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How to remove blue dye stain ?

pa38112

pa38112

Well Known Member
I could not find this in the threads; but does anyone have a good method for removing blue dye stains ? I tried acetone, but it does not seem to do much.
 
If you are referring to the blue dye stains from 100LL, I have always heard that using 100LL cleans 100LL
 
Depends. Some of the citrus cleaners will get most of it. MEK will get even more of it but... you can only use MEK on super tough paint like a 2 part polyurethane. Even then I've seen the white poly stained so deeply it won't all come out without color sanding.
 
I had fuel push out from the filler caps and stain my white wings. I tried all the usual suggestions - using 100LL to dissolve the dye, various cleaners, even tried buffing compound, all with no luck. A friend was urging me to get it repainted/blended. Once again being a procrastinator has saved me. I did nothing and realized one day about 6 months later it was gone on its own!
 
Exposure to bright sunlight will fade it away. I think the ultraviolet rays are what degrades the blue dye molecules. If you have clearcoat over your paint, the blue stain gets into and under the clearcoat and any mild solvents that are safe to use on the clear paint will not remove the blue stain. The wings of my RV-6 are clearcoated, and I learned the hard way not to overfill the tanks and then park the plane in a hot metal hangar. :mad: Sitting outside in the sunlight at Oshkosh for 5 days finally bleached most of the stain away.

If you have non-clearcoated polyurethane paint, then you may be able to rub out the stain with polishing compounds. I've used rubbing compound and plexiglass scratch remover polish on the wheelpants of my old Cherokee, which were painted with "Marathon White" Acry-Glo polyurethane. One of the fuel drains dripped onto a wheelpant for several days, and it left a really nasty, huge blue stain on top. The rubbing compound and lots of elbow grease got the stain completely out and the plexiglass polish brought the shine back to like-new. Just using 100LL or other solvents alone did little good to get the deep embedded stain out, only removed the surface staining.
 
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Spray carburetor cleaner dissolves it instantly. Test carefully on your paint first, but I have used it even on Cub fabric without hurting anything.
 
Sunlight

When I first flew my plane, the new paint absorbed some of the dye. Just a little time in sunlight made it disappear 100%. Now that the paint is mature, no more blue stains. Steve
 
This to shall pass

I had the exact same problem on my white wings. Now this is easy to say but hard to do if your baby is new or near new. Just leave ignore it. Fly and park out side in the sun for lunch. Was wax normally and one day you will realize the stain is no more. It worked for me. All that other stuff might cause more damage to your paint then you will need to repaint.
 
My neighbor used a product called "Goof Off" successfuly to remove blue stain from his Legend Cub.
Mitch
 
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