darn imron

[kevin mielke]

i have the dredded imron paint and it is starting to crack(15 years not to bad) I know it is going to need recover but would like to get a few more years out of it. it has spent its intire life out side and need to get cracks sealed.preferably without looking like total poo any do and donts.I was just going to put a gob of silver on to keep water out?

[Nathan K. Hammond]

Hey Kevin,

Get some reducer/thinner that's used with Imron. Using a rag soaked with the reducer, rub the crack until the colors start to get soft and blend together. Don't push to hard or you might rub out the color and dig into the silver. No matter what you do, you'll aways see a blemish; either crack, silver, or smuggy paint. But that's sure better than 3 months and a couple grand out the door!

nkh

[MikeB]

Kevin,
The wings on my Champ had been covered with Blue River (gasp) and painted with Imron before I bought it. I recovered everything with Superflite except the wings as they only had a few years on them at the time. Although the wings did have a number of ringworms and cracks in the paint. After a discussion with my AI I decided to see if I could save the wing fabric (or at least put off recovering them for a few years). I scuff sanded the Imron paint and primed over the ringworms and cracks with Superflite primer (filled the cracks, sanded, etc. several times) then repainted the wings with Supeflite using a 'star burst' pattern.....so far so good. I should mention that scuff sanding and priming was a suggestion from the fabric and paint specialist at Superflite.....name escapes me, though. Anyway, at least it worked pretty well for me and the polyurathane Supeflite seemed to bond well with the Imron after scuff sanding and has stood up for several Wisconsin winters. Eventually, I'll have to recover the wings and I want to put in wing tanks anyway.

I can't imagine why anyone would paint fabric with Imron as the stuff is as hard as wood pecker lips and no matter how much flex agent you put in it I think it will eventually crack and ringworm. Once the stuff gets hard and cross linked, you can hardly soften it with MEK or reducer....at least I couldn't.

Hope this gives you some ideas anyway.....good luck!!

Mike

[kevin mielke]

thanks guys, I have tried the MEK and steel wool rout and it did soften up a bit but very slow. I dont have any ring worm but any place there is a crack it is right down to dac proofer so UV and water are my only concern thank goodness wings are new with super flight. I think I like your idea Mike as the fabric is good just got to keep the water out

[MikeB]

Kevin,
If you can find someone with some left over Superflite system 2 or 6 UV blocker primer that's what I used on mine and, like I said, it seemed to work. One thing about the polyurathane paint is that it doesn't blend in well (unlike dope) so you can't really spot paint, but rather have to almost do a complete panel or paint line (after scuffing). My experience anyway, but I'm hardly an expert .

Good luck!!

Mike

[kevin mielke]

the patching is going well thanks to mikes tips there are areas were the paint has lifted along with some of the edge of the finishing tapes what is the best way to glue them down?

[MikeB]

Depending on how much is sticking up, probably the best way is to push a little (not much) glue under the tape edge, let it dry and use a 'cool' iron (around 200 degrees) to stick it back down. Don't go high with the iron temperature or you'll shrink the tape. Using just the tip of the iron seems to work best.
Hope this helps.

Mike

[kevin mielke]

thanks mike, it seems i got a little carried away picking at the pealing paint. it seems like i could peal it all off ecept for the tapes it stuck there quite well every were els it lifts silver and all right to the dac proofer