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S#iT - I just poked a hole in my plane!

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Posted

Erghh! What a dumbass move I did today. Removing my door sills and didn't have my metal backer slid in far enough when drilling one rivet.

Sooo..... what's the best way to patch a puncture in PolyFiber if you can get to the backside? Don't really want to put a dollar patch over it on the outside. Only good news is I have some matching 2-pt poly topcoat. 

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Posted

I would maybe try a glued on  fabric patch on the inside.  I would try to put a clamp on it to sqeeze it tight while the glue dries.  Plastic against the fabric, then block of wood or something, then clamp.  Dab some paint on it when it's dry.  Maybe it will blend in.  Make sense?  JImChuk

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Posted

Jim - That's kind of what I was thinking. Glue a very small preshrunk patch on the inside with some Polybrush, maybe only about 1/2" dia. Then dab a drop of Polybrush on the outside and with a piece of flat metal behind, hit it with the fabric iron. That stuff melts pretty smooth if you do it right. Maybe if I can clean and slightly soften the original Polybrush around the hole on the inside with some Reducer, it will be enough to meld the poly old/new Polybrush together without lifting the Polyspray and paint coats. Don't dare use MEK from behind, too strong I suspect. Hopefully, with the hole so close to the tubing and tapes, with a little luck it won't show through the fabric. Plus that polyU topcoat is pretty thick. The good news is the whole area below the doorframe is about to get hit with paint (which is why I was removing the sills in the first place). That's probably a blessing in disguise, I've never been able to make an unnoticeable chip repair on a car trying to dab paint into a chip. Why is it that 2 out of 3 jobs on a plane turn into 4?

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Posted

Unless you already have your "ExperiMental"  sticker in place somewhere else, you might use that to hide it as well.  JImChuk

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Posted

Perfect place for eaa wings sticker.

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Posted

Unless you already have your "ExperiMental"  sticker in place somewhere else, you might use that to hide it as well.  JImChuk

Thought about it, but it might look a bit goofy placing the letters so high and not centered. If it was on the other side I might have considered adding one of those Owner/pilot name stickers. But then, I always thought they were kinda ghey too. :P

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Posted

Perfect place for eaa wings sticker.

Or one of those 'Latch Door Before Flight' arrow stickers lol.

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Posted

One of those decal bullet holes.  Then when someone asks about it, you can say "they almost drilled me, but they missed"  JImChuk

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Posted

Ha that's a good one. Or maybe one of those fake fabric tears, both would probably catch a passengers attention! Oh well, I'm not going to fret about it unless the repair is real noticeable after paint. It is a pisser though, every little thing sticks out like a sore thumb on a new ride.

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Posted (edited)

You know the old saying:

No one else would notice but you! LOL  ;)

Edited by MN Kitfox 2
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Posted

For that I would use a little super glue and small fabric patch from the back.  I'd be afraid to use the Poly products without doing full repair procedure.

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Posted

That's a pretty good idea too I think. You can see there is a little flap of fabric I can fold back into place and I can still dab a drop of Polybrush on the outside to iron flat. I'm not really afraid to cement the back patch on with Polybrush but the super glue has to be stronger. Thanks.

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Posted

When I put the vgs on mine I used plastizap as I had it handy.. it went right through all layers of paint and stuck to the fabric in a big way.  I ripped fabric when I tried to remove the vgs. 

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