Sheet Aluminum protective covering removal

[washwren]

Been building a 6a (actually, storing and moving it more than building it), but I'm finally back at it. The white protective covering over the aluminum sheets is being difficult to remove after all these years...Any tips?

[Jekyll]

Try a heat gun or other heat source to warm the metal. The film comes off much better when warm.

Jekyll

[prkaye]

A hair dryer seems to work well enough for warming it. good to have a helper manning the hair dryer.
If it's still tough, combine this with another technique... use a broom handle, pipe or peice of dowel to roll the plastic off (start by taping the edge of the plastic to the broom handle and then roll the broom handle back so the plastic peels off the metal and rolls up on the handle).

[WSBuilder]

Use the soldering iron process and make more manageable strips to pull off using the previous poster's methods.

[washwren]

The heat was the ticket! Able to now pull it off without it shreading.

Mike, RV6a, Closing the left wing this weekend.

[DickDe]

I am working on an abandoned kit that Van's shipped in 2001 which had both blue and white plastic sheet on various Aluminum sheets. The blue plastic came off after heating as others already mentioned. It was not as easy to remove as "fresh" plastic would be but not too difficult. However, the white plastic was almost impossible to get off with or without heat and then only about one square inch at a time. I tried different options but cheap paint stripper took it all off relatively easy after a good soaking using a plastic auto body sqeegee as a scraper. The aluminum was not damaged.

My best advice is take it all plastic off as soon as possible and solve the problem as that stuff ages OR the previous owner MAY have stored the white covered pieces (smaller spars) in the sun resulting in UV damage. I can't say the cause but the blue & white are different. Fortunately, the white plastic covered only a few pieces.

Dick DeCramer
N500DD RV6
RV8 wing kit
Northfield, MN