Cruise Air restoration

cglucas

cglucas

New member
Well back on the Cruise Air this week, fuse nearing time to cover. New door frame toatly fitted as well as operating window on pilots side. Stringers all on and fitted. I have to order headliner material and get the wires ran for the cabin light and tail lights. What is everyone using for cabin insulation? It sure easy to finally fix things right with it opened up. I am planning on using some kind of rubber glued to the fabric where the cables and gear crank tube pass through the fabric. Any thoughts on a good material to use for that. I am try to stop up the drafts just a little. I already have all of the tail feathers ready to cover, but the flaps need a little tlc. I may just build a new set of flaps...Greg
 
Greg, I can tell you not to use the Bellanca factory foam that they used on the early Viking boot cowls. I was cutting up a fuselage and melted some foam and the fumes were so bad that I had to step away from it. This was out in the open air. If it happened in an enclosed cabin you would be gagging instead of controlling the plane. I am parting out a 14-19-3 so I just pulled out some of the overhead insulation and it looks like regular fiberglass insulation , about an inch thick with a paper backing that has threads running through it like packing tape would have, then a layer of aluminum foil, and then what appears to be regular masking tape over all of it. I put a flame to it and the paper burned a little bit but went out when I removed the flame. The smoke was very little and nothing as toxic as the FAA approved foam that Bellanca uses on the boot cowls. It was installed with the fiberglass against the headliner and the foil and paper side against the fabric.It appears to be light, neat and easy to install before covering. I am going to try to use this type on the sides of my boot cowl. I hope this helped a little. Grant.
 
I went back down to my hanger and looked at the -3 again and it was just regular masking tape that was used to hold things in place. On the sides there was very little of the tape. What I had forgotten was that the -3 had the headliner raised over the pilots seat. It has a thin piece of wood curved similar to the wood trim over the cabin door and raises the liner by a couple of inches. It leaves about a inch between the liner and the fabric for insulation and makes the cabin seem roomier. Since the fuselage tubing in that area is the same in a Cruisair as it is in the 14-19-3 it should be easy to give the Cruisair a bit more room. I will try to post some pictures later.Grant.
 
Hey Greg: On my Cruisair I installed the bubble wrap type insulaton with aluminum on both sides...It has commercial burn rating and I couldn't get it to light or poroduce nasty gasses . I spritsed the headliner & etc with the fireproofer that AC Spruce sells. Ken McCune yard dog A&P aka planebones
 
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