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Rob's REBVAIR Project
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Date: 3-19-2017
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Number of Hours: 30.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Aileron Covering: part 2
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Taping and finish-covering the ailerons is equally tedious. Image 1 shows the various tapes that must be applied. The wider ones come from polyester fabric remnants. It's not difficult, but one has to alternate between taping and ironing activities to make sure the tapes adhere/conform properly to the surface. Again, 30 hours covers the time needed to do all 4 of these.....a lot more than I anticipated. I should mention that I decided not to use the new Oratex covering system because I believed the cost would be significantly greater than the nominal $120 dollars required to purchase these poly-fiber chemicals. However, given the time required for cutting, fitting, ironing, taping etc with this polyfiber system, I believe the Oratex option might have been the better investment.
Image 2 shows the flaperon after fully poly-brushing all surfaces, then 4-cross-coats of poly-spray, the 3 coats of poly tone. It took 2 quarts of poly-brush to do all four flaperons, with little to spare. Ironed down any rough surfaces at 250 degrees. Then 4 quarts of poly-spray. I initially didn't want the hassle of spraying this stuff on, and was ready to use a brush to apply it when I read something about the potential weight increase. I also recalled my brother-in-law's advice that HVLP paint guns are inexpensive and give pretty good results, so I picked up a $30 gun and regulator combo at Harbor Freight. After cleaning the gun thoroughly with MEK, it was actually pretty easy to get good results.
The flaperon surface treatment ends with 3 cross-coats of "Nevada Silver" poly-tone which matches the unfinished aluminum look of the rest of the plane. The last step was removal of the fabric from the brass bushings on the sides, as these will make contact with the hanger brackets . This arduous flaperon chapter is finally behind me.
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before all the coatings
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finally complete
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