Hey, can I borrow those pinking shears?

I'm curious, how much Ekofill is required? i have a hangar neighbor with a J-3 that has been restored to museum level. The fabric is stunning and the thing I like about it the most is that you can see the weave of the fabric.

I know from my model building days that the covering used can have a significant impact of useful load. "Sweat the ounces and the pounds take care of themselves" and all that.

aftCG wrote:Hey, can I borrow those pinking shears?

I'm curious, how much Ekofill is required? i have a hangar neighbor with a J-3 that has been restored to museum level. The fabric is stunning and the thing I like about it the most is that you can see the weave of the fabric.

I know from my model building days that the covering used can have a significant impact of useful load. "Sweat the ounces and the pounds take care of themselves" and all that.

Per the STC and manual, you need 3 cross coats. Usually I brush one cross coat on and spray 2 more. Ekofill is not the place to cut ounces, as that is the UV protection. Better to make sure you dont over apply the paint or primer and save ounces there. Stewarys system leaves a shiny finish and the weave of the fabric is usually not seen. Poly fiber with polygons is usually a matte finish and the weave is visible. I like both finish looks, but Stewart's is so much nicer to work with.

aftCG wrote:Hey, can I borrow those pinking shears?

Sure! I just need your car keys in exchange [emoji6]

A1Skinner, thanks for answering his question. [emoji1360]

Makes sense now, thanks. I thought maybe it was fill and then silver. Agreed, not the place to skip

More progress on the fabric



Got a 337 approved by the friendly neighborhood FSDO for Rainbow Ron's baggage door which is hinged from the front. The ACA baggage door is hinged from the top.

I think you mean hinged from the bottom instead of hinted from the top. I do like the forward hinged ones as long as theres a way to keep it open while loading.

Um, yeah...that's what I meant...I'm an expert on these doors because I've installed exactly zero of them!

Thanks for the correction. I've never seen the ACA door in the flesh. None of the Citabria's I've flown have ever had a baggage door. Makes sense that it would be hinged from the bottom, not sure why I assumed it would be on top.

This is why I keep saying I'm just a parts replacer/installer. I need good directions with big animal pictures to get anything done!

Baggage door frame is installed.





Cloth tape on stringers and on the steel, then coated with EkoBond glue.

Ah, more eye candy thank you

My pleasure. [emoji1360]

Hope to get more done soon and will post more pics.

Got the fuselage fabric stuck on with EkoBond and roughly trimmed up.

Not too bad of a result without any heat shrinking. This Stewart Systems process is just wonderful to work with.



















Trimming the bottom overlap





Inspection hole ring locations penciled in









That's all for now. Thanks for following along. [emoji482]

Shrunk it down to 250F, stuck down the bottom edge overlap with EkoBond and installed reinforcing tape and pop rivets on the vertical stab.

So one word comes to mind, SPECTACULAR

I am really enjoying this thread, thank you for taking the time to share with us. Great work!

Kurt

Thanks guys! We're aiming to get it done before the end of the year so we can give up this third hangar before we get dinged for an entire year of taxes on Jan 1st, 2020 (property taxes for the hangar, not the plane).

We'll have a spot for it in another one of our hangars once it's assembled.

Do you have a paint scheme cooked up yet

We have yellow wings and white struts already...there's talk of grey, white, yellow, and black/white checkerboard for the fuselage and tailfeathers, but no scheme finalized yet.

Worked up to the final shrink with the iron at 350F.

More reinforcing tape and pop rivets where they belong.

Addressed some of the stuff poking out for the horizontal stab, flying wires, and the handle with fabric reinforcement patches as required.

Anyway, it's moving right along and is coming out pretty good but still lots left to do.

Excellent building log! Thank you!

No wonder my belly fabric is drumming itself to death, I'm missing all those cross braces and rivets. Winter project. Now I've got to go back and look at your pre-fabric pictures. Rivets just the AD42BS into an aluminum cross-rib? Noticed the tapes are the narrow 3/8 or 1/2" (can't tell). Factory uses Boeing cargo hold friction tape, Polyken 296FR, but I still have some of the polyfibre stuff around.