Purple Bird

My Feedback: (24)

I have a Lanier Stinger 60 that I'm in the process of recovering. Considering it's my first time covering the question I have is...do you remove the control surfaces to recover them? If so, how do you GENTLY remove the old hinges and what is the process for putting in the new ones?

Any advice would be appreciated!

-Brad

touch and go

My Feedback: (11)

Brad, generally control surfaces are covered before they are installed on the plane. It is certainly easier to it that way. But since you are doing a recovering job you don't have that option. Consider removing the control surfaces from the plane, then recovering them and then reinstalling them. Exactly how you do that depends in part on the type of hinges that are used on the plane. If, for example, CA hinges are used you could simply use a razor blade to cut through the existing hinges to remove the control surface. When reinstalling you could install new CA hinges next to where the old ones were.

Stew99

An alternative to removing the control surfaces would be to leave about a quarter inch of the old covering on, for example, the trailing edge of the wing and the leading edge of the aileron. Clean the areas thoroughly and adhere the new covering to this strip when you recover the wing/aileron. Finally, trim the new covering flush with the edge. The same technique can be used on the elevator and rudder. The questions to be answered are: will the new covering stick properly to the old covering and is the color match acceptable? If the answer to either of these is no, then you have no choice but to cut the hinges and install new ones after recovering.

Teepers

I just recovered a wing and left the control surfaces on. If I had to do it over again I'd take the control surfaces off, recover and then re-hinge them.

Purple Bird

My Feedback: (24)

I guess my concern is how hard is it to get the old glued hinges out of the slots and put new ones in. My experience has always been "learning through doing" so I'll give it shot.

Thanks for the advice.

Test005

IMO you don't get the ol hinges out.
Simply cut the old hinges flat to the wing TE and the aileron, make new slots and install new hinges in a diffrent location.

Newc

I differ in my approach to those that cover the control surfaces and then assemble them to the fixed surfaces.

I never cover the parts separately. What I do - after the parts are all hinged and the hinges are pinned for extra security - is use one piece of covering material - I use Monokote - for the entire wing (for example). I cover the wing's fixed portion first, flex the control surface away from the surface just covered and then use a trim iron to adhere the covering to the vertical portion of the wing’s trailing edge and the beveled edge of the aileron, then continue with the same piece of Monokote to cover the aileron and take the Monokote over the TE of the aileron. Then I repeat on the other side.

Doing it this way seems easier to me than the separate method, ensures that there aren't any glue spots on the covering and - most importantly - completely eliminates any gap between the surfaces.