First Things First

You've probably noticed that the pieces of aluminum are covered with a blue plastic. There's a history to this stuff: The kits were originally shipped as bare aluminum, but the pieces got all scuffed up as the building proceeded. Some builders had no interest in painting their aircraft and wished instead to have polished aluminum, and scratched skins just weren't gonna work. There was enough verbiage on the subject that Van's started using the coated materials. To remove the plastic isn't a big deal, it's just a pain on the bigger pieces since it really sticks good. After a couple skin pieces, I started using my shop broom to roll the plastic off. Works like a charm! The only problem is now my shop broom has a big, beefy, sticky handle.