I have a question regarding epoxy.

I am 90% completed with my GP SuperSportster MKII and one of the final steps says to epoxy the inside of the fuel tank area... but now that I am 99% complete it would be next to impossible to get a brush in there.

My question is - is there a way to 'thin' down some 30 min epoxy with say.. some denatured alcohol? Just to get it to 'flow' around the chamber?

Oh.. another epoxy related question:
My trainer plane popped the cork on the fuel cell and now the inside of my Avistar has some fuel in it. I wiped it out and poured alcohol inside the fuse, but I am concerned about damage to the balsa. What can I do to 'fix' it? Should I coat the inside of the fuse with epoxy?

Thanks,
Ted

Hey there...


As far as thinning out the epoxy goes you can go ahead and use just some standard rubbing alcohol to thin out the 30min epoxy. Even if it seems like a fairly thin paste, it should still do the trick. I remember when i first glassed my wing together for strength I thinned it out and put it over the fiberglass mesh over the wing joint...let it dry overnight...and lemme tell ya, nothin is getting those wing halves apart. Also, I would think that coating your fuse with epoxy is a good idea, maybe you can brush a little thick CA on there and it would also do the trick.....maybe someone else will have a tip for that also.



good luck
crf

CRF -
Thank you for your reply. Should I worry about the fuel spill in my Trainer?

I wonder if this would be better served under "Q&A" or "Kit Building"?

If a moderator feels such.. please feel free to move it over.

Thanks!
TRP

you can also use dope to fuel proof your fuel tank and engine area's.. it's only a few bucks for a small bottle at your LHS, and comes in various color's. It is very thin and easy to apply.

Cheers,

FW

TRP,



How big of a fuel spill was it, and how did it occur? Knowing the severity of the fuel saturation on the wood should give us an idea of the extent you need to worry about it. As for my easy extra, I never fuel proofed any of the insides, in fact, b/c of the way it was manufactured I didnt have to do much at all to the insides, except reinforce the firewall with some triangle stock wood.



Happy flying
-crf

I bought some spraycan outdoor polyurathane to fuelproof the inside the fuel tank compartment of 2 of my planes. Both were relatively inaccessible, but if you use the tube (like what comes with cans of WD-40) you can get coverage on everything.

How's this for coincidence? I went to the field last weekend, fueled my Avistar and discovered that the rubber stopper had loosened so much it didn't require a tug to pull out. Anycase, the entire compartment was soaked. BTW, my name is also Ted.

I held the plane nose down to get the rest of the fuel out and still flew it 4 times without any issue.

Fuel soaked balsa;

There is a product that may be hard to find now days due to its health hazard. The product is called K2R, try and find this in your local grocery store and if it can't be found then get some sort of powder like talcum powder sprinkle this on and let set over night wipe off and do another application. After that is done then get a strong heating gun hence "harbor freight" has one. Then heat the wood this will draw whats left in the wood to the top then use a paper towel to wipe it up with.

Randy

LOL, my name is Ted and I have an Avistar, and I'm working on a Super Sportster .40 MKII. What channel are you on?

The fuel spill was only on in the fuel cell area and just aft of the main bulkhead - up to the battery. It actually didn't even get on the battery.. just the foam that surrounds it. I sopped it up with in one hour of when the spill occurred. I the dumped alcohol on the exposed areas. I soaked it all up. I then pumped a bunch of simple green on it. I poured it all out and then soaked up the extra moisture. I have let it air out for the past 24 hours. You can still see in the wood where the fuel was. I can try the methods listed above, but I am wondering how detrimental this could have been to the structure.

Thank you for all of your replies!

TRP

What I have been doing to my fuel tanks is coating the stopper with silicone to prevent it from breaking free and sealing it. Most of the people I see at the field do the same. It works pretty good as a precautionary measure as well as fuel proofing the compartment.

Stopper type tanks have the problem of leaking so I elect to replace them with an hayes or some other of the sort.

Randy

One other thing you can do is put the tank in a plastic bag and then you a wire wrap to close it. If it leaks very little gets out, if any.

TRP:

If this plane was one of your first line sport planes, then I would
do something about the oil slick. More than likely you'll dump the
trainer before any structure failure shows up. At that time we'll
answer the post by the new owner.

Randy

Randy...

Good point! The way my landing training has been going.. who knows if it will ever make it to the day where the fuel spill will matter!

I thinned down some epoxy and coated the inside of my Sportster and it worked great. I just poured it in and rolled it around until it covered the entire compartment. I then poured out the excess. I checked it this morning and it looks great.

Thanks for the info guys!

Now I need to figure out a better way to mount the tail wheel. I don't like the way the kit has it mounted into the base of the rudder. Does anyone else see a problem with this?

TRP

TRP,

I have used that GP tail wheel setup several times and it works fine. Just make sure that you mount the rudder control horn so that one screw goes on each side of the tail wheel wire. The only down-side to it is that if you do have an accident where the tail wheel impacts the ground too hard, it can break the rudder and/or the nylon bushing that holds it in place. And once the rudder is installed, there's no way to replace it. So IF that happens, you're almost forced to replace it with an external type. But as I said, I have, and still do use them.

And, BTW, the K2R spot remover works great for removing small fuel spills from balsa.

K2R?

Where would I find some of this magical solution?

Thanks for the tip on the rudder.

TRP

TRP go read my top message under "Blackie"

Blackie,

Thanks -

BTW - is Blackie your nick name?

The reason I ask is because it was kind of a shock to see your login as my grandfather was called Blackie for many many years. He garnered that nick name because his job while in the Merchant Marines was to 'black out' the ship at night and in times of heightened security.

Thanks again,
Ted

K&B super-poxy thinner works great if you can find it.



Jim Hess