Experience on Care and Products for AirTech fabric Aircraft

[L Erick]

Hi All,

A friend and I just bought an aircraft with a recent AirTech process fabric recover. It is in a dark red color and we are concerned about keeping it pristine. How do we best clean off the bugs, and keep the finish looking like new.

Erick

[Tom Downey]

regular washing with soap and water and a good waxing at least once per year.

This is a catalyzed two part urethane enamel, any thing you would use on your car will be OK.

[WLIU]

If you want the bugs to come off easy, I can report that the craftsman who recovered my Pitts sanded the leading edges up to 2000 grit sandpapaper and then applied polishing compound. The surface is so slick that a wet rag wipes the bugs right off.

You could go to your airplane and do 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000 today. Just time and sweat. I will note that EAA Sport Aviation had a great article that expained how at these grits you are just leveling the high spots in the finish and not actually removing much material. At 1000 grit it feels like you are rubbing a dollar bill on the surface.

And the guy who recovered my Pitts is Joe Flood at the South Jersey Regional Airport. Does outstanding work.

Best of luck,

Wes
N78PS

[L Erick]

Thanks, for your response.
So any good quality wax will do the trick? I have used Nu Finish, the stuff in the orange bottle for vehicles and it does a great job, and a little cleaning. Reasonably priced.
As far as sanding, can it be lightly sanded a year after being finished with the finer grits with a follow up of wax? The previous owner stated he sanded and sanded etc. but the finish seems a little dull.

[WLIU]

If the finish has oxidized, start by going over it with polishing compound. See what it looks like at that point. If the previous owner sanded per the paint manufacturer's instructions, after the initial compounding, you can start with 600 or 800 grit and work up from there. After sanding do another pass with polishing compound.

Never thought that I would own 12000 grit sandpaper. But I have a Micro-mesh kit that goes that far. If you want to be blinded by the sun's glare off your finish, just keep going up in grits until you run out of energy.

Best of luck.

Wes
N78PS

[Tom Downey]

If the finish has oxidized, start by going over it with polishing compound.

Best of luck.

Wes
N78PS

This fabric system would have to be 20-25 years old to show any oxidation.

[Pearson]

A friend and I just bought an aircraft with a recent AirTech process fabric recover.

There is no reason to use sandpaper, no matter how fine of a grit, on a "recent" paint job, unless you have runs in it. I have an aircraft covered with the AirTech Coatings Process and it looks great after 12 years of use. Any good quality automotive type wax will help keep bugs from sticking. If you have a rough spot, or get a light scratch in the paint, you could sand it with some very fine grit paper using water and then follow up with a fine grit polish. But other than those situations, you shouldn't need to water sand your paint for many, many years. Even then, before I water sand an entire airplane, a huge amount of work, I would use an electric polisher and some Novus. They make polishes in three grits, #3 is coarse, #2 medium,and #1 fine. If you use #3 with an electric polisher, it is about the equivalent of water sanding with 600 or 800 grit sandpaper. But Novus polish will not keep the bugs from sticking. I used to use Lemon Pledge furniture polish on my windshield to prevent bugs from sticking. I never did, but I have heard of people using it on the leading edges of their wings and struts for that purpose. They would wipe it on after each flight. I know it works great on windshields.