Michelle P wrote:
I had some cracks in the paint and I tried dope thinner on the paint on
fabric fuselage and it just did not work..... I called the factory and
they told me they had switched paints that year.

I spoke with the Randolph rep. at Oshkosh a few years after I bought mine. He
said that old B.D. set up the painting method there. They shot the fabric with
silver dope. Then there was a layer of white primer -- he implied that that was
also dope, but I don't recall him saying that in so many words. Then they
applied color coats of enamel with plasticizers. Doesn't matter what the paint
manufacturer was, that was the method.

Now, enamel doesn't work over dope. Never has, never will. It gradually shrinks
and cracks. In severe cases, it'll crack the fabric. No amount of dope thinner
or rejuvenator will help. The Randolph guy said to either redo the whole plane
from scratch (that's what Ray Maule will tell you to do) or to sand off the
enamel layer, apply rejuvenator to the dope, and paint with either dope or
polyurethane.

After B.D. died, Maule changed over to using polyurethane top coats, but they
didn't throw away the enamel they had in stock, so there's about a 2-year
transition period in which you could've gotten either type of paint job.

On of the few things I don't like about the people at Maule Air is that it's
like pulling grizzly bear teeth to get any info at all about the paint on an
older plane. I think that everybody there knew it was a lousy system but nobody
wanted to say anything bad about the old man (even after he was dead).

George Patterson
"Naked" means you ain't got no clothes on; "nekkid" means you ain't got
no clothes on - and are up to somethin'.