from the same can, all parts were primed with white Ekoprime. It still looks fine, just wondering. I don’t want each round of parts I paint to come out different.
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I just complete a PA-11 replica using Stuart system, using brushes and foam rollers. Satisfactory job but lots of work.
Warning: If you use auto gas when, for the first time, you put fuel in your tanks and if there is a fuel leak, it will disolve the EkoFill and the top coat will fall off where fuel drops hit the inside of fuselage or wings. I talked to the Stuart experts and this fact is known to them. I live in Eastern Canada.
I’ve been reading that. I haven’t experienced it. We seemed to have trouble with the top coat, from fueling with cans. A friend that does a lot of traditional painting was talked into Stewart paint last fall and he also had to patch fabric and repaint when the owner spilled some fuel on top when using a can. In a perfect world we’d never spill anything, but that’s just not reality. It sound like all the components are just not durable enough? Maybe I should rip the fabric off and start over before I waste anymore time and money.The issue is the backside of the fabric not the top coat. Stewart System top coat is catalyzed polyurethane
I don't see how spilling the top coat on the catalyzed polyurethane is cause a problem. It is like any catalyzed paint only it is carried via water vs solvents. Can you post some pictures?
So if you spill paint on the tops of the wings it softens the paint?I had (and still have) the same problem with Stewart paint on my Cub. Any fuel tank leaks, always 100LL, start the outside paint to dissolve. I was told, but too late to try, that this is a known issue—a solution is to supposedly paint the inside of the fabric before putting the tanks in.
Yea, that was my understanding, if the fuel got on the back side of the fabric. I remember when Jason Gerard was working for Stewarts and doing the seminars here he would Ekofil and paint inside the fuel tank bay.No, of course not on the top (painted) fabric. Sorry for the confusion.
But any internal (eg commonly around say SAF-AIR fuel drain fittings, causes a problem. And I did have one tank (tiny crack) leak long ago, so have a deteriorated spot (now seen on the outside) from that leaking inside out..
I had (and still have) the same problem with Stewart paint on my Cub. Any fuel tank leaks, always 100LL, start the outside paint to dissolve. I was told, but too late to try, that this is a known issue—a solution is to supposedly paint the inside of the fabric before putting the tanks in.
Thing is, at least in my experience from 12 years ago, fuel on the inside will release the finish coat from the under-layer, making it wrinkle and detach.
Edit: Could be that more recent formulations may have mitigated that.
Hopefully it would drain out the drain holes and evaporate but who knows.
So then why paint inside the tank bay at all- it’ll just run out the drain grommets…?