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[Neloner 46]

^ No, the balsa wood acted as a very effective pad protecting the spar. Was more of a sideways sliding impact than a straight on whack as well.

Thanks for the parts too! Cant wait to get em!

[1avidflyer 1983]

If you have any inspection covers in the bottom of the wing, I would take a look inside at the diagonal brace tubes.  Might be able to see them all from the fabric tear on the trailing edge.  I recently rebuilt a Kitfox wing that had been hit out on the tip.  It didn't show on the fabric, but when I had the covering off, all the diagonal brace tubes were either bent in an S shape or broken from the racking inflicted from the tip strike.  None of the ribs were damaged or busted loose except the one right out on the tip where it hit.  Like I said, you couldn't tell it from looking at the fabric on the wing, but the damage was there.  That might solve the problem of patching the fabric.  Sorry for the discouraging words, but better now than later.   JImChuk

[Neloner 46]

^checked this as thoroughly as possible today through the tip and the trailing edge tear, used a mirror on a stalk as well. Everything within the wing looks completely intact. Spent the morning bondoing over the fiberglass patches to get the nice leading edge contour back, turned out pretty good. 

Now starting to focus on the cracked tube on the passenger side, removed the cloth in the area as well as the carpets/ floor. Did find a couple other spots that appear they may have bent a tad, and an old (not so great) repair. Looks like I will be trimming out the cracked tube, as well as the previously repaired one, and fitting new ones. Probably will ad a few gussets while Im at it. That leads me to the question,  what size/ type of tubing should I buy to make these repairs with?

[1avidflyer 1983]

The tubing is 1/2" X .035" wall thickness.  JImChuk

[Neloner 46]

Began taking the aerothane off in preparation for the patch. Going ok, cloth and tapes under the coatings appear to be green. Ordered the Polyfiber repair kit from aircraft spruce. Hopefully thats what this is. 

 

Edited 3 Aug 2016 by Neloner

[akflyer 1427]

Green could and probly does mean it was done with Stewarts.  Do the builders log or airframe log show and entry to let you know for sure what it was done with originally?

 

[EDMO 1078]

Green could and probly does mean it was done with Stewarts.  Do the builders log or airframe log show and entry to let you know for sure what it was done with originally?

 

Agree - Stewarts System is the only Green glue that I know of - Their Topcoat is also shiny - Contact them for repair procedures.   Their glue is heat-setting, water-thinned,  so is the paint - and not used with MEK like Polysystems.   EDMO

Edited 3 Aug 2016 by EDMO

[Neloner 46]

Ok, looking into stewarts now, trying to find a tutorial on how to patch. Assuming its a similar process, their tech is supposed to call me back soon. Guess I will be returning the Polyfiber repair kit 

[EDMO 1078]

Ok, looking into stewarts now, trying to find a tutorial on how to patch. Assuming its a similar process, their tech is supposed to call me back soon. Guess I will be returning the Polyfiber repair kit 

I liked using the Stewarts System glue - But remember when you are ready to spray the topcoat, that any urethane paint is dangerous to your health if you do not use the proper protection.   Stewarts used to provide a 6 disk DVD on using their system.  Isocyanates can kill you!  EDMO

Edited 3 Aug 2016 by EDMO

[dholly 718]

Hey Jim, I missed this thread due to OSH trip but PolyFiber manual says don't use Bondo because most polyester fillers are heavy, shrink and contain talc which is hygroscopic and retain moisture. Better to use a lite-weight 2-part all epoxy filler like SuperFil instead.

[1avidflyer 1983]

If my memory is correct, super flight covering system use a green colored product that does what poly brush does for the poly fiber system.  If it's stewarts. the MEK probably wont take it off.  It probably will take off the super flight stuff.  JImChuk

[Neloner 46]

Hey Jim, I missed this thread due to OSH trip but PolyFiber manual says don't use Bondo because most polyester fillers are heavy, shrink and contain talc which is hygroscopic and retain moisture. Better to use a lite-weight 2-part all epoxy filler like SuperFil instead.

Hey Doug, Hope you had a good time out there! A guy in the local EAA chapter told me to watch out for the weight of bondo, so I ended up using Rage Evercoat, a lightweight filler. There isnt much of it on the repairs anyhow. 

Just got off the phone with Stewart Systems, super nice people, although I wish I would have called this morning instead of now. Spent 6 hours prepping the cloth around all of the areas and removing all of the layers of paint/ treatments, just to find out with stewarts all you need to do is rough up the paint!!! Would have saved me a lot of work! Anyhow, they also said that it sounds like their system, green glues and the backing of the paint has a dark charcoal look, but regardless their system can repair all other systems so even if I happen to be wrong, it will work fine. They are putting the order together for me now, kind of looking forward to trying my hand at fabric work

Edited 3 Aug 2016 by Neloner

[marksires 484]

Hey Jim, I missed this thread due to OSH trip but PolyFiber manual says don't use Bondo because most polyester fillers are heavy, shrink and contain talc which is hygroscopic and retain moisture. Better to use a lite-weight 2-part all epoxy filler like SuperFil instead.

Or just mix up some micro using the epoxy you used on the fiberglass.  Easy, cheap and light.  You mix this in with the epoxy until it is about the consistency of peanut butter:

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cmpages/bubbles.php?clickkey=21419

Just don't mix too much at once - an exotherm will get your attention!

Mark

[1avidflyer 1983]

Just curious if the MEK melted the underlying green chemicals?  How did you clean off the white paint?  Seems like you have different covering systems on the wings and fuselage.  In the picture of the broken tube, it sure looks like poly brush on the inside of the fabric.  JImChuk

[Neloner 46]

Yes I would concur with that, the fuselage definitely looks different than the wings, the landing gear looks like polybrush as well. My understanding is that I may use stewart to repair polybrush as well though so I will be recovering the new legs from Lenny and reattaching the fuselage using the stewart systems. Hopefully it turns out decent

[Neloner 46]

Progress. New tubes TIGed in, primed, recovered, patches all on, the gear from alaska showed up so I primed the leg I needed and wrapped in fabric. Tomorriw will be spent applying 3-4 coats of Ekofill and sanding, and then I can do color coats. 

p://s948.photobucket.com/user/neloner/media/069B77E2-84C3-44E5-BB2E-B87D8932C237_zpsbsu1wl58.jpg.html]

 

 

 

 

[EDMO 1078]

One word of caution about the Ekofill UV coat - One of our members, "Birddog___", found out the hard way that Mogas spilled or leaked on that layer will cause it to crinkle under the finish coat.   Shiny Red urethane finish coat isn't pretty when parts of it are all crinkled!   He posted some photos somewhere of the damage.   Mogas shouldn't hurt the topcoat, but if it seeps in underneath to the UV coat it will crinkle.  EDMO

Edited 12 Aug 2016 by EDMO

[dholly 718]

Looks good Jim, sure wish I was working with Stewart's instead of PolyFiber and M.E.K. today. Was so darn hot I worked in the shop but wearing a mask for hours in 95*F is no fun. 

[Neloner 46]

Looks good Jim, sure wish I was working with Stewart's instead of PolyFiber and M.E.K. today. Was so darn hot I worked in the shop but wearing a mask for hours in 95*F is no fun. 

blah! Sounds unfun. Look forward to seeing your progress though! 

As far as the krinkling, yes there is actually a spot on the plane that krinkled from the old leaky tanks before the rockymountain wing tanks were put in. Paint is still intact, but puckered up where the fuel seeped out. Oh well, something to fix when I do a full wing recover. 

[Neloner 46]

Making progress, should be up again soon. Wrapped the new leg in cloth and put stewart systems stuff on it, pretty pleased withit given it was my first cloth work and I brushed everything on. Anyhow it can finally sit on its own gear again, Dholly helped me wrap the bungees quick today. Pleased to get the trailer put from under it, makes for a lot more room in the garage. 

 

Also finally got some rain around here and the new strip is starting to look respectable!

 

Edited 17 Aug 2016 by Neloner

[Neloner 46]

In the sky again! Running great. Glad to have the fixes done. Modified the tailwheel a bit so its harder to get it to decouple from the rudder, I think that is what caused me to loop it in the first place. Still curious about cooling though, on climbout on a warm day it will break 180 degrees. Ive read it should never get higher than that. Wondering if I should ad a belly radiator to it? Think the highest Ive seen was 186-7 but cools right off after I level out. Thoughts? Should mention cruise temps seem to be around 170-175

 

 

 

Edited 24 Aug 2016 by Neloner

[Neloner 46]

Plane has been running great, done a couple fly ins the last couple weeks, and a bunch of tootling around locally. Did end up adding a belly radiator, which helped with the temps, but think my prop is set a hair to coarse, causing the higher coolant temps and lower egts. Funny think is Ill get 6280 rpm on static, but flying straight and level only see around 6100. Still waiting on my replacement kievprop blade so not going to worry about it until I remove thd Ivo and then Ill play with pitch. 

 

 

[EDMO 1078]

What kind of radiator and housing is that?  EDMO