Painting plexi

[Dan L]

I asked Polyfiber for their recommendation for spraying plexi using the Bulldog product and they recommend just the Aerothane and no primer. So that makes it simple and seems to be what other builders have been doing too.

[Dan L]

I pulled my old peeling D windows out today. Most of the double sided sticky tape stayed on the fuselage tubes. Anyone have the hot tip for removing it from the tubes without causing other damage, like taking powder coat with it?

I am thinking of trying a heat gun waved over the tape for starters.

[lemacaviation]

We've used a 3m adhesive eraser wheel to get the majority of the gunk off and then wipe it down with mek or lacquer thinner to clean it completely.

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[Cubrath]

Lemacaviation is right on. Buy one of the 3M eraser wheels. They are about $40 but last a long time. There will make your life much easier.

[N867SP]

I asked Polyfiber for their recommendation for spraying plexi using the Bulldog product and they recommend just the Aerothane and no primer. So that makes it simple and seems to be what other builders have been doing too.

I did the bulldog, allowed it to flash and then topcoat (PPG in my case), worked great, that's to say it looks great and has held up after 15.3hrs of flight time. FWIW


Pete
CCK-1865-0078
️N9PW
Severna Park, MD
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[Dan L]

For what it is worth, I thought I'd try the heat gun first and the tape peeled off nicely after it was warmed up a bit. I pulled the turtle deck first because the top tape strip is hard to get to otherwise. And that exposed more tape to remove and replace when the turtle deck goes back on.

After peeling the tape off a rag dipped in Polyfiber C-2210 solvent removed what little sticky residue was left behind.

[Dan L]

new_paint_D.jpg

Here are the new windows installed. I'm hopeful the Bulldog product does its job. It is a big job to remove and install these. The turtle deck needs to come off and while I was replacing and painting the D windows I thought I'd paint the bottom strip on the side windows too. I didn't do that on the originals and I think they look better painted. But removing the side windows is best done with the skylight removed. So I did that, removed the side windows and masked them. But then I found that the Bulldog and paint wouldn't adhere to the plexi. I'm guessing that the Plexus window cleaner I use has some silicone in it and that causes big problems for paint.

So now I had the lower strip scuffed and looking terrible. There was no choice at this point but to replace the side windows too and start over. Peeling the side windows off of the frames went better than I thought. I was concerned I'd scratch off powder coating from the frames getting the windows separated with the double sided sticky tape. But I didn't and it wasn't much of a job.

image.jpg

I also had an issue with the original right side window that is cured now with the new window. At the time I received my kit the instructions said to cut a notch for the hinges. This moves the window up a 1/4" or so on the frame. The problem is that left a small gap on the bottom of the window where the strut clearance cutout is on the lower door. Now I don't have that gap; the window seals nicely there with the new window sans hinge cutouts.

I'm glad I replaced all of the windows now. But it was a lot of work to get to that point.