Oratex on the Companion

[Utah-Jay]

Oratex is my plan at this time. Reading another thread I learned that I can buy paint from Oratex to paint the cowling to match the fuselage.

Why Oratex? Does not have 4+ paint coatings. More durable. Easier to patch/repair. Much lighter

Only downside to me is the lack of shine.

I am going with polished wings because a guy at my home field did it on his 4 Place and it looks fantastic.

So, silver for the flaps and ailerons as well as horizontal stabilizer and elevator/trim. Sky blue for wingtips and cowling to match the fuselage

I am thinking the small N-numbers on the vertical stabilizer…. Harder to identify from the ground

[NSLaw]

I like the idea of polished wings with wingtips to match the fuselage. I’ve considered doing silver flaps/ailerons like you mention but pairing the leading edge of the wing to match the fuselage and wing tip to help tie it all together.

Also I’m in Salt Lake, where are you based out of?

[Utah-Jay]

I like the idea of polished wings with wingtips to match the fuselage. I’ve considered doing silver flaps/ailerons like you mention but pairing the leading edge of the wing to match the fuselage and wing tip to help tie it all together.

Also I’m in Salt Lake, where are you based out of?

I’m in Heber

[Mark Dickens]

I have two unused sample kits (red and silver color) with sample bottles of the glue if you want them. No charge except for shipping. I ultimately chose Stewart for my plane

[Utah-Jay]

I have two unused sample kits (red and silver color) with sample bottles of the glue if you want them. No charge except for shipping. I ultimately chose Stewart for my plane

Thanks, but I have red, silver, yellow and sky blue samples arriving Wednesday, from photos I think we decided on the Sky Blue yesterday though

What made you decide on Stewarts?

[Mark Dickens]

Many things, but I think it boils down to Stewart's STC, history, customer support, time zone, US based company, etc. Not to belittle Oratex, because I was very seriously considering them, but they reminded me a lot of a German company I do business with where they aren't available for customer support, on holiday a lot, sign off at a certain time every day and three hours early on Fridays no matter what's going on, expensive to deal with, You get the point. I just don't see the guys from Ohio doing that and just yesterday, I was on the phone with one of their "adjunct" employees and he couldn't have been nicer and more helpful. I could go on, but that would be boring...oh yeah, there's that Oratex manual you need to read through before making a commitment. Youch, there are so many requirements, I couldn't reasonably see myself meeting all of them, much less remembering them. No offense to Oratex or anyone using their product!

[Utah-Jay]

I like the idea of polished wings with wingtips to match the fuselage. I’ve considered doing silver flaps/ailerons like you mention but pairing the leading edge of the wing to match the fuselage and wing tip to help tie it all together.

Also I’m in Salt Lake, where are you based out of?

What are you building? He far along? And where are you based?

[rodsmith]

I've heard that the paint from Oratex is quite expensive due to hazmat shipping from Europe. Most quality paint companies can match the color if you send them a sample of the fabric, I know Stewarts will.

[zkelley2]

Polytone goes on Oratex just fine.

[Utah-Jay]

I've heard that the paint from Oratex is quite expensive due to hazmat shipping from Europe. Most quality paint companies can match the color if you send them a sample of the fabric, I know Stewarts will.

Thanks for that, I will do my due diligence for sure than

[Mark Goldberg]

I found that automotive two part paint (no clear coat) stuck very well to Oratex. I took a fabric sample to the paint store and they matched it. We tested the paint to see if it would crack on Oratex - and it didn't. The fuselage striping still looks fine 5 years later. The Oratex people say to not use paint with a flex agent in it. Mark

[Bcone1381]

If you are not experienced, then consider making a covering choice based on some parameters that might not be obvious at first. I wanted to use Oratex to avoid paint. I have zero experience painting. Almost zero experience covering.

Instruction Manuals put out by a manufacturer are important. Oratex has a manual, but other supporting methods and documents, and verbal instructions add mystery to the installation. I also attended a 2 or 3 hour Oratex covering seminar at OSH about three years ago. It did not look real easy to me. I could see difficulty and having to settle for poor workmanship to get the job done by me on my first attempt. Them more I looked the less confident I became. Here is an example. https://bearhawkforums.com/forum/too...-oratex-thread

Fact: Other experimental builders have success with other covering systems with good training and good manuals.

Polyfiber has good manuals....the best from what I can tell. Customer support that I tried to use for questions did not meet my expectations the one time I tried to use it.

Stewarts has a good manual that they update fairly frequently but not as friendly as Polyfiber. But customer support has exceeded my expectations! I chose Stewarts because then had a three day covering seminar at the very time I was looking for one. After attending I believe that I can achieve a finished product through paint and achieve a level of workmanship that meets my own expectations (I desire a "good" level workmanship) without a whole lot of outside help. I could not achieve that with Oratex. Polyfiber....the evidence says I could.

I ripped off the first fabric I installed due to workmanship that I was unhappy with. The cost was minimal. The education (of the ripoff and redo) was superb....as good as the class I took. I've learned so much. If I was doing Ortex, its cost, and lack of a class....I dont know if I would be so relaxed and have so much fun installing it and permission to fail/re-try.

So, Oratex looks good when we look at weight, and avoiding paint. But the manuals and instruction were lacking. An inexperienced fabricator may want to weigh that part of the installation too.

We only have so much energy available to finish our projects. Find a method that will feed energy into the build. If the build sucks energy out, it will drain us empty.

[robcaldwell]

I wasn't aware that Stewarts had a manual...

So I created a manual (sort of) myself for the painting process using Stewarts. I personally used all of the older Stewarts Systems videos and somewhat successfully covered and painted my Bearhawk.

Attached here is my culmination of the notes I assembled for painting. I found that having the proper equipment accounted for 90% of the success I had with the paint job. Whatever you do, DO NOT cut corners with inferior equipment.

[davzLSA]

Hey Rob I know it too late for you but Stewart has a manual online at their web site that can be down loaded for free. One of the changes from the older videos was to paint a coat of ekobond over the fabric before applying the ekofill. They say it help with the water proofing of the fabric more.

[robcaldwell]

I think I recall hearing about the EkoBond application. The fabric just sucks up the EkoFill on the 1st and 2nd coats. Plus the EkoFill can be difficult to mix by hand with all of the solids that settle at the bottom.

[svyolo]

I used yellow Oratex and Stewarts Federal yellow which are really close. One thing I knew in the beginning was glossy paint next to Oratex would rarely look like a match, even with a "perfect" color match. I messed around a bit trying to get a bit of texture in the paint. I ended up thinning the paint a little more than recommended, and then putting on nothing but fog coats. No wet coats. Essentially intentional orange peel, but with thin paint. I think it came out as a pretty good match. I also used the max amount of Stewarts flattener.

[Utah-Jay]

You guys are killing me

I really do not want to paint, but nor do I want to blast through expensive fabric on a slow learning curve

[TimTall]

Fabric and paint has been the most satisfying part of the build so far. The progress is so visual that it really feels like you're getting something done. I used Stewarts System and I've got nothing but good things to say. The manual is good (other than the odd line like "...spray on enough paint, but not too much") and the tech support on the phone is awesome. Andy helped clear up the necessarily vague instructions in the manual with subjective descriptions that I could understand.

Fabric covering is not really hard at all. It's a picky, slow process but I've figured it out myself from watching the Stewart's videos online and reading the manual and I'm very happy with the results. There's one mistake that I'll see every time I get near the plane but that's how it goes, nothing structural, just a cosmetic flaw that could have been avoided. Only other builders will notice and hopefully they'll be polite enough not to point it out

Painting is kind of stressful. It's not impossible to fix mistakes but it sucks to go backward. I second what Rob says though. Good equipment is key. I went the homemade route and ganged together a couple compressors to get the volume needed. 3/8" i.d. fittings and hoses everywhere with no unnecessary quick connects or valves. I made a cooling system with a garbage can, 50' of copper line and a garden hose to spray the copper line with a mist of cold tap water. No shortage of clean, dry, cool air.

It took me a while to figure out how to get the paint to sit down properly but I have it well enough now. I painted the fuselage over the weekend and it turned out well. I was hoping it would be at least a 6' paint job and i've succeeded. There's a few spots that aren't quite glossy enough but, again, most people would never notice.

I made a spray booth in the garage with a 2500 CFM fan to extract the air and a zip in plastic door with 3 furnace filters for makeup air. The garage floor is a nice pink colour now and the walls have a bit of pink tone to them but more than enough air movement and easy to keep clean enough. Red.jpg