Painting aerothane and registration masks

[Gary Wallace]

Looking for some input if anyone has experience with polyfiber aerothane. Trim paint lines are going well with 3m fineline tape as i can pull the tape off over itself. I struggled with my registration masks today since pulling masks off, i coudnt pull it all over itself, so paint edges went stringy when masks were pulled away and made a big mess of everything. It was 2 coats of colour, and i did wait an hour as manual mentioned..i dont know if i should have gotten to it sooner, or left it to harden for another hour? I would guess i should have left it longer? Any advice anyone? Thanks...i would prefer to get another set of stencils and try paint again rather than black decals, but not with the same result. Very frustrating. Oh, i wiped all the paint of with reducer so i have another shot, other than gloss is a bit screwed so i have to be very accurate with placement of masks next time. Will likely get all letters made 1/4 bigger all around on same center to center dimensions

[zkelley2]

Do the registration in vinyl.

[rodsmith]

Its been a long time, but I believe when I painted my Maule with aerothane, I waited a day before removing the masks and it turned out great. Vinyl is available in an array of colors if you wish to go that route.

[Paul Johnston]

When I paint the second color- it’s a tack coat soon followed by top coat . The stencils/masking are removed emediatately and thinner rag used to clean up the paint creep that got beyond masking

[Paul Johnston]

That’s a cotton rag with regular mineral spirits

[Gary Wallace]

I was in the middle and results were poor...i spoke with Waldo at polyfiber....he is the pro there. He said an hour was too soon, whick obviously it was. I didnt want to say, then why does it say an hour in your manual? Anyhow, he said like six hours or even overnight...so yes next day, which is what i figured after it was too late. Come to think about it, i should have really mentioned manual said about an hour, so if its not updated yet, it might save someone else the headache in the future. I have another set of masks ordered and plan on painting the registration on again with hopefully better results. Will post results if anyone cares to know at a later date.

[Viking]

Not Bearhawk specific, but I’ve had a bunch of experience with aerothane, and my general practice is to pull tape when I can lightly touch the painted surface without paint transferring to my finger. Obviously do this touch test on part of the masking that has been painted, not your finished surface. It usually works well for me.