Recovering fuselage

sillsaviation1

sillsaviation1

New member
Before I start experimenting I would like to poll the people that have recovered fuselage and how they started stiching / glueing the hand hold area around the tubing when first getting started in the covering process . Any and all opinions from the "have done that " crowd will be welcome.
 
I want to put a Super Viking hand hold and step on my -2. Anybody have thoughts on this? Lynn N9818B the crate :D
 
Having fought that battle, I'll tell you how I did it and how I WISH I'd done it :D
After I covered the entire fuselage I split the fabric along the area for the handhold. I cut two patches for the ends where the longeron exits the envelope and one patch to pull the split back together under the handle.
What I wish I'd done is used a baseball stitch to sew the fabric back together underneath the exposed longeron and then used pinked patches as necessary. I would have a MUCH TIGHTER area around the handhold and wouldn't have the ugly patches I had to make for pulling the fabric back together. :?
 
Thanks for the reply D.D. , I'm using an envelope and it has sewn seams along the longerons and my thoughts were to pick the stitches out and restitch behind the longeron. Your coment says I'm on the right path.
 
I made my handhold rather "tight". I picked the sewing treats out of my envelope in a 5" section, pulled the fabric under the fuselage tube, hand sewed it back together. I epoxied a piece of oak 3/8 wide and 1/2 inch high by 4+ in long onto the tube at an angle so that when you reach for the handhold with your left hand, your fingers grab the oak strip & your thumb grips the tube on the outside......feels like a good grip & the whole thing is rather small. I covered the oak piece with fabric wrapped around it and the tube. I liike it , but it would be a lot less work to weld some nuts on the tube and screw a hand hold into it sort of like a Super V. Ken
 
I guess it's not too late to go back and redo my handhold. It's just in Poly Brush after all :)
I also wish I'd wrapped the exposed longeron like a tennis raquet rather than running the tape lengthwise. I don't think I' would have any lumps on the underside that way :lol:
 
I'm rebuilding a 14 13-2 but have not yet recovered it. However I've never liked the look of the original handhold so I got two small tabs from Bellance that are welded to the longeron and the Viking type of handle will be fastened through them with screws. It will actually put the handle about an inch below the bottom of the longeron.

Gary
 
Gary, did you purchase the tabs from Bellanca or did you just make them and weld them on yourself? LYNN N9818B :D
 
I purchased the little tabs from Bellanca but I bought the stainless steel handles from Spruce. I also put one just in front of the tail on the lower longeron for lifting the tail, but this one puts the handle just above the longeron.
Gary
 
Be sure to figure out when & how your interior is going in so that you go not find your bolt holes missing. It seems that the Cruisairs originally had the headlinger installed before the fabric was installed....Ken
 
Thanks for the good advice. I don't think finding the holes will be difficult, but I was wondering how they installed the headliner after it was covered with fabric. That answered a BIG question for me. :D
Gary
 
Gary:
It's also MUCH easier to install the headliner before installing the baggage compartment (says the voice of experience).
AFAIK, the ENTIRE interior was installed before the fabric. 8)
 
I'm covering my flaps.....are youze guy's flaps covered on the ends or are the end "D" sections open for ventalation (and bird and wasp nests????? thanks Ken
 
Mine are closed with drain holes all along the bottom of the wrap-around wood leading edge and at the trailing edge of each rib "bay".
Fun isn't it?!? :D
 
Wow, Joe - that's a lot of work and it looks splendid thus far. The handhold did turn out well.

I'm not sure they have the bandwidth/storage here for user photos, especially now that even cell phones have a megapixel or more resolution these days. Hence LARGE files.

There are sites such as MyPlane but my favorite is http://www.popularaviation.com. The fellow who runs it is an ex-Microsoft guy who began the site for Luscombe folks but expanded it to all sorts of airplanes. I prevailed upon him for a Bellanca section. This site accepts photos that are huge, though this means the site is rather unfriendly to dial-up users, alas.

I feel a sense of envy, of course, seeing fresh covering on a 14-19, as mine has soooo much heavy paint on it. As I said, however, in an article in the newsletter a few months back, the best solution to that is for the PILOT to lose weight. I've been on that damned NutriSystem program for the past few months. Oh, sure I've lost a lot of weight. Problem is that the faux food tastes okay at first, but after awhile I simply cannot eat it and have to change the contents of my order each month.

The local food bank gets a large bag of stuff from me every couple of weeks. I hope the recipients of these "gifts" don't hate me. I recall the folks on the Hill calling MREs Meals Refused by Ethiopians, and that's what this diet often feels like. Ah, but at night I dream of Rudys and those impromptu cook-outs at the hangars...ahhh....fahitas...vennison sausage...the smell of your smoker after you'd kindly rid a local landowner of a few feral pigs.

Oops...I guess I got just a wee bit off topic there <cough>.

Jonathan
 
I belong to a few hunting forums that you can post pictures on. Also the 120/140 forum let's you post pic's.
I bit the bullet and joined the BC club, I do own a 14-13 that's in pieces. I figured I will get information from this club that will more then pay for the membership. I will work on my website when I get the chance and keep some pictures coming of the progress of the rebuild.
 
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