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blimpy

blimpy

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I got my Manly new Pinking Shears in the mail, so went down to the festival of horrors, and pinked the edges of the 38x 5.5" ceconite patch I had waiting from yesterday.

Dutifully glued and squeegeed in the patch.

NFG !

Fabric was so slack that I got a nice dishpanned patch, that heat was never going to fix..and my 2+ " overlap became decidedly less on the saggy side.

Never time to do a thing right, but always time to do it over. :oops:

Out comes the MEK..dissolve the super seam stuff, and tease off the fabric...
throw it away,along withg all the damn fiberglass stuck to it.

Clean off the surplus glue..fiberglass rains in my face. Enough !
Tear out all that crap, a good deal of which has been "weaponized" by an itinerant mouse into eyeball entry pellets.
Swear loudly.
Vaccuum up the mess.

Eyeball the belly rip. It is only 33 inches, but its enough to wreck my
sleep. Get out the curved needle and ceconite tread, and start in doing
what should have been done in the first place. Sew till dark. 8)

I was so proud :roll: of having hand stitched in the ykk zipper in my leather coat..until I realized the leather lady had sold me a zipper that was too long,
and was going to gouge me in the throat every day- sent it out and had an old timer do it right. :? :lol:

Hoping this patch turns out better. :lol: :mrgreen:
 
Larry,
When making a patch out of raw fabric, it is usually best to coat {pre-dope} a length of whatever fabric you are using. Let it dry. Then cut your pattern out. Don't ever use a pen or sharpie to mark your pattern.
Use a pencil. The fabric will be much easier to cut and handle.
Dan
 
thanks... pencil. the Randolph ( ceconite stc) book is pretty good about such stuff.

new patch glued in, and looks "official". :wink: :)

iron and nitrate dope Tuesday. wx may turn cold... just my luck.
:mrgreen:
 
new patch is considerably wider, and with the belly skin now tightened by the sewing, it went on nicely.

may not be the most handsome .. but then there are plenty of more steps to make mistakes on before
we call it done !
 
I keep saying Randolph when I mean consolidated.

Wx turned wet so other than ironing I'm dead in the water.

God know when the weather and maybe the hanger will be warm enough and dry enough to
continue. Might have to fly it out to an expensive dry hanger with electricity to finish.

I'd rather shoot my n ==ts off. :|
 
warm day, ironed the glue, ironed tight, first green nitrate dope coat brushed on.

looking good.

rest is gonna be done with a brush, no matter what.

rain fri

warm Sat and Sun... two more coats and tape, if the fabric gods keep smiling.
:?
 
Dan, I just made up a bunch of pre-doped ( green) patches and material.
It would have been better, if I had known this trick when I started.

I hope to keep going with these spares.. so they are essentially ready to dope on, when I need
them in the future.

Last coat of silver went on the belly patch, and I have moved on to better things.
When I get to the point that I am going to touch up or repaint the wings.. I will paint the belly patch too.

:D
 
It's been interesting to read your experience with fabric Larry, eventually I'll have to figure out how to do this myself.
 
FYI.....
The various aircraft covering systems have "how to do" manuals that are minimal cost and well worth reading and having for reference. First timers really should get help from someone with experience in aircraft covering and restoration, especially if they plan on having the work signed off.
The materials are expensive and you don't want to make $$$$ mistakes.
Dan
 
Sound advice. I do plan on doing both. It's interesting though, to see different perspectives specific to this aircraft.

Mechanics in my area with fabric experience seem to be a rarity. They're out there, just not people I've dealt with much.
 
When I was in the Air Force, we learned to cover control panels with linen. Now we have wonderful new fabrics that are easy to work with. I recovered my 1413 with Poly Fiber and it will shrink up to 15% if I remember correctly.
I had the book and found that it was easy. (I also had the advantage of the factory a block away and the guys there were always happy to answer any questions that I had.)
 
Thanks guys. I bought the Consolidated/Randolf published Ceconite Book,
from A/C spruce. Said book is pretty comprehensive, and spells out exactly how things are to be done to comply with the Ceconite STC. Everything bears repeated reading, and practice.

I started last year with a couple of patches, made necessary by my desire to tighten
an couple of aileron hinge bolts. That worked out fine, and something the size of a match book
is just right to begin with.

AC-43 has a fair amount about fabric work, and I gleaned the necessary sewing info from that.
----
I suppose the materials are "expensive", and would amount to a very decent used car if you are talking about doing the entire airplane, or big hunks of it.

But on the level I have been dealing with : a 33 inch gash, covered by a 38 " patch of between 8 and 11 inches width.. the materials cost is minor... compared the the insane amount of time and labor involved. One does NOT want to be paying $100 hour for THAT. Of course you spend more time cleaning brushes, and waiting for crap to dry, than you spend actually working. I bet a smart guy with experience and a good shop, could have whacked out the job I did over 10-12 days in 2 days. Any way you look at it, its a root canal. :|
---

If you cannot find a&p's who still do fabric work, then next step is to either find an airport with a collection of antiques, or contact your local EAA chapter where there will still be guys who mess with fabric. EAA has quite a number of very good week-end tutorials on everything from welding to fabric. You may have to travel , as these are generally regional things. This year they had one of fabric down at Flabob, home of ceconite/stits. I didn't make it, but now wish I had.
Check EAA website for locations and schedules.

all you have to do is find somebody with a stearman, or a cluster of cubs or stinsons, and you will find somebody who is doing their fabric work.

I'm not at all concerned about my work passing muster. But I did video each step in the process,
just in case. That and $5 bucks gets coffee most places.
Even if it all gets ripped out and redone, at least it can fly safely to get there.
I didn't look at the FAR that spells out what and how much fabric repair a PP can do... but it is certainly allowed up to a point. I'll go look at the language..

No wings or control surfaces involved.. no big deal.
 
Knowing that the enamel paint on my flaps was not long for this world (sigh), I attended the EAA fabric class in Phoenix a couple years ago, and am really happy that I did. They use the Poly-Fiber process, but talk about the differences with the Ceconite process. My IA was impressed with the work and 2 years in, they still look pretty good.

Of course, when I say "pretty good", I mean "I still see every blemish no one else sees" :).
 
I guess if you are doing a whole control surface or anything else in it's entirety you can use anything you want. What you CANT do is mix poly fiber and ceconite process.
 
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