sealing the edge of foamex letters ?

[brian the brush uk]

Hi guys,
We are gilding some foamex letters for another sign company and when the letters arrived they are 10 mm thick, the thickness being made by sticking 2x 5mm sheets of foamex together and then cutting the letter shape out. The problem is that I cannot seal the returns of the letters inorder to size them for gilding, the size just sinks into the foamex, I have tried double sizing the returns and sealing the returns with a varish but the products just get absorbed into the foamex. Its a bit like trying to paint the edges of MDF, there is a product to seal that and I wondered if anybody knew of a way to seal the foamex ???
The letters need to go to London on Saturday so there is not much time to find a solution,

many thanks,
Brian.

[sentinal43]

have you tried a thin layer of 2 pack filler thats only my fist thought though or a aluminium primer ????

[Wayne]

Brian- I've had good success sealing with Either Oneshot- Vinyl primer.
.or The best I've found is ordinary white acrylic woodprimer- 2 coats of this fine sand between coats, quick drying ( waterbased) and sticks like the proverbial to a blanket.
Hope this helps mate!

[Chunkie]

Car paint plastic primer and filler primer should work too mate.

[brian the brush uk]

Hi guys,
Thanks for the info, we have used cellulose primer filler and it seems to have worked well, the resized returnes on the letters seems to be ok and not sinking as before, just got to gild 38 @ 12" letters now !!!! and get them to the parcel delivery people before Saturday lunchtime........... a late night ahead !!!

Brian.
www.brianthebrushuk.com

[Signoholic]

Hi Brian, glad to see you got a suitable answer here, I think I too would of been thinking Sentinal and chunkie’s method, although Wayne’s way seems the way too go, a way I will definitely try the next time, something similar prevails. Thanks for your help guys :)