I've tried on a couple of planes to recover the tail section but haven't had good luck. Should I cut the CA hinges so I can wrap the covering around the gap area? Always have problems with the covering starting to peel away atbthe hinge gap.

Steve

If you cut the old hinge away just slot for the new one next to it. You could slide a piece of covering thru the hinge gap and iron it down on the top & bottom of trailing edges of the stab & the same with the elevator, then seal that with the covering on the stab/elevator, but thats alot of extra work. I'd cut the hinges away......Gene

Yes Gene, I tried cutting around the hinges and slipping the covering through the gap.... haven't had good luck though.. probably cut and rehinge?

steve

Whenever I do a major or minor refurbishment that involves recovering then if the controls are already hung the very first thing I do is cut them all off! That way I cannot wuss out later and will have to rehang them all after they are recovered.

John

I did that on one of my old birds, what I did for the hinges was to, first heat up my exacto blade nife and used it like that, I cut/burned through the old fiberglass hinges and the balsa wood, works everytime.

I've had good luck covering right over the existing CA hinges, doing each side of both the horiz stab and elevator (or vert stab and rudder) with a single piece of covering. Just fully deflect the control surface away to do the trailing edge of the stab and the leading edge of the control surface. An added benefit is that the hinge line is fully sealed and the covering adds to the strength of the hinges. Downside is that you won't be able to monitor your hinges but I think the covering adds enough strength and stability to the hinge line that I've never had one break.

I am with John , have always cut mine off also. makes a much better covering job, Imho.

I don't think you can ever lose by putting in new hinges.

Thanks for all the suggestions, some I hadn't thought of.

that's what I was hoping for.....

Steve