Polytone durability

[Jerrytex]

Big strides......all the fabric painted, wings on, and on gear.

Curious to know....I used white polytone. Turned out very nice and shockingly glossy compared to the last time I used it on just the wings of my KF4. However, it seems like it scuffs pretty easily? I don't remember it scuffing as easy as I am seeing now. Curious to know if other have experienced this?

Maybe it needs more cure time? It's been about a week. I noticed it when I put the bolts in the lift strut brackets, they barely dragged the fabric but scraped the white and there are marks. I can touch it up with a q-tip but still seems like it should be a little more durable. I followed the mixing directions to a "t".

Sooooo glad to be done with the fabric and paint. A huge undertaking........ and a real PITA.

IMG_3926.jpg

[Flybyjim]

I have sprayed polytone on a couple planes, Aeronca L16A's and you are correct, the paint will scuff. Once the paint has cured for 30 days or so I seal the paint with a good wax, this helps a lot. Also polytone will stain from water drops from a hangar, bird droppings, mice droppings and the like. I had a friend that had an engine out in his Challenger and landed in a cow pasture with many cow pies. Once he flew his plane out of there and got back to our hangar the white on his fuselage and wings were looking more yellow/green. Even after a good wash the white never came back, he did not have his paint sealed with a wax. Others may have different outcomes.

[taff]

You are right Jim.
PolyTone does take some time to dry out. I say dry out because that's what's happening.
It doesn't cure. Epoxy's and Urethane type paints cure.

PolyTone just evaporates the solvents from within the film thickness applied. The thicker the film the more time to dry.
The cooler it is the less volatile the solvent release.
An enclosed area will slow down the evaporation. A cold damp workshop will really slow down the drying.

I didn't spray my Skybolt fabric with a urethane because I was not in the best environment for it.
I used the PolyFiber process throughout. PolyBrush, PolySpray and PolyTone.

Knowing that I needed to protect the PolyTone I used Carnauba wax to keep the mischief off.
Before that I used a light compound to provide a little shine.

If you didn't have lots of loose spray dust on that last coat of PolySpray.
If you applied your white PolyTone with a nice and wet (flowing) coat, you should be Ok for paint adhesion because that's where it scraped off from, the silver, right.
But as Jim said it takes a couple of weeks, maybe up to a month.

A couple of photos of me detailing the wing.

[Flybyjim]

It takes some time but as you can see below his Skybolt finish looks fantastic.

[Jerrytex]

I saw where the polytone manual talks about polishing and waxing. I think waxing is a good idea and something I will do.

I guess that I will give it some time for the solvents to evaporate and see if it will "toughen" up a bit.

I will say that on a couple of scratches, I used a q-tip for touch up and it blended pretty easily.

Thanks everyone.