Mon Jun 06, 2011 12:22 pm
If it is a small little ripple, you can apply some MEK to the area (slowly, with a small natural sponge) to soften it up and work/push the edge back into the dope with a small roller wheel...you might not need to buy a bunch of dope. It has worked for me, and seems to last just fine as long as there is ample dope in the area to soften up. In areas directly over the longerons, etc., where the fabric does not hold as much, this doesn't work as well do to lack of extra dope. Going at it from the inside works even better, especially for ringworm, but takes more time and gets stinky fast if you have to do it from inside the fuselage.
If you really need the dope, you can generally quickly find butyrate dopes and sometimes poly-tak cement in hobby stores or online for several dollars for a few ounces.
I did not have any luck with one type of finish, where the MEK wrinkled the top coat badly and needed finishing with sandpaper to take the top coat off completely before applying cement to fix the spot and finishing with a new color top coat.