Is there a product available today called" tight and seal?"

by Linda
(Port St Lucie, Fl)

My boyfriend is restoring his 1903 Matthews day cruiser.

The top is wood covered with canvas and it needs to be replaced.

It was previously done with canvas and then painted with a product called Tight and Seal.

I guess this product shrinks the canvas to fit.

He is not able to find this Tight and Seal product.

Does anyone know where we can find this product or something that would do the same thing.

Please help.

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Jul 18, 2015
 fabric covering systems
by: Cal

Here's a http://www.randolphaircraft.com/ 800 362 3490 Randolph fabric covering systems

And if Bill still out there yes you can still get 210 tautening nitrate clear dope, old school works.

Hope that helps Linda
Jul 15, 2015
 Thank you
by: Linda

Thank you for your comments. We will look into these solutions to the problem.

Thank you again for your input. :-)
Jul 15, 2015
 Dope
by: Bill

The airplane dope that Cal was referring to, used to fill and shrink the skin on fabric covered aircraft, was I suspect the stuff that me and my pals used on our skin on frame canoes, way back.

Not sure you can buy the stuff these days (health 'n safety).

Not sure if it would work on the synthetic fabrics used today.
Jul 15, 2015
 tight and seal
by: cal

Well Linda thought Mike would have had that one in his closet.

They call it water glass and he was close.

They used it for sizing on canvas to stretch before panting.

It's used to seal cement, stop water from entering buildings or to coat your exhaust pipes on large boats so the asbestos is not air born.

Nice clear finish you can put it on rope work before panting.

Back in wales as a child eggs were preserved all winter in jugs of it.

Prior to that we used a product called dope, it also shrank the canvas on airplanes.

Hope that helps, but there are new rubber products.
Jul 14, 2015
 1903 Matthews day cruiser
by: Mike

What a fabulous boat to be restoring, here's wishing you and your boyfriend every success.

Sorry Linda but 'Tight and Seal' is one I haven’t heard of before.

I'm wondering if 'Tight and Seal' may have been some kind of dairy by-product, casein-based glue used to size the canvas and allow it to shrink before it set, or something like the original 'Elmer's Glue'?

Some of the traditional methods for laying the canvas were to use an initial bedding coat of white lead paste.

Then the canvas would be stretched in situ, rolled, tacked, trimmed to size and shrunk with hot water before painting.

I hate to suggest this but a 'modern' alternative might be to use woven glass and epoxy.

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