Stewarts Systems

[TroyBranch]

I am surprised to not find anyone talking about Stewarts Systems anywhere on the forum. It is banned here.

I have used it with great success on my last plane and loved using it over the Polyfiber. I love the fact that there is almost no smell right through to color. You can hardly smell anything about 30min after spraying the top coat and almost nothing with the filler and primer. Amazing. You don't need clamps to hold the fabric in place and I found you can work faster with it.

I have read others having trouble that was mainly do to not following the right process or not using the right fabric, take that away and I found it to be a great product with a great shine. I will be using it on this airplane and looking forward to covering the wings with it soon.

Ease of use, safer for your health and a great shine.

What was your driver for not using it?

[Clay Hammond]

Repair-ability. Polyfiber is dirt simple to patch.

[paulk]

I have done a couple of planes with Stewarts and like it very much. Paint process works very well but only if you follow the directions exactly. Very little to no oder which is a big plus for my shop.

I also have used Poly-fiber. Great stuff but I no longer have the facilities to deal with the smelly solvent based process.

Both are easy to repair, have great documentation and factory support.

Fabric systems are like religion, everyone has a favorite and you are not going to change their mind

Paul K.

[Cubrath]

Troy,

If if you use the Stewart's process on your Carbon Cub please post as much as the process as possible on the forum. I am very much a poly fiber fan but using that much MEK over the years is starting to worry me. If I knew I could get great results right out of the gate I might give it a try.

I think it's just like anything, you hear a few bad stories and that's all you remember. No one wants to refinish a fuselage because something was off by an ounce??? Show us why it's better and I might give it a try.

Mike

[TroyBranch]

Some people used it on the Polyfiber 4 and they did not know it was not compatible. That is when the falling off started. The weave is to tight for the product to get into the weave. They have tested the product on Polyfiber 5 and that problem is now gone. Superflite fabric was never an issue. Polyfiber 5 is what is shipped with the Carbon Cub. I have all the fabric from Cub Crafters.

I will gladly post the process on this forum. Since it will be my second time using it, it should be that much easier and fun. I followed their instruction completely and I am really happy with the way it turned out. Everyone asks me where I got it painted so that must be a good thing I used a Sata 4000 with built in digital pressure gauge.

I have to agree on the use of MEK. It is terrible stuff. The only stinky chemical you use for this process is thinner to final flush out the gun after using the top coat. All other times is just water to clean the gun fully. Even if the finish was not as good (Not the case) I would still use it, my health is more important than that.

[TroyBranch]

So I have started the painting process with Stewarts. I will update as I go so you can all get a better feel of the product. I have one wing covered and all the emp covered at this time. I am just showing the paint process but could show the glue if there is interest.

Here is the wing ready to go.

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First you need to clean the fabric with water and eco clean product by Stewarts. I spray on the eco clean and use a sponge, wetting the fabric slightly first with water before spaying. Just scrub it and then continually rinse with a clean sponge to get all the soap out.

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With the fabric still damp, use a foam brush and brush on the Eco fill. The first coat is very light and the water helps it soak into the weave. If the fabric drys out, just wet it with a sponge ahead of your self.

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First coat complete. Its a 1/2 cross coat.

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Here the second coat is going on. It can go on once the first coat is dry. No other prep required.

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When you brush it on you tip it 90 degrees to knock down the bubbles. Called tipping. As it drys it is perfectly smooth.

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Second coat on the wing. Here you can see the quality of the finish. You would not know you brushed it on.

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First cross coat done.

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What I did next was iron all the pinked edges. The instructions say to only do that after the first spray coat. I found that it works better at this stage. Once you do it now, you should not have to take the iron out again unless you find a spot you missed. After that a light DRY sanding and you start the spraying process. That should happen this week.

[TroyBranch]

First cross cost is on and now I am dry sanding with 320 paper. Once this sanding is done I will add two cross coats back to back. Pretty much non stop spraying. Then i will shoot a light coat of white primer so the colour pops better.


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[Cubrath]

Troy,

Thanks for the updates. I like what I see so far! I hope you will also post the bad with the good of you have any!!

Mike

[TroyBranch]

I will definitely let you know about the bad if I find any and promise not to swear on the net

Tonight I sanded off the last filler coat. It was sprayed on with two continuous cross costs. The key is to keep it going on with a dry look. If you get a shine you are going to heavy. The trick is to find the fine line between to dry and two wet. I think a bit of shine is fine because if you go the other way it is not as smooth. Move the gun in closer if it is to dry. You will soon find the right spot for your gun setting. Either way it sands to a smooth finish easily so is not totally important. Next is the white primer that I will do tomorrow night. It will go on light with not complete coverage. Just enough to help the yellow look better. I could give it good coverage but it is just adding weight.

After that I will take it out of the booth and do all the emp right through to colour. Once they are done, the other wing will go on the stand for cover and it will stay their until finish colour. This wing will just need a sanding and it can be top coated.


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[fancypants]

Any chance you can weigh the finished wing? A complete Super Cub covered with Stewarts is purported to save 20-30 lbs. over other common processes, but I've not seen any data to back it up. There are probably too many variables involved to fairly compare one person's painted wing to another's.