Tip: Removing Vinyl

[kentb]

I started with the razor blade, two screwed to a one inch board.
Stopped that right away. Then came the soldering iron against a long ruler.
By the end of my second wing I was free handing the iron over the rivet area or just tearing the film away by hand.
The film does offer some protection from dropped tools, but not much and corrosion does not appear to be an issue. If you have damaged the skin surface (the alclad) then give is a quick shot of primer.
I order the Fuse. as a quick build because I was starting to get in a hurry to get the thing done. Vans does not ship those with film on them.

Save your selves some time and don't worry about the film. There are no extra points for having the nicest film on you plane during construction.

Kent

[jcoloccia]

I don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet but the best iron I found for cutting the blue plastic is the butane Radio Shack iron. Works unbelievable well and it's really small, i.e. very easy to manuever with no cord in the way. They're also cheap and come in handy for all sorts of other things as well.

[JohnR]

I have been just taking it off as I plan on full paint. I don't have an over abundance of scratches on any of my finished parts and I can wipe the blue printing off that others have mentioned can cause corosion issues in humid areas.

The easiest way I have found was suggested by another builder. Use a broom handle and just roll the plastic off. Works great for me!

[David Clifford]

I just got my emmpanage/wing kit for my RV-10. The manual says to remove all the vinyl covering as soon as possible as it gets difficult to remove as time passes. My question is: Is the film REALLY difficult to remove after a period of time? I would prefer to leave it on as long as possible for added protection against accidental damage. Thanks for any advice! Dave

[BuckWynd]

The plastic on my empennage skin (which was clear, by the way, not blue -- that's how long ago I started on the tail kit... arghh) has been on since late 2001. I recently pulled it off the horizontal stabilizer just to make sure there was no corrosion under there. The plastic came right off, no sweat.

I'm hoping they don't change plastic colors again. I'll REALLY feel like a slowpoke.

[William Slaughter]

Originally Posted by David Clifford

I just got my emmpanage/wing kit for my RV-10. The manual says to remove all the vinyl covering as soon as possible as it gets difficult to remove as time passes. My question is: Is the film REALLY difficult to remove after a period of time? I would prefer to leave it on as long as possible for added protection against accidental damage. Thanks for any advice! Dave

I've had good luck removing the blue plastic after an extended period of time, though it is harder. If you get anything in with white plastic, take it off right away. I just had to order a new F-830 floorboard because some areas of the white plastic were literally fused on. I could scrape it off a matchhead sized piece at a time, but that was it. Tried every solvent and adhesive remover in the inventory with no luck. At the rate I was going, it would have taken 4 hours to clean off the part - no thanks.

[N674P]

Originally Posted by William Slaughter

I've had good luck removing the blue plastic after an extended period of time, though it is harder. If you get anything in with white plastic, take it off right away. I just had to order a new F-830 floorboard because some areas of the white plastic were literally fused on. I could scrape it off a matchhead sized piece at a time, but that was it. Tried every solvent and adhesive remover in the inventory with no luck. At the rate I was going, it would have taken 4 hours to clean off the part - no thanks.

William- I've heard heating the vinyl with a heat gun (or maybe a blow dryer?) would make it much easier to remove. Did you try that?

[William Slaughter]

Oh yea. Heating the blue vinyl works pretty well, but the white stuff literally melted without letting go. You can imagine how well attached it was after that! Hopefully we won't be seeing any more of the white plastic in the future, but if you do, watch out. Received my new F-830 last night (in blue plastic), so we're back on track.

[TShort]

I started my -8 in 2005, wing kit came last fall (of '05) and I had a mix of blue, clear, and white plastic in the wing kit. For me, the white was the easiest to remove - it was thick / heavy and came right off.

T.

[William Slaughter]

As alluded to at the beginning of this thread, I think it was an aging issue. Mine had been sitting aroung quite a while. And no, I'm not going to admit how long!