Impatient...

[Av8r3400 1178]

Okay.  I'm going a little nuts now. 

I have a rather ugly KF-IV in my garage with only one wing on it.  The other wing and h-stab are still off for the original transport home in a u-haul.  At the moment I can do nothing but sit in it and make airplane noises. 

I need to finish my workshop before I can start the "restoration" on it.  I'm about going nuts with impatients.  The shop will take another week yet...

New fuel lines, hardware for the wings and tail, some fabric repairs and lots of other small stuff needs to be done before I can fly it. 

Frankly, it needs to be recovered.  I'm hoping I can put this off for a little while so that I can fly it some and get used to it, first.  I'm waiting on the fabric expert from my EAA chapter to look at it.  I've gotten conflicting opinions from several people, so I want an expert to see it before I fly it or tear off fabric.

Sorry, needed to vent... 

[akflyer 1427]

you would be very suprised, even shocked at some of the rag tag planes flying around here.  There are a shit load of planes here that the paint is peeling bad, faded, looks like shit, but the fabric is actually fine.  Hell I put a shit load of hours on a PA12 that was more duck tape than fabric.  The AI finaly made us put fabric patches on it instead of duct tape... The have no sense of humour sometimes.  As far as recovering, is the covering really bad or the paint.  What was it originally painted with?  I LOVE stits poly fiber for the extreme ease of field repairs.  Worste care, if the paint is toast and cant be rejuvinated, you can wash it down with acetone and a rag back to clean fabric in no time, then shoot it again and not have to go for a full recover.  Fuel lines and hardware are only a days work that can be done in the yard.  Forget the garage and geter done!

[Av8r3400 1178]

I think the wing fabric would be okay.  There is some pulling away on the rib bottoms that I think can be re-glued.  The reason for the recover would be to inspect the ribs for possible water damage and other internal unknowns.  The plane was stored outside since '99. 

The fuselage needs recovering to make it look right.  For some unknown reason the builder did not put the wood side stringers on it...  ?  The mounts for the stringers poke through (reinforced) holes in the fuselage side fabric.  Just some oddities like this.

It is covered in PolyFiber, so I think the fabric itself is okay (the finish is fugly).  I just have questions (long term) about what's underneath.

Working on shopping for hardware now.  Need the updated rudder peddles, too.

[akflyer 1427]

you can put in inspection rings real easy to take a look at the ribs, and re-gluing the fabric is easy.  You can go down and dirty and use a needle to inject the glue under the coving and push the fabric into it, or you can wipe the areas of the cap strip down to bare fabric, thin the glue and work it into the fabric real easy.  I rib stitched mine, akflyerbob used screws in his.  Leaving the stringers off, but leaving the mounts on and covering over them would make me suspect of any other workmanship on the plane... Stripping and getting a good look at what you have may be a good idea.

If you have the time and materials on hand, there is no reason why you cant strip, do quick repairs if needed and recover up to top coat in 1.5 weeks, quicker if you are not working by yourself.

[C5Engineer 1170]

Welcome to my world... between my dads tinkering and mine my plane has been "almost ready" for 3 years now

[Av8r3400 1178]

Well, our resident fabric expert and Champ restorer extraordinaire has passed judgment on my fabric:

After much poking, twisting and close inspection he said that with a few repairs, I should "... fly the hell out of it until I get sick of it looking so ugly, then recover it.  ..."

I might be flying it yet this summer....