Okaaaaaay, I was finally able to work out the problem with my Photobucket issues, so here is an update on what I've done over the last few weeks......
After applying the clear varnish on the spar carry thru structures, I allowed it to cure and then masked that area so that the covering and painting process of the wings wouldn't affect the appearance of those pretty spars......
I am now ready to start covering the wings. The first step was to make sure the wings were clean. I used the same ol' wax and grease remover you've seen before on this project...
I'm using the Air Tech process on this little racer and I
highly recommend it to anyone out there with fabric projects. It's sometimes tough to convince the "old timers" out there that this is the way to go, but for me, it's much simpler and considerably easier to deal with than the older methods of fabric covering. Additionally, it produces one of the slickest finishes, with less overall weight than nearly any other process available. I won't waste a bunch of time by describing every single detail, as in the Air Tech manual (which is quite thorough and helpful, by the way), but I will hit the "high points" of how things went.
The first thing I did was to spray three cross coats of the Air Tech adhesive to the surface of the wing. This is the foundation for the fabric to stay on the wood, so thorough coating is required......
Next, I laid a section of fabric on the top portion of the wing. I'm using the lightest weight fabric I could find (1.2 ounce Ceconite). I'm starting with the top side of the wing so that the seams will all be underneath...for better appearance
..........
Then I cut off the big sections of overhanging fabric. This will get whittled down further as the process continues, but for now, you just want to make it managable............
Next, I tried a little trick one of the "old timers" taught me. After folding the fabric back, I took a brush and went back and forth across the wing with it. That creates a static electricity on the surface of the wing, which allows the fabric to be "sucked" to the wing better. It works pretty well, but a much larger brush would've produced better results for me..........
The next step was to simply lay the fabric back down on top of the wing. I then took a lint-free cloth, dipped it into my container of adhesive, and applied it to the perimeter of the wing. Yeah, yeah, I know.....I wasn't wearing gloves.
And yes, I was picking glue off my hands for days.
The application of the adhesive purges it through the weave of the fabric and adheres it to the adhesive on the surface of the wing, thus creating a tight bond for the fabric to be held on with. The reason you don't use a brush here is because you don't want those irritating little bristles breaking loose and ending up being glued to the fabric......
After allowing the adhesive to cure, I took an iron (at approximately 250 degrees) and applied it to the fabric around the perimeter of the wing. This isn't at all the final step for these areas, but rather just to get it started in the right direction. It's really kind of neat to see how all of this transitions from a big, wrinkled mess to a slick, finished product as the steps continue..........
Then, I used the iron (at the same temperature) to tighten up the fabric on the inside of the adhesive that was previously applied. It's very important not to have the iron set too high, as you don't want to melt the adhesive below the fabric and have it stick to the wing at this point. The idea here is to make the fabric nice and taunt. It's tough not to get in a hurry here, but it's important to just take your time and be patient.......
Once I competed the step above, I applied adhesive to the remainder of the fabric. This step is what keeps the fabric you just shrunk attached to the wing, so watching it to make sure you get good penetration of adhesive through the weaves of fabric, into the wood below, is crucial........
While all of the adhesive is curing, I moved on to the other wing and did the same procedures...same song, different verse.........
One step I didn't show on the previous wing was some more trimming of the fabric around the edges. You can see that some areas, such as the aileron bays, require cutting the fabric at the correct angles so that it'll fold down with ease in a later step........
And now both wings are ready for the next step in the process......
The next step was to lay all of the edges down. I use a modeler's iron for this process, as a standard iron is just too big for my liking. I also bumped the temperature up about 10 degrees or so on the ironing process, as I want to just make the glue underneath the areas I'll be laying down sticky enough for the fabric to stick to it. I'll be laying another coat of adhesive to the fabric later, but having it stick where it's supposed to is very helpful at this point........
I also had to do a bit more trimming before I could lay all of the edges down..........
Then it was just a feature of laying the fabric down with the iron. Sometimes moderate pressure is necessary to get the fabric to go where you want, but it doesn't take long to figure out what you need to do to make it work out..........
Finally, it was time to flip the wing over and lay down the edges there.......
But first, more trimming was needed........
As you can imagine, the edges under the wing tip area would only lay down so much. So I had to cut some slits in the areas of fabric that overlapped each other. This enabled the fabric to lay down nicely. Don't worry about the open areas for now. This will get fixed later with finishing tapes........
The remainder of the leading and trailing edges laid down nicely........
Next was the application of the fabric on the bottom of the wing. This is pretty much the same as the top of the wing, only without the overhanging fabric. For whatever reason, I must've forgotten to take progress pictures during the process between laying the fabric on the wing until it was all glued in place, but other than cutting it to shape, it is all pretty much the same..........
One difference in the bottom of the wing was that it has inspection covers in it to gain access to the aileron bellcrank. During the process of actually applying the fabric to the wing, you just ignore this area and shrink & apply the fabric as you would on the top side. Once the fabric is all in place is when you can cut out the area for the inspection panel. I went over the edges of the panel with the modeler's iron one more time, to insure that they were fastened securely to the wing. Then it was just a matter of installing the original inspection panel cover.......
The next step was to start laying down the finishing tapes. The first finishing tape to install isn't really much more than a doubler, so to speak, for the fabric around the pitot tube. I just made this by cutting out a circle with some pinking shears and then applying it with the adhesive. The edges are pinked so that they are less likely to fray, and in theory, adds strength...not that the strength of the tapes are a big issue in this situation.......
Next, I just used some 2" pinked tapes and laid them down where the upper and lower sections of fabric came together. These tapes will form a "bridge" of fabric to hold everything together. They are applied by simply laying them down with the adhesive soaked cloth. I took my time to ensure that the tapes were nice and straight........
And with all the tapes in place, the fabric covering portion of the wing project is completed..........
Before priming the wings, I needed to punch the holes for the aileron attach points and the wing root fairings. So how do you do this without the fabric fraying or coming loose? Well, you use an old soldering iron, of course.
The use of one of these irons is perfect for this type of job. It simply "melts" it's way through the fabric, so there are no rough edges. It also softens up the surrounding adhesive enough that the edges of the hole adhere to the wood and are sure to stay put.......
Finally, the wings are ready for primer. Again, the Air Tech system utilizes a fantastic primer that gives you the UV protection the fabric needs, while at the same time is extremely easy to apply and work with. All you do is apply three cross coats and it's ready for paint (in theory).
Personally, I like to let the primer cure for a week and then wet sand it before applying the paint. This makes for an amazing finish and is well worth the effort. And even with that, it's still far less troublesome than some of the older methods of applying coat after coat of "silver" and wetsanding between each coat.
So there you have it...you're all caught up on where I'm at right now with Another Solution. I'm not quite finished with the wet sanding process yet, and I'll likely go over the wings at least a couple more times before I call it good. This is just an area where I think a little bit of effort in making the wings as slick as possible by wet sanding, will provide a very slick finish when I get around to painting it. But I'm sure I'll keep y'all posted on the progress along the way, so stay tuned.
Gary
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I am very excited to be working with them and am glad to have them on board with "Another Solution."
