Posted Wednesday, October 19, 2016 @ 01:09 PM
For the last 18 months I have been recovering Mira Slovak's last flying RF4D N7724. Why 18 months? Apart from changing jobs and moving house, the work is just far harder than I thought. The aircraft had been painted with Imron over the original 1960s cotton in some places, directly on wood in others. It is incredibly difficult to remove without damaging the wood.
There are two tools that really helped though. A very light weight heat gun was the first. I had an old all-metal gun which worked well, but I could only use it for 15 minutes at a time before my arms ached too much to continue. A very light weight Wagner brand gun allowed me to work for much longer periods.
The second tool, and the one that really got the work moving was this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000690GO0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Its just a simple scraper, but so sharp and so well made that it sped up my work by a factor of three or four. It comes with a blade that can be rotated to expose four edges. The first edge is still working well for me. A highly recommended tool!