Sunday, January 8, 2012

Covering Wings - June 1966

Dennis:  As with the fuselage and tail, the wings were covered with the blanket method, as opposed to a sewn envelope.  The first coats of clear dope were sprayed on because the fabric was impregnated with dope.  It's always nice to have a willing helper to flip the wings over, thanks Mom.

With the first coats of clear dope dry and the fabric tight the re-enforcing tapes were applied over the ribs and stitching done.  In hind sight it seems silly to have a lifetime fabric installed with standard waxed rib stitch cord.  I really like the hidden knots developed by Stits.  The old style knots are a pain to sand around.

Surface tapes, inspection rings and drain grommets finished the easy work.  Now it's time to wet sand the aluminum dope for a good finish.  The white stripe on the fin is because we installed the gap fillers and then applied the fabric over them.  It all pulled lose at the bottom rib on the fin.  We cut it off and ran the fabric under the first rib, re-installed the aluminum pieces and taped over the joints.  It all came out fine in the end but very annoying.

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