|
|
|
|
Steves S-20 Build Site.
|
Date: 4-23-2016
|
Number of Hours: 2.00
|
Manual Reference:
|
Brief Description: Clean up of LH fuselage covering.
|
|
After covering the left side of the fuselage there were two areas I wanted to improve on. While I took pictures before the improvements, I neglected to do so after, so I will just have to be trusted when I say they turned out awesome!
* The first area was in the radius at the bottom of the fin. This is a challenging area to get the fabric to lay in nicely, and I had trimmed the fabric near the centerline of the tube to get everything positioned and glued down without wrinkles. In reflecting on my work the next day, I had wished I cut a couple of darts and left another 1/2" or so of fabric. While I was not worried about the integrity of the glued section, I decided I could improve on this area by gluing a piece of tape over the fabric and down around the tube. I used a piece of 2" bias cut fabric tape, starting on the centerline of the fin, and wrapped it around the tube to the 7 or 8 o'clock location. I needed to trim the 2" tape to about 1.5" for proper fit, and it was about 7" long or so. The final product turned out as I had hoped.
* The second image shows the top former in the area above the baggage compartment. It is hard to see in the image, but I thought the seam where the fabric ended after wrapping 3/4 around the former looked ugly, and I thought it would be an eyesore (maybe only to me...) on the finished airplane, so I wrapped this area with a piece of 2" wide pinked tape. I put the pinked edge up as high as I could so the original cut edge would be hidden, and then trimmed the 2" width so the pinked edge would be up high on the opposite side of the tube.
A couple of probably un-necessary improvements, but the beauty of this plane is that I get to build it how I like it....
|
|
Fabric trimmed at radius centerline.
|
|
Difficult to see, but there is an ugly fabric seam in this picture.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2001-2024 Matronics. All Rights Reserved.
|
