At the rate you're swapping airplanes around, you're gonna get us dizzy. Not that that is a challenge in my case.

MTV

Fabric work is looking great. One day you'll find the perfect plane and you'll keep it.

Truly... amorphous.

bullseye, Zane!

Zzz wrote:Truly... amorphous.

Life imitates thread titles

asa wrote:

Zzz wrote:Truly... amorphous.

Life imitates thread titles

Or:

"OP delivers!"

Work continues...

About 95% done with finish tapes. All that's left is the one down the spine (top stringer). IT has a big curve obviously so will need my friend's help for that one. Hopefully do that when we're both available in a week or so. The other tapes went on great. Although optional, I opted to put a tape down the upper longeron. I like the look, it adds reinforcement I suppose and it hides a couple blemishes.




Moved onto skinning and final fitment of the doors - these were used doors off ebay from a different fuselage. I got the frames fit to the fuselage last spring and refurbed them but did nothing with the skins. Knocked out the skins for the rear doors today, right now they are cleco's in place but I still need to cut the upper/lower windows in the rear seat door. My plan is to skin the soild aluminum cargo door in oratex so it matches. The rear seat door I'm unsure if I'll paint or oratex. The pilot/copilot doors will be painted black. There's very little metal on the patroller style doors so it doesn't matter too much.

I didn't take pics doing the cargo door but here's my general process of the door for the rear seat...

Verify frames still fit after not being on fuselage for 8 months..


Test out fit of old skin. Mark where dimensions need to change, interferences, etc etc


Duplicated the old skin with new sheet, incorporate changes..


badabing

Looking good.

Used to have a Toyota LE van from that era. Those Toyota’s are awesome little gas sipping spam cans!

Are you skinning with .015 or heavier?

Do you know what the wall thickness is on the Maule door frames?

Is the new Maule seaplane door attached with a continuous hinge along the top?

VortexAlternator wrote:Looking good.

Used to have a Toyota LE van from that era. Those Toyota’s are awesome little gas sipping spam cans!

Are you skinning with .015 or heavier?

Do you know what the wall thickness is on the Maule door frames?

Is the new Maule seaplane door attached with a continuous hinge along the top?

Door skins are pretty thick. 0.032” I think? I bought the material in the spring and don’t remember exactly. The boot cowl (other main sheet part) is only 0.020”.

I think the tubes are 0.030” wall thickness or so, unsure.

Yes continuous hinge on that seaplane door

Did the final few finish tapes today - down the top stringer of fuselage, curved leading edge of horizontals. I also added tapes in a few places that I thought could handle some extra protection, namely where fairings will contact - around the wing root, skylight, and boot cowl. Here's a couple pics of various places showing the finish tapes. Despite what they look like in pics, they are the exact same color, however the weave is different (tighter on tapes) so they reflect light different. The last picture looks closest to real life, the tape color differences are exaggerated in the others. There are a few blemishes here and there but overall very happy with how it turned out.

Oratex complete.

Looks good! I would much rather do this, and skip the paint process next time!

I ordered my Oratex a few days ago and will be coving my Bearhawk in March, the only thing that worries me is the top of empennage to vertical

Utah-Jay wrote:I ordered my Oratex a few days ago and will be coving my Bearhawk in March, the only thing that worries me is the top of empennage to vertical

I would sign up to do another airplane in oratex if someone asked, and that is the only part that I would not be super confident in. The rest is a cakewalk.

Today's project was putting oratex on the cargo door skin and then riveting it all together. Came out great.. although I did it twice because the first piece of oratex I glued on had a crease that I didnt notice until it was glued down. Likely no one would have ever noticed but it was easy to just fix right then and there. I wrapped the fabric around to the backside and put the cut edge underneath the door frame tube so you can't see it. Just need to paint the door hinges and that door will be done.

Planning to do the boot cowl in oratex as well.

asa wrote:

That is going to be a fine looking machine. Keep at it Asa!

Thanks!

I realize some people probably think I'm over posting but I couldn't care less. I love reading the dumbass details of other people's build threads (Bigrenna, etc), even years later for the second or third time. Mine isn't on that level but who gives a shit.

Got bored waiting on some stuff and tried out an idea on the inside of the cargo door. Didn’t want the weight (3 lbs) of the factory interior panel, so I was just going to paint the inside black to match inside of oratex, but then I thought maybe it’d look good to cover up the mechanism with a panel. So 5 minutes later I had this kydex piece. It has a lip bent in it that you can see in pics to close it out and also gives it rigidity and the lip has rubber edge trim on it. Haven’t decided if it’ll stay or not - seems pointless in most ways. Used the old mounting holes and a scrap piece of Kydex so no harm no foul. Even a full panel of this 0.028 Kydex would about 20% the weight of the factory aluminum + glue + faux leather + insulation. With full patroller glass everywhere this plane is already going to be loud and cold so why not make it a little louder and colder.

Please keep it up, I find it inspiring and really enjoy this thread. Bigrenna’s original 170 build was one of the best ever, but the 170 curmudgeons drove him off. I think that I get ideas from all of the build threads.

I like the kydex cover, it’s neat. Always hard to decide if it’s worth the weight, to build a really light plane takes a lot of discipline, I guess everything is a trade.

When I was into model airplanes someone told me the way to save a gram was to save 0.1 of a gram in ten places. I think Steve Knapp says something about how much a pound costs after you have done all the obvious stuff. Oratex seems a no brainer. This is going to be a nice plane.

Noooooo, don't stop many of us are living vicariously thru your adventure.

Agreed, keep the info and photos coming!!! I can learn for my build

I have messed with Kydex a bit, how are you getting the nice clean bends on your kydex? Mine look like a 3 year old is doing it?

Thanks

Utah-Jay wrote:Agreed, keep the info and photos coming!!! I can learn for my build

I have messed with Kydex a bit, how are you getting the nice clean bends on your kydex? Mine look like a 3 year old is doing it?

Thanks

I appreciate the support!

I just use a sheet metal break or for smaller pieces a handheld sheet metal bendy thing, whatever those are called. Cold forming always gives cleaner results, I would only use heat for doing real molding type operations like a pulley cover. Hard to get localized bending with heat unless you build a nice mold to constrain it. The heat tends to spread and makes waves in the area you wanted flat.

Sometimes cold forming will make light colored stretch marks along the bend. Those can be removed with a little surface heat or don’t worry about it if you’re painting it. It holds paint very well.

There’s an older thread on super Cub forum about a guy getting really good with Kydex and making an amazing Cub interior. He made custom rollers to cold roll the edges, heat molded complex shapes, all kinds of stuff. I got my initial knowledge from that thread but don’t have the patience for making all the tooling.