Recover take 2

tonycondon

tonycondon

Gastons CRO (Chief Dinner Reservation Officer)
Joined
Mar 9, 2005
Messages
15,459
Location
Wichita, KS
Display Name
Display name:
Tony
Leah cut out the N numbers from her glider last night. All the wood that I could see looks like it is in good shape. We'll get more wild after Thanksgiving with the knife.
 

Attachments

  • firstcut.jpg
    firstcut.jpg
    25.5 KB · Views: 101
Tune in for the next episode of "GLIDERS GONE WILD!" ;)

Have fun doing the recover - I'm sure it'll be a blast.
 
Oooh another winter of vintage glider pr0n from Wichita :D
 
Tony,
You guys do understand that the term is homeBUILT, not homeBUILT and REbuilt and REbuilt, right?

Wish ya'll were closer so I could get a look at how that fabric stuff works.
 
ha chris. leahs glider has original fabric on it from 1964. the paint is in good shape but is thick. it has at least two coats on it. a few of the longerons and the trailing edge of the wings are starting to show some warpage from years of shrinkage. so it is time for new fabric.
 
I thought this was going to be a thread about Lindsay Lohan.

Seriously though, good luck with the project. I enjoyed following the progress on the last one.
 
What are you going to recover with???? Was the original covering cotton or ceconite?

Frank
(a former builder or Zuni 15m sailplanes)
 
Well.. having done one.. at least she knows what she's getting into.. and the second will go faster...

and look nicer...

looking forward to the progress pics
 
frank the original was, im told, polyester fabric from sears roebuck. finished originally with silver and dope and at least another coat of paint with polyfiber on top of that.

we`ll recover with stewart systems like we did my glider last winter.

we have 2 or 3 zunis down here in kansas. neat glider!
 
tonycondon said:
Leah cut out the N numbers from her glider last night. All the wood that I could see looks like it is in good shape. We'll get more wild after Thanksgiving with the knife.
Click to expand...

Make sure you take a look at the Biplane Forum. There are plenty of good posts regarding various fabric systems, paints, primers, techniques.
 
I know the designer of the Zuni-George Applebay, built a couple Cherokee's while he was working for Cessna in Wichita. He had some good soaring stories flying those. He still had one when I worked for him back in the 80's.....He may have it still in the soaring museum in Moriarty NM. Do you know who originally built your gliders???

I've not worked with the Stewart system. Its been a while since I did any fabric work. Back then it was a choice of poly peel or dope. I've heard good things about Stewart though. Hope your project goes well. Sounds like you know what you're getting into.


Frank
 
last night we cut out the top stringer on the fuselage and identified work that will need to be done when it is warm enough to epoxy. Also did some more sanding on the fuselage.
 
well by next thursday it is supposed to be 70 degrees here in wichita so i'm hoping to get a lot of work done on the garage next week. once the garage is insulated we'll move the glider over and get back to work.
 
Mouse damage... ugh. And the spar, no less. They could have nibbled on the seat, but nooooo... had to go for the spar. :rolleyes2:

But it looks, to me, like it can be rectified without doing anything too radical, and whatever the case, it will be worth it for the peace of mind.

I know that feeling: "Gee, I kinda wish I hadn't looked in there... but I'm also kinda glad I did..." :D
 
last night i did some more cleanup/removal of water damaged wood at the base of the vertical stabilizer. sort of mapped out what i will need to do for the scarf joints there. tonight hoping to finish removing wood and start cutting the scarfs. ordered new wood and a bunch of fabric from Spruce last night.
 
made more progress this week and the gilder side scarfs on the vertical spars and the lower longerons are done. need to scarf the new wood and start re-assembling everything this week.
 
So are you going to have anything flyable this season?

You're starting to sound like the redneck of gliders with a bunch of cars (gliders) in your front yard... "Well, the Pinto needs a starter... The Topaz needs a transmission..."

:D :D :D
 
CJones said:
So are you going to have anything flyable this season?

You're starting to sound like the redneck of gliders with a bunch of cars (gliders) in your front yard... "Well, the Pinto needs a starter... The Topaz needs a transmission..."

:D :D :D
Click to expand...

i should get a picture of my driveway and post. huge pile of tree debris, two glider trailers, 3 (driveable) cars.

Leah's glider and my NG-1 glider are in the garage. I need to do a little cleanup and touch up paint on the NG-1 and it should be ready for its condition inspection and then will go back in the trailer and back to the gliderport. My glider is in the other trailer. It is perfectly flyable the way it is but there are a few things I want to do to it this spring before the season gets going. Like fill in the bubbles on the leading edge and replace the wiring.
 
CJones said:
So are you going to have anything flyable this season?

You're starting to sound like the redneck of gliders with a bunch of cars (gliders) in your front yard... "Well, the Pinto needs a starter... The Topaz needs a transmission..."

:D :D :D
Click to expand...

It's easier to get at the parts if you roll them up on one side.
 
tonycondon said:
i should get a picture of my driveway and post. huge pile of tree debris, two glider trailers, 3 (driveable) cars.

Leah's glider and my NG-1 glider are in the garage. I need to do a little cleanup and touch up paint on the NG-1 and it should be ready for its condition inspection and then will go back in the trailer and back to the gliderport. My glider is in the other trailer. It is perfectly flyable the way it is but there are a few things I want to do to it this spring before the season gets going. Like fill in the bubbles on the leading edge and replace the wiring.
Click to expand...

You should do a before-and-after setup with the tree debris, and you working on your wooden gliders or Leah's wooden canoes.
 
CJones said:
So are you going to have anything flyable this season?

You're starting to sound like the redneck of gliders with a bunch of cars (gliders) in your front yard... "Well, the Pinto needs a starter... The Topaz needs a transmission..."

:D :D :D
Click to expand...

Sounds like the fleet in my garage...

- The high beam doesn't work on the RC51, and it needs one of the headlight brackets adjusted
- The KZ1000P needs the high driving lights connected, and the front brake switch doesnt' work
- The Triumph needs a mirror, some touch-up paint, and for me to finish painting the new nose fairing to put on
- The 3000GT needs... everything
- The Excursion has a sticking left rear brake

But the Sportster, Seca, and Avalanche work great! Oh wait, none of those are mine...
 
the wood that arrived earlier this week was just the birch plywood. today the spruce arrived. mahogany plywood is still on backorder. So anyway i started slicing and dicing the spruce today. First made the scarfs for the vertical stabilizer spars. Leah also worked on removing the aileron from the left wing. Lot of back and forth to the bench and fine chiseling on the glider side of things and i got everything more or less lined up I think. Then I took a break from the glider and sanded on my latest rowing shell repair project. Then it was back to work on the glider. Next up I made the longeron scarfs which didn't really take anytime at all. By the way I really love the new fence on my table saw. Perfectly square and straight. Even with the crummy stock blade it is making great cuts. At least a whole lot better than with the old fence! So once I got the longeron scarfs made I thought I was done but then I remembered that the longerons also tapered from 3/4" wide to about 5/16" wide at the aft end. I also had to make sure to leave 1/8" clearance between the spars and the longeron for the plywood shear web. So a lot of marking, measuring, and planing and I had them trimmed up to the proper shape. By then it was 1 AM so I decided to call it a night.

Tomorrow I'll epoxy the spars in place in the morning so that later in the day I can work on scarfing in the new plywood webs. Hopefully I don't have to tear out too much stringer material to do that. Then with the plywood in place I can epoxy the longerons in and then rebuild whatever stringer stuff I have to tear out. I'll also have to scarf in a piece of plywood that covers the back of the aft vertical spar and replace a plywood gusset that was in the way of removing the front spar. might have some more work to do on a large gusset that i had to trim away to make the longeron scarf.

Letsee then I'll have to come up with my tailwheel attach bracket scheme and get that in place at the bottom of the vertical stab. This was the piece that originally busted out and caused all of this work. I've got some ideas on how to make it less flexible lighter than the old one. Then once that is in place I can finish the work on the tail by replacing the plywood on the bottom of the truss and finishing the lower stringer.
 
Tony, what method did you use to make the scarfs? And it appears you are making only one half of the joint...is that correct?

I just started to read this thread and your blog. I'm liking what I see so far. Cool projects.
 
Richard said:
Tony, what method did you use to make the scarfs? And it appears you are making only one half of the joint...is that correct?

I just started to read this thread and your blog. I'm liking what I see so far. Cool projects.
Click to expand...

i used a plane on the longerons and spars. both the glider side and the new piece of wood have 15:1 scarfs on them so they match up nicely. On they plywood I just used my little handheld sander to get the 15:1. Easier when the scarf is only 1 7/8" long instead of 7 or 11 1/4" like the spars and longerons.

glad you're enjoying it. The longerons are curing now.
 
stringers are glued in. the tailwheel support with steel backup and nutplates is primed and ready to be epoxied in place. Also have a few more plywood scarfs to make on a the gussets that I had to butcher for the longeron scarf. Once those are ready the gussets will get replaced, then the tailwheel support and the plywood on the back of the vertical stab. The final part of the tail repair will be replacing the plywood that was on the bottom of the entire area and fixing up the 3/4" thick stringer that defines the bottom of the glider.
 
Tom-D said:
You gotta get busy and get that dry wall up.
Click to expand...

will finish insulating walls and drywall ceiling and insulate attic later this summer after glider projects are done and before it starts to get cold again. even with walls and ceiling 3/4 insulated it heats up fast and stays pretty warm out there when the temps are in the high 30s and 40s like last night.
 
got back to work on leahs glider last night. plywood gusset on the bottom of the fuselage in tail area is cured in place, Leah did some sanding on the left wing and worked on some of the filler work around the wing roots on the fuselage. I spent some time with my calculator and the mouse damage to the wing spar is OK with plenty of margin at an 8G ultimate load, so we're happy about that.
 
Last night I epoxied in the last part of the tail repair, the lower stringer. Tonight everything got a couple coats of epoxy varnish. Looking good! I guess the only thing left in this area is to finish priming the tailwheel bracket and drill a hole in the bracket for a castering wheel which is still TBD. I also varnished up the chewing damage in the left wing tonight. Next step is to figure out the new wheel/brake install and work on replacing the control cables. Leah is still working on sanding and filling in a few spots.
 

Attachments

  • P5120001.JPG
    P5120001.JPG
    930.7 KB · Views: 14
  • P5120003.JPG
    P5120003.JPG
    923 KB · Views: 13
  • P5120005.JPG
    P5120005.JPG
    791.2 KB · Views: 15
tonycondon said:
Last night I epoxied in the last part of the tail repair, the lower stringer. Tonight everything got a couple coats of epoxy varnish. Looking good! I guess the only thing left in this area is to finish priming the tailwheel bracket and drill a hole in the bracket for a castering wheel which is still TBD. I also varnished up the chewing damage in the left wing tonight. Next step is to figure out the new wheel/brake install and work on replacing the control cables. Leah is still working on sanding and filling in a few spots.
Click to expand...
Lookin' good! Prime the bracket after you drill the hole... just sayin'. :thumbsup:
 
wow been a while since i updated here. I've started to replace the control cables in the fuselage and the elevator and fuselage side aileron cables are done. Rudder cables just needs connected to the turnbuckle and rudder itself. In anticipation of running the aileron and airbrake cables, Leah and I did some cleaning and reorganizing in the garage tonight to make enough room to allow the glider to be assembled inside.

We also fired up the heater for the first time this fall. I think it ran a total of 10 minutes to keep us in t-shirts for at least 3 hours. Love that insulation and I still have to finish that job!

attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • downsized_1014012150.jpg
    downsized_1014012150.jpg
    28.9 KB · Views: 120
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top