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Blue Covering

sekinflight

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I am sure this has been answered before but what is the standard for removing the blue covering that protects the parts during shipment and storage. The manual talks about removing it soon after inventorying but reading some threads it looks like many builders leave it on for a long period of time. I assume if the parts are stored in warm, humid environments it can be a problem but if stored in relatively mild environments why would one remove prior to actually using the parts.
 
I prefer to leave mine on while actively building the part. I use the soldering iron method to remove it around rivet lines but leave the rest in place (on the outside) until after riveting for that assembly is complete. Helps a bit to reduce workshop rash from metal shavings and such.
 
Whatever you want

A) you're right, this has been discussed many times. The search feature on the toolbar above is handy for finding stuff like this, the trick is knowing what key words to search for. In this case maybe "blue covering" ;)

B) the short story is "do whatever you want". If it will lower your blood pressure to leave it on and try to protect your aluminum while building, use the soldering iron method. If you prefer to avoid the extra steps involved in peeling off rows with the soldering iron, go ahead and pull it all off once you touch a part (that's what I chose). Some people say it gets harder to remove with time. At the rate I'm going I'll probably be around to test that theory. Whichever way you go, it won't be the biggest mistake you have to deal with over the next 2000ish hours.
 
Whichever way you go, it won't be the biggest mistake you have to deal with over the next 2000ish hours.

Boy there's some truth. :D
I'm in the remove camp. I don't plan to polish so a few scuff marks are not the end of the world.
 
You will eventually scuff every square inch of the plane with a scotchbrite pad as part of the prep for painting. Takes a long time to so the soldering iron thing. I started doing that the realized it wasn't worth it, for what I intended to do.
 
Accidently expose the film to UV light to the point where the film strength degrades so you cannot pull the wretched stuff off, you will spend more time removing 1 square metre of the film than it takes to remove all the blue plastic on all kit items when new.
I spent way too long building my RV-6 most of it spent doing what I see now as useless unproductive anal retentive tasks like this. Believe me you have already wasted too much time even contemplating the option.
Just get on with the job, life is way too short.
 
Accidently expose the film to UV light to the point where the film strength degrades so you cannot pull the wretched stuff off, you will spend more time removing 1 square metre of the film than it takes to remove all the blue plastic on all kit items when new.
I spent way too long building my RV-6 most of it spent doing what I see now as useless unproductive anal retentive tasks like this. Believe me you have already wasted too much time even contemplating the option.
Just get on with the job, life is way too short.

Doug,
Thanks for be so candid regarding your build.
It is things like this that push build times high and make builders scoff at the build times estimates published by Van's (none of this type of work is figured into the estimated build times).
 
I'm painting my RV, so I'm in the camp of "remove it right away." You'll get lots of tiny, insignificant scratches, and a few that are a little deeper that can easily be sanded out at prep time. Use the energy that would've been expended with the soldering iron to move forward on the project!
 
Remove it now. Mine had quite a bit of corrosion under the blue. Vans applies the blue film....in Oregon. It's more than just a little humid there. Unless your buffing the plane work scratches are a non issue. I'm not at all familiar with buffing a plane but I suspect it would not be an issue even then.

I left mine on....which I now consider to be a big mistake. Will remove on first day for next build.
 
how did u get it off? i just purchased a whole rv6 kit from 1996, with all the plastic still on! Im down to heat gun, wire brush and razor blade i tried mek, alcohol, and ammonia!
 
I removed

Removing the plastic from the larger skins can be difficult even when new. I used a method I saw on on this site that involves "rolling" off the plastic using a piece of pvc pipe. Worked great for me and reduces the chance of possibly bending the thinner .016" skins.
 
Kerosene

I haven't had to remove really old plastic from any parts (I removed all the plastic on my RV-8A project early in the build, no regrets, doing the same on my 14). That said, if you need to remove any old, dried out adhesive, kerosene-based products work pretty well. Open a bottle of adhesive remover and take a whiff. It's basically kerosene... Jet A...Coleman lantern fuel...diesel...they all have similar basic ingredients. Let it soak in a bit and it will loosen up old duct tape, masking tape, or the residue left after removing the blue plastic.

FWIW I find the Coleman fuel to be great for a final cleaning before applying primer. It has been used by RVers for decades. It's much less volatile than thinner or acetone. The one thing it won't do is remove Sharpie permanent marker. For that, use thinner or acetone.
 
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