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Blue Plastic Removal

F

findane

Active Member
I took all the blue plastic off my empannage skins prior to construction. Now I have a lot of small scratches. What the best method to remove the blue plastic over the rivet holes only?
 
Before painting, you will rough up the surface. Don't lose a lot of sleep over little scratches and scrapes. If you plan on a polished alloy look, maybe a different story. That shiny look is great in the workshop, while you are still determined to build that perfect aeroplane, but reality will win out in the end. I generally go over scratches with Autosol, or similar polish if they are really bothering me. And, after a few years building, that is less and less frequently. My advice, listen to Vans, and get the blue stuff off asap.;)
Just my thoughts
DaveH
 
You can cut it with a soldering iron if you want. One line on either side of each rivet line, join those lines top and bottom, and peel.

Or peel it all off now and pad your workbench with moving blankets.
 
With the FL humidity you do not want that blue film on anything, it will initiate corrosion at the edges and work in. I have a padded moving blanket on my work bench that helps to keep the skins from scratches, but like mentioned above, look at a prepped airplane for paint.
 
Soldering Iron

If you use a soldering iron to cut the plastic, don't use the same tip that you plan on using for any electrical work in the future, as the tip will become contaminated and function poorly even after cleaning (I found this out the hard way). Also ensure your tip is polished smooth to prevent scratching the soft alclad.
Tom.
 
If you use a soldering iron round the tip on a grinder or scotchbrite wheel so it is blunt. Use a straight edge like a four foot level as a guide. You don't need to burn through the plastic entirely and scratch the skin, more so a score line, you'll get the hang of it. I like to leave the blue film on for construction but remove it for long term storage.
 
Dbro172 said:
If you use a soldering iron round the tip on a grinder or scotchbrite wheel ....
Click to expand...

If you use the scotchbrite wheel, you will have to toss the wheel in the trash as the steel particles that it took off the tip will be pushed into any aluminum that touches the wheel after that and will cause corrosion later on.

The grinder is better.
 
N941WR said:
If you use the scotchbrite wheel, you will have to toss the wheel in the trash as the steel particles that it took off the tip will be pushed into any aluminum that touches the wheel after that and will cause corrosion later on.

The grinder is better.
Click to expand...

Very true! You don't want to contaminate your expensive wheels with cupper and iron dust.

How about using an old flat file and a little bit of sand paper. It is just a small tip after all and you will have more control. I always clean my soldering iron tips with an old file which I don't use for anything else and that file doesn't look pretty at all.
 
Get the El cheapo soldering iron from Harbor Freight and grind the tip blunt as others have mentioned. I have a wooded yardstick from Home Depot that I drilled a #40 hole centered width wise 3" from the end. This will give you a one inch strip around the rivet line. The yardstick burns a little bit but there isn't heat transfer like you would have on a metal yardstick. I position the free end by eye since it's not that critical that you be exactly centered on the rivet line.
 
I recommend that you remove the blue plastic early-on for the reasons cited above (corrosion, hard to remove later, etc.). Unless you are going to mirror-polish the exterior of your plane when completed, all of the miscellaneous scratches created during construction will be hidden by final paint.
 
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