Sealing wood fairings to wing struts

[C5Engineer 1170]

Well it's back to the building stage for me on the new plane. It has powdercoated struts and the wood fairings are glued on but bare still. Not exactly sure what was used to glue them on but they need some filler and then fabric covered. What have you guys found that worked well so that no one has to worry about corrosion from the wood soaking up water for the next 20 years? Manual has an idea but it seems those types of products have came a long ways since the 90's. Will the poly products seal up the wood grain during the covering process or should I lacquer them first?

[EDMO 1078]

Randolphs Epoxy Spar Varnish?  EDMO

Edited 13 Oct 2016 by EDMO

[TJay 1041]

With powder coated struts I wouldn't think you would need to do much of anything other than a couple coats of varnish, Are you covering them with fabric? If so Lacquer and Poly-fiber do not mix well. I would like to use that shrinkable RC plane covering sometime its pre finished how nice would that be. Or maybe Orex too.

[wypaul 448]

I use the epoxy varnish from PolyFiber on all of the wood.  +1 on Ed's suggestion of Randolph, I think it is all the same company now.  Probably any epoxy product for wood is good but test first and there is no doubt that the two above will stand up to the Polytone.  I found out that is not true of all epoxy paints.

Edited 13 Oct 2016 by wypaul

[birddog486 21]

With powder coated struts I wouldn't think you would need to do much of anything other than a couple coats of varnish, Are you covering them with fabric? If so Lacquer and Poly-fiber do not mix well. I would like to use that shrinkable RC plane covering sometime its pre finished how nice would that be. Or maybe Orex too.

I covered my struts with Monokote and it seems to hold up just fine at 90mph on my Avid

[C5Engineer 1170]

What about filler to smooth the edges? I dabbled with model fabric on my gear legs and gave up finally. Thanks for the replies. I got some spar finish with the plane too.

[tcj 150]

What about filler to smooth the edges? I dabbled with model fabric on my gear legs and gave up finally. Thanks for the replies. I got some spar finish with the plane too.

I used Polyfiber Superfill to smooth the wood fairing to gear legs then coated the wood and superfill with the polyfibre varnish befor covering.  The Superfill is real easy to work with.

[RDavidson 183]

Ditto with what tjc said...Superfill.

After filling I used the poly fiber epoxy varnish before covering.  Looks good...

 

Ron

[EDMO 1078]

Ditto with what tjc said...Superfill.

After filling I used the poly fiber epoxy varnish before covering.  Looks good...

 

Ron

Maybe I am missing something here - If you blend nicely with Superfill, and epoxy varnish, then WHY add fabric, and why not just shoot with Polytone or whatever finish you are using?  Or, is fabric just used because you can fill in the "V" area, and is that necessary?  Or, do you put on fabric because you don't trust the glue to hold the wood?   EDMO

Edited 23 Oct 2016 by EDMO

[C5Engineer 1170]

Thanks for all the info Gents.

[RDavidson 183]

Ed,

You have a point there...when I finished filling it was smooth enough to shoot with epoxy.

I only covered it because that was the next step in the directions.  I don't see why you couldn't just paint it.

 

Ron