Tip: Sikaflex Primer Masking Test

[RV7AJeremy]

Just wanted to share my results with the group in hopes it will save others some time.

I am getting ready to glue my canopy and I wanted to see tape would perform best with the sika primer.
Here is a list of the tapes that I was able to find locally with realitivaly little effort:
3M Blue Painters Tape (Home Depot)
Frog Tape (Home Depot)
Rust-oleum Professional tape (From auto zone) how the primer would perform
Old Cheap Electrical Tape I had in my tool box
Scotch/3M Professional Grade Super 88 Electrical Tape (Home Depot)
Scotch/3M Professional Grade 35 Yelloy Electrical Tape (Home Depot)



The Results:
All the masking tape performed poorly, the Frog Tape was the worst. The Scotch/3M tape did the best, and it performed best when you let the primer dry and the remove pulling toward the primed side. I likes the yellow tape best as it offered better visibility with the contrast.

I would have liked to try Fine Line tape by 3M but was unable to find a source locally.

Hope this helps other.

BTW, the canopy pieces love the 100 degree AZ temps, I had to work very hard to get the scraps to crack/fail.

[lorne green]

Black PVC electrical tape works as well as 3M FineLine for
the application of the sika primer.

[mike newall]

Just done our 8 canopy.

As Lorne says - 3M fine line tape, then we backed up with Home Despot blue tape.

Gives a really good, crisp line. Used it on our 7 a few years ago.

Putting the fillets on in an hour !

[krw5927]

I'll second that frog tape is a really poor choice for this application. Unfortunately this information comes about 3 weeks too late for me, and I'd already used frog tape. I would've been better off painting my primer on by hand. Ugh...

[RV7Guy]

3M is the only tape you should be using directly on your canopy for this purpose. I know a lot of people have used electrical tape but the Fine Line adhesive is designed to withstand the various chemicals used in the painting process. This is not a place you want a problem. It is much more than just getting a good mask line, it is avoiding a potential chemical reaction.

I use Fine Line for the initial line and then back it up 3M vinyl tape.