yikes, looks worse than I thought before the pics,

Looking at what you have there, I'd try and sand off what's left of the CA,, I'd use masking tape to protect the paint where the CA isn't while I sand the bulk of it off, then clear coat it,, sure worth a try before you repaint the whole thing.

Odd the way that clear coat lifted,, that might be a Poly-u type clear not lacquer,, be carefull if you use any lacquer based products,, Test where it wont show first,,

good luck

The bracing and tool

Very nice, that should hold up for a long, long, time..............


It's a mess for sure on the cowl and I can't find an easy fix.. I tried some D.A. and it took off the stuff that was loose, but it took some time.. With all the spiderweb cracks in the cowl along with the seems as ugly as they are, I decided to re do it... Going to start sanding it down tonight and that thought alone makes me want to puke... What would be a good filler to use on the joints, not sure how much of the old paint I will be able to sand off and I don't want to use anything they might weaken the glass?

I have to sand down the sides of the canopy as well, it sits up to high and won't clear under the cowl and you seen the pick on how high it is to the turtle deck.. Once all this is done I have a pretty cool paint scheme in my head, should look good.. I'm like most modelers, like to take pride in my stuff.. Even if I was able to get off the rest of the CA and clear coat, I wouldn't be happy with the other issues... Funny thing is, when i was at the hardware store, I picked up some 600, 1000 and 1500 waterproof sand paper...

I totally understand, everyone wants a nice model when it first hits the field,, arf or 2 year scratch build it doesn't matter.

I am happy with the bracing now,, it much tighter than it's ever been,, I also tinkered and installed a 8 channel RX, I reprogrammed the ele servos and used the 2/8 channel mix to sinc the servos,, Going to do some flying tomorrow

Sweet, let me know how the flights go....... Got a coaches meeting tomorrow, then sign ups on Sunday, might get some flying on Sunday morning, I hope..

Past the point of no return now, I forgot how much I love wet sanding paint off...

I keep telling myself I will be happy when it's done! You can see the crap job they did on the seam, going to sand it down as much as I can, then blend it in with some filler...

How did you flying go this weekend, the new wires work like a charm? I got in some flights with my Katana, put someside force generators on and had a blast.. I only got about 2" of clearance at the wing tips with them on, so it made landings much more exciting...

Jimbo

I have another thread going on in the Question forum about re doing this cowl...

The skinny is, it's polyester and it's crap.. The cracks I had in the paint, are cracks in the gelcoat, doing some more sanding last night, the to which is very weak, pushed in and cracked some more of it.. What a mess!!

My options are to just paint it as is and keepon GMP-GW for a new one, but I doubt i will ever get one out of them and who's to say it won't be a POS as well... Option two and probably the one I will take, fix it right.. I will have to glass over it to beef it up and give me a good foundation to build off of.. I was thinking of glassing it and trying the Liquid sheeting over that, then primer and paint. I have another plane that I am planning to use the LS on and this will be a good test to see for myself how it works... All in all, it's a lot of extra work.. finding it hard to keep a smile on my face!!


Jimbo

Yes,I saw that thread. There are a lot of opinions and even more techniques,, You're right I just sanded the inside and gave it a smell, It is polyester resin. If it is cracked down to the resin finish, it probably will just keep cracking

Did you see this guy? http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_11128297/tm.htm

Worse case, I sell you the extra black/red one I have and you dress it up to suit your color scheme. I doubt I'll use it on mine. It has a few scuffs, but it doesn't look to be cracked anywhere. I was thinking I'd re-do the whole plane, but with the damage from the crash and the best as I could fuse repair, I doubt I'll put much more build time into this plane.


oh,
Last Sat was a Bust, I had a tank mis-plumbed issue again that turned into a comedy of errors,, long story-short I need a new tank and the plane didn't fly that day. [:@]

Yeah, seen that thread. Waiting to here if he knows who got the parts.. I think if I bought your cowl, i would be in the same boat after sanding the paint off.. I should have just scuffed up the paint and painted over, it would have looked a lot better then it did and I wouldn't have these problems now.. If the paint started chipping off, I could just re paint it... I sent another email to GMP, see what happens. Sorry to here you didn't get to fly her...

Jimbo

I hadn't read the thread in a while ,, too bad, he didn't jump on it sooner

Well, if it were me, at this point I'd just sand it all down to as smooth a finish as you can get with 400 grit, don't worry about taking off all the paint. Wash it real good, Then overlay a layer of 5/8-3/4 oz cloth and resin as if you were glassing wood , sand it smooth, rattle can automotive primer, spot putty, etc. typical prep and paint to your liking. IMHO It's worth a try.

10-4 on that! I found a way to cut my cooling holes out with out chopping the scoop off, opening the slits in the vents wasn't to bad with a small bit on the drem. With a 3.5" spinner, I have over 2-1 on cooling verse intake. It should be plenty I hope.. I am also going with the stock muffler, with the whole cowl issue I'm not dropping the $$ for a wrap around... I just have to cut off the very corner of the muff and I got a buddy who can close the wound for me..

GMP replied to my email and asked for the pics of the damage, he is sending them to china to get them replaced, the cowl and canopy.. Hope he is able to come through with them, save a lot of up coming work on the canopy..

Jimbo

Well I'm not letting this bump in the road hold me back, this plane will see the air real soon. Either it flys with a transmitter in my hand, or it's getting hand launched off a cliff. Either way it's getting air under it's wings...lol

I ordered all my switches, spinner, props, brackets for the flying wires last night.. Still looking for an already made water bottle gas tank (20oz), can't find a place that has my size. It's either 16oz or 32oz, If I can't find one i will make it myself, justas soon buy one made already though, still have plenty of work to keep my busy...


The cowl is getting that EzeKote product and glass, if it works it works. Don't really have much choice with it now!GMP is sending thepics to china to get me anew cowl and canopy, so if that comes down the road, this cowl will just be atest for my new paint scheme...

I think my next ARF will be a 3Dhobby AJ Slick 103" Extra, they seem to have good reviews on their planes.. They aren't cheap, but after this POS and trying to save a few bucks, I learned my lesson...

You have a great attitude, many would have been fed up by now.

Please report on that product,, seams a little pricey, but the short working time sounds great

Our Club Pres has the 3dhs Slick,, he loves it.

Not much progress this weekend, I picked up the EzeKote and cloth, but a clogged drain had sink water coming up the floor drain in the basement/shop.. That was a major PITA, but I got it all taken care of, today is maiden day on a foamy EDF.

Ever since you told me you were running a Power Expander Pro I have been kicking it back and forth.. I am totally new to them, I took a break from the hobby back in 04, not sure when they came out but I don't recall seeing them back in the day...

Any way, I really like what I been reading about them. It solves a lot of the problems that you have setting up a gasser with lots of servos and batteries...

Take your time typing a reply my friend, whenever you feel like typingand have the time,I'm not in a hurry at this point, but would appreciate any thing you can tall me about them...

I'm pretty sure you have been in the hobbya long time and have set up your gassersfor a lack of better words, TheOld School Way. Having lot's of weak points in the system, but that was the way we did it back then... I am still in this mind set, so any info would be great.. Are you sold on them, IYO, is it the way to go?
I really like thepin style failsafe switch, it goes bad and it goesto the ON mode, IMO that is great stuff.. I likethe fact that I can do away with a ton of "Y's"and plug multiple servos into a channel. Are you usinga remote kill switch on your ignition?
Any pics of your set up or a link to athread, "SmartFly fordummies"would be awesome.. All the benifits i beenready about the SF, kind of makes it a no brainer.. The cost isn't bad whenyou consider the savings on other item you would normally buy and the peace ofmind is well worth the $$..

Any one else have infoon this and would like toshare pics, feel free to post them up.

Thanks a bunch.

Jimbo

</p>

Well the main selling points for me was
1-I could avoid running all the amps of 7 digital servos through the RX. RX power is regulated to 5.0volts, while I get full 6.6volts from my a123 packs to the servos
2- The ease of plugging in 4 aileron and 2 Ele. servos with no need for y harnesses,
and
3-most importantly, the built in battery share

The pin switch is a nice feature, but that's the least important thing in my mind

There are a lot of ways to achieve the same things, Battery shares, Match boxes, Power safe RXs now, etc., there's not one right way, it's what ever you're comfortable with. But the powerexpander has a lot of good features all in one package

I run a optokill switch on all my gassers, just the cheap Rcxel ones, they work great and yes have remote kill function.

Wow,
your set up is just like what I am gonna use, who would have thunk it, glad I thought of it first....

The more I read and think about it, the more it makes good sense to use the Power Expander, just to many positive things about it not to spend the money.. I am going to get the Pro as well, with not having to buy other things, the cost is pretty dang good for what your getting... I am on a budget nowadays, union carpenter and work just isn't what it use to be thanks to this economy and agreedy union pricing us out of work.


Plan on working on the cowl today, don't have to work till tonight, I will keep you posted on it.

I picked up a EDF F-20 tigershark and did the maiden yesterday.. What a hoot that little sucker is, screams louder then the wife and is much more fun..

Every once in a great while, we come across a product that makes us say WOW! Well I found my wow product with Ezekote resin...

This stuff couldn't be any easier to use and the results are awesome. I gave the whole cowl a coat like the directions say, let it dry for the 20 minutes it says to and sanded it down for the next coat.. Does it sand like a dream and filled all the little pits fromcrap paint job that i had to go over.. Then I applied the glass where I wanted it and brushed in the second coat, it recommends 1/2oz cloth. all I had was some 1.5oz and didn't feel like waiting to order, I also wanted to stiffen up the top of the cowl where it was weak and cracking, so I went with it... I know you cant see it in from pics, but it's awesome, smooth as can be. After the glass coat dried, I cut all the extraglass with a sanding block and feathered it in where I stopped it.. I did this so that the last coat would help fill the transition and it worked out great, no filler needed... After the third coat dried, I sanded it down and would be ready for primer if i didn't have to apply filler on the seams that caused me to do all this extra work.. I am using bondo to take out the flat spot on top and blend the ring better.. The EK and glass pretty much took care of the ring, but I just want to be sure...

Oh, besides having no odorclean up with this product is awesome as well.. The extra I had poured out went back into the bottle and my brush cleaned right up with water.. I really don't think I will ever glass with epoxy resin again, I liked it that much... With ER there is no way I could have did 3 coats as fast as this, a couple hours and it's ready for primer, pretty good stuff..

Did any of the filling I could see with the BondoGlazing spot putty, sanded it down and got some primer on.. I will wet sand this down tonight and hit any spots that I missed and give it another coat of primer... Very happy how it's coming out, I will have a good surface for my paint job now. The flat spot on top isgone andthe rest of the seams are blended in and no more cracks.All my holes are already cut out so i don't have to worry about chipping any paint while cutting it, should be able to give it some paint by the weekend..

Jimbo

Looking good Jimbo, I have really enjoyed reading your thread.  Did you ever hear anything from GMP?
Keep up the good work!
Thank You
Warren

Warren,
glad your enjoying my nightmare! It is starting to get fun now though, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.. Hopping to be down to the enjoyable stuff after the weekend, have a fun fly on the 12th and I really hope to have this one in the air for it..

As far as GMP goes, he sent me an email asking for pics so he could send them to China, haven't heard a word since I sent them to him... I can see this going on for ever and who knows if they will ever make it right.. GMP is just the middle man in this whole thing and I feel bad for him, this is the kind of thing that hurts his bizz.. I know I will never buy a Goldwing product again, the old saying, you get what you pay for.. There are just to many companies out there that have better products and stand behind them, sure they cost a bit more, but in the end they are worth every penny...

I do know this, i will have a smile on my face when this turd lifts off....lol

Jimbo

Wet sanded the first coats down, had a few spots that were questionable so I decided to give it another coat and see what the primer takes out before doing any more spot putty.. Going to let this coat dry over night before messing with it, it's coming out pretty clean.. Few spots that i will have to fill before the final primer coat goes on..

Jimbo

While primer is drying I figured it's a good time to move to other things...

They did something right on this plane!!!!!!!!!!!!
I squared up the stab to the fuse with a "T" pin and string, then leveled the fuse and put the incidence meter on the stab. Bingo, the stab was at "0", had a little smile on my face.. So I put on the bottom wings and checked them to the stab and was shocked that they were right on the money, bigger smile! I re leveled the fuse checked the stab and it was still right at "0", so I put the meter on the wing.. It is so close to "0" I'm not messing with it, best I can tell it was at .25 of a degree, if that... More then satisfied with those numbers, going to glue the stab and fin in later tonight after football practice and get some servos mounted in the tail...

Jimbo

Swing and a miss, took the last measurement and the stab was off at the tips to the bench.. Seems that the stab is warped, I got some bags on it laying flat over night and will try to iron thecovering on the opposite side. But even if that works, I am sure it would come back... It does get flying wires, so I can use those to get it out, I guess...

Any thoughts on this......

Jimbo

Pretty happy with mine, set it up so that the cooling cowl extracts all the heat out where the pitts twin tips exit. Still need to tidy up the wiring and fit the mej.

Fly it like you stole it