Ready for Fabric

powers · Post by **powers** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 00:35

Well I've been working on the wings of N2030E SN5600 7AC for 13 months now. I made and replaced the spars, cleaned up all the metal, epoxy primed all the normal parts, overhauled the aileron bell crank, new leading edges, new trailing edges, all new wing hardware, and accomplished a few odds and ends on the fuselage. I'm at the fabric covering milestone now, and thought I'd do a "stage check posting".
I hope you guys like my work, and I would greatly appreciate any input.

Here's the project when first got it.

Let the work begin!

I had to rebuild the ailerons to get such straight clean lines. The fabric had been shrunk to much previously and it ruined the outer ribs. It turned out nice though. Thanks David.

Time to go test fit the wings. I had reservations about taking the wings on the road to test fit them, 10miles. I didn't know if it was worth the risk to fit the wings. Turned out it wasn't because the wings fit nicely. At least I've been able to sleep since then.

Notice when I started on the leading edges the sun was up, and trust me it was early!

Here they are. Short of friction tape, felt and a good going through, I'm ready for fabric.

I thought I'd ad this on. I remember securing these wires has come up in the past posts. This was the best way I could think of. I have since changed the tie wraps to rip lacing cord, I figure the cord will last longer.

Post by **joea** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 00:37

Nice photos, keep them coming!

David Johnson · Post by **David Johnson** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 04:56

Pretty work dude! Us in Georgia hope to see this one flying soon. I think Mr. Powers and Tater both like to work late at nite! David J.

james gevay · Post by **james gevay** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 07:15

Nice work, the spars look great! I see you have the brace between the last full rib and the rear spar near the trailing edge, mine didn't have it.

A question, it looks like you have a 1 piece leading edge from the last full rib all the way to the tip. Mine came in 2 pieces, one over the last 2 ribs and the last over the tip rib and the leading edge. Did you decide to make yours that way by choice or was it that way when you opened the wing? I'm just curious.
Thanks for the pictures, Jim

powers · Post by **powers** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 08:28

James, wish I had a story about making that piece from scratch. But I just ordered it from wag. Another thing is that it lines up with the other leading edges on the bottom. My old one fell short by about 3 inches. It went on nice. The first one took about 45 minutes. And the second 35. [/b][/code]

jkvincent · Post by **jkvincent** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 09:01

...great photos, I can relate to every one of them, (been there, done that).
every milestone is a good feeling.
Jim

MikeB · Post by **MikeB** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 20:22

Powers: did your wing tip from Wag Aero (the far out piece) fit all the way to the bow or was it a little short? Reason for asking: I have the Wag Aero tip assembly also that fits from the second outboard rib to the tip and it doesn't quite fill the tip opening to the bow. I can't quite tell from the photo if it makes it all the way out. I was going by my old one which did fit better but is kind of beat up so I intended to replace with new. All the other leading edges from Wag fit perfectly with little problems but I was thinking about sending these back and making new.

Another question for those who have covered wings: after the leading edge is installed with new PK screws should the screws be 'precovered' with a strip of anti chaff tape (Superflite makes one that resembles 'duct tape') or maybe a strip of glued fabric, etc. Reason being to prevent the covering from catching on the PK screws and ripping while being tauntened. I know another school of thought is to glue down a light padding over the leading edge to smooth out the imperfections which would probably accomplish the same thing. Poly-Fiber mentions it in their manual but I haven't seen it in Superflite which is the process I'm using on this job.

Thanks,
Mike Berg

powers · Post by **powers** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 21:50

Mike:
The wing tip did fall a little short. You wont be able to line up the metal tip leading edge with the aft end of the spar. Actually you have to line it up with about the middle of the bow and then take what you get with the spar. Which leads me to your next question. If you don't like what you see on the bow then you can put a couple 6 inch pieces of chafe tape between the bow and metal that gives a less slick surface for the aluminum to rub on and should keep the metal from chafing your paint away and causing some dissimilar metal corrosion to start. You can get the chafe tape from spruce page 324 pn 09-17100. You'll need about 2 rolls maybe 3 depending on how crazy you get with it. As far as the screw heads go. If your using an envelope I would recommend felting the leading edge. I used this technique on my leading edge and was very pleased. You can hardly see the screw heads. Its really batting material and don't ask me if its flammable. (I'm going with dope though so the fire ship has sailed.) I did put the chafe tape under the felt. Its over kill but there no real penalty for doing it.

You can kind of see the felt in this photo. And the chafe tape is visible to. Do yourself a favor and mark the holes on your chafe tape with a marker. That way you can see the holes after you cover the wing. I made that mistake on a previous project.

MikeB · Post by **MikeB** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 22:11

Thanks! Regarding the tip, I thought that was what I was seeing (less than perfect fit) and like you said I'll have to work with what I've got. Kind of a shame as the old ones fit so well but are pretty beat up.

At this point, I'm going with blanket material for the wings ( I seem to like to do everything the hard way

) Not sure how the Superflite glue will work with batting material. Glue contains much MEK.

Mike Berg

powers · Post by **powers** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 00:13

Mike:
The only reason I used the envelope is because it came with the project. It was my first try using an envelope, and I was not impressed. If I had to do it again I would use the blanket method to. I've done the blanket method alot and the time the envelope saves you in gluing it costs you when you shrinking. It adds a lot of time because your having watch your seems and keep them going straight, flipping the wing back and forth (waking the wife up to help me flip the wing at 1:00 am.)

MikeB · Post by **MikeB** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 08:47

I've used envelopes on both the fuselages I covered and was able to keep the seams fairly straight. The last had a seam right up the top middle of the cabin which concerned me but worked out OK. Not sure if it was skill or dumb luck. As far as control surfaces go, I usually use the blanket method other than the rudder where the envelope seems to work a bit better. I'm about at the point on the L16 to decide whether to try a blanket for the fuselage or another envelope. As it had a lot of glass I'll be cutting a lot out if I use a envelope.

This my first set of wings so everything is progressing pretty slowly. I'm going to set the one I finished, other than covering, aside and work on the fuselage until next winter. Then I'll tackle the other wing.

Waking up the wife at 1:00 am to help turn something could prove dangerous.....

.

Mike Berg

powers · Post by **powers** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 19:45

Here are some new pics. Should have it flying by the end of the month.

MikeB · Post by **MikeB** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 20:20

Very nice job!!

I finally set both of my wings aside for awhile. Finished except for the cover and I'm having a **## of a time trying to get the leading edge compound bend just in from the tip to look decent. I have the WAG tip kit but doesn't fit very well for some reason. I think it would be better if they came in two parts. Anyway, sometimes it's necessary

to take a break and do something else so I started covering the fuselage instead. The second wing went much faster than the first.

Mike

Post by **joea** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 01:50

Great job and nice work! Pls post some pics of it flying when you can!

Joe A

N3840E · Post by **N3840E** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 02:21

Nice work. What type of epoxy primer/paint on the metal parts? (the green stuff)