Quicktimederby said:
Never used monokote. If it's like vinyl stick it ti the wood and trim the edges. After you can smooth it out with a hair drier.
KINSER said:
Is there anyone willing to help me with applying the Monokote, please?
I've used both MonoKote and EconoKote. EK comes in 5 inch strips. MK in rolls. The rolls are thinner and lighter, but I often find very difficult to iron on wrinkle free. I finally stopped using the rolls, and use only the strips, because strips are more trouble free and faster, and weight difference is negligible.
You need to buy an iron from a model air plane shop (
www.monokote.com/accys/topr2100.html.) About 10 - 15 dollars. they are shaped like a boat, rounded on the two sides and the back, but the front has a gradual slope about the same as what we put on our wedge cars. width is just a speck wider than our car widths, length is about 2.5 inches.
On the strips, peel off the backing, pull tight from front to back, and leave enough on all sides to be able to grip and pull tight. The strips have a bit of adhesiveness, and you can press it down to the point where it sticks with your fingers. From front to back, pull at the sides (you have already tightened front to back) until all wrinkles are gone. Then iron it. The irons also come with a cloth glove, but normally I just cover with a thin clean rag (I buy them from the paint dept in Home depot). The cotton cloths are about the same thickness as a white dress shirt (or cut pieced from throw away dress shirts). I iron from back to front.
If I make a mistake, and have too much wrinkle, I just heat up the vinyl, tear it off and start again. Stuff is easy to remove when hot.
Trim with a brand new blade in an Exacto knife. On BSA cars, where washers not allowed, I wrap the EconoKote up the sides from the bottom to take the place of a washer. For league races, I leave the sides pure wood.
PM me for further questions. I've been using the stuff for 3 years.
NOTE: I ran a test on 2 identical UNLM bodies (GoatBoy), one with EconKote and one with Tester's Lacquer paint. I.e. three coats, primer, color and clearcoat, 1500 wet sand in between. Lacquer paint was still the lightest, but not enamel.
Lacquer vs. Econokote
I ran a weight test between EconoKote, lacquer and enamel paint.
Lacquer was lighter (3 coats, primer, color, clear coat, sanded in-between with 1500 wet paper).
Enamel was heaviest. Lacquer lightest, but so slightly, that I stick with EconoKote.
