bikerbc

Very nice looking spinner.. How do you tighten it ?

Cub Flyer Fresno

Eh-hem, uh... yeah... Well, that's the part that was omitted.  The way I did it was to use channel-lock pliers and a bicycle inner-tube.  I actually thought I wasn't going to be able to get it off the first time!

Neddy191

My Feedback: (2)

My cub is coming along. I'm finally covering - using Solartex. I've got the wings and control surfaces covered and today I started the fuse. I got the nose, bottom and sides covered. The part I'm dreading most - top and fin with the fin fillet - will be tomorrow. I hope to have it painted and all finished up before the end of August. I've got too many other planes I want to build stacking up on my shelf, literally - so I need to get this one done.

Question for everyone - What spray guns does everyone here use? I've got cub yellow klass kote on the shelf ready when I get the covering done. I got a cheapy harbor freight touch up HVLP gun today when I was there picking up some other stuff. I figured I'll try it on some scrap and if I can't get it to work well enough it was only $13 so its not a big loss just to trash it.

WacoNut

Neddy your covering job is looking good. Don't sweat the fin fillet the Solartex will conform to this area very easily.

I have a Craftsman HVLP gun and it works well. The Klass Kote paint sprays great. I thinned mine out to the maximum recommended in the directions. If I remember correctly I was spraying at approx. 32PSI. Make your 1st coat a thin coat and let it sit for about 20 minutes then spray a 2nd heavier coat. BTW: Do not forget the induction time. Let the paint sit for 30 minutes after mixing before spraying. I always mixed in a cup then transferred to a 2nd cup before pouring into the gun. I filtered the paint as I was pouring it into the 2nd cup. This assures you get nothing but mixed paint into your gun.

Good Luck and post some pics.
Anthony

acerc

David take it back to your machinist and have him hollow it out and add a center hole for a hub bolt to run thru it.

Neddy I use an el cheapo purchased from Walmart. I got the two in one kit. Kinda pissed me off to start off with because back in my younger days I painted cars and had some of the best guns. So far both el cheapos work exceptionally well.

Neddy191

My Feedback: (2)

I'm a little worried about the painting. I've never painted anything before and I've never seen it done. Anthony, How thin is a "thin" 1st coat? I'm afraid to spray to wet a 2nd coat because I don't want runs or sags anywhere - shouldn't I go more for 3-4 lighter coats (especially since I'm using cub yellow which I'm afraid won't cover as well as other colors).

Cub Flyer Fresno

Looking good Neddy. How are you liking the Solartex so far? I had to re-do my fin fillet once, the second time was the charm. It was a little tough, but it looks good.

Robert, I flew with the hub as-is. It worked fine, just have to tighten it very carefully with the "rubberized" channel-locks.

I took a few photos with the real deal today. Here's one of them.

Neddy191

My Feedback: (2)

The Solartex has been a breeze so far. The wingtips and rudder were super easy to cover with no wrinkles - especially knowing I'll be putting perimeter tapes on so I didn't have to be perfect in trimming the excess.

Cub Flyer Fresno

Yup.  The perimeter tapes help there for sure.  I did however have a bit of a time trying to keep the wrinkles our of the perimeter tape around the tail surfaces.  Let me know how it works for you or if you find a special trick.

Neddy191

My Feedback: (2)

I'm still waiting on my perimeter tapes so I'll have to let you know. Gary's machine broke while he was cutting the perimeter tapes for me. He went ahead and sent me the rib tapes but he was going to have to fix his machine and send me the perimeter tapes, they should come any day now.

WacoNut

Neddy,
Thin is pretty thin. You want the 1st coat to be just a light skim of paint that you can still see the fabric thru. Think of it as a translucent coat. You probably will be better off with several light coats then you will need a top wet coat so you get an even glossy surface. I would recommend spraying primer 1st. You can use Klass Kote primer in white or grey. I also found that Klass Kote is compatible with Dupli-Color primer as well. I would be worried that the paint will not cover well without a base coat of primer. Cub Yellow is terrible for being translucent.
Later!!
Anthony

Neddy191

My Feedback: (2)

I got the top and fin covered this morning. The right side went well but I ended up with three tries before I was satisfied with the left side. That was probably me least favorite task of the build so far. I'll get the stab, door and servo hatches covered tonight then on to rib stitches. I went ahead and ordered some white primer to put down before the yellow - I'm afraid with the green filler I used that can be seen through the covering that the yellow might not cover it well and it would look "bruised" without the primer.

MTK

The primer coat will help fill the overlaps of the Solartex. Another thing you can do to eliminate bleed-through of the base is to first spray a lite coat of silver over the primer. The silver will hide everything underneath and provide a very even base to spray the yellow. Whose yellow are you spraying?

I used KlassKote epoxy yellow in May on my latest design. Their latest yellow formulation covers well in two thin coats.

Oh yeah, what am I, a die hard aerobatic competition guy,doing in this thread? Well, I will be building a Cub with my grandson starting tonight. Could I post here as we progress?

acerc

Absolutely post here Matt.

Neddy, don't feel bad! Remember my little Pitts that I had to recover after starting the painting, twice!!!! Your doing great...

Neddy191

My Feedback: (2)

Here's a link to a Cub restoration/recovering that I found tonight. I'll post it here since I haven't seen this one before.

http://rangerairfield.org/barn_cub/fuselage/

Cub Flyer Fresno

Very interesting Cub restoration!  Thanks for posting that Neddy.  I almost wish I'd seen that before covering my Cub.

Neddy191

My Feedback: (2)

Long break from RCU with the upgrade, I was getting a little shaky!

I finished the wing stitching and putting tapes on the cub this weekend - that was a lot more time consuming than I anticipated. Now to figure out whether I'm going to paint outside (when the weather will allow) or in my basement with plastic tarps to drape things and the door open.

Neddy191

My Feedback: (2)

I got started painting my cub today. I have alot more to go and it won't get done this weekend. Its raining here so I lined an area in my walkout basement with plastic and put a fan blowing out the door. I'm using Klass Kote, I mixed up 4 oz color, 4 oz catalyst, and after the 40min induction period I thinned with about 2 oz of reducer. It seemed to flow through the gun fairly well so I went ahead and started with the underside of the wings. I bought some white primer but I wanted to see how the coverage would be without primer so I just painted the unprimed natural solartex. It ended up taking the entire volume I mixed up to get it covered to an opacity where I couldn't see the grain in the balsa sheeting anymore. I'm going to wait until the weather is better and do the rest of my painting outside - my house smells pretty bad right now. I think I'm going to go ahead and use the white primer for the rest of the painting so maybe I won't have to put so much yellow down. The biggest thing I learned about this is that the worst part about painting is cleaning up the gun. I'm going to need to go buy alot more thinner to use before I get this thing all painted.

d boothe

My Feedback: (16)

When I painted mine I used PPG urethane, expensive but looks better than factory. I did not use primer and some of the paint tried to pull off when I taped for the starburst. I recommend using a good primer.

malitape

My Feedback: (213)

What is PPG?

rafeeki

My Feedback: (11)

Make sure u have adequate ventilation... wait for the rain to stop.. Fumes from the paint s serious business.
Rafeek

Neddy191

My Feedback: (2)

PPG is a brand of automotive paint

Neddy191

My Feedback: (2)

By house I meant basement. I couldn't smell it in the living area after I painted. I did wear a good 3M painting respirator so I don't think I had any bad exposure with my adventure. I'll be doing the rest of the painting outside though - for multiple reasons; The light wasn't good enough even with extra spot lights , the paint fumes, etc. Maybe I'll get back to painting sometime next week.

Cub Flyer Fresno

Looking good Neddy! BTW, from everything that I've heard and with what little experience I do have, when painting yellow primer is a must.

Good luck with the rest of the painting.

Take care,
David

SunDevilPilot

Even the red on my Cub wings had a tiny amount opacity. Sure, I could have sprayed a white, or even better silver to "seal" the covering like a full scale, but I kinda like seeing some of the structure.

Keep up the good work Neddy, your Cub is looking really nice.

I'm going to have to take your advice on the pinking tapes for my Nieuport. That really adds some great detail to the wing.

SunDevilPilot