brett65

My Feedback: (18)

Well since I soloed Wed. night, and I won't be flying till next week, I decided to treat my ugly stock Skyraider wings to a facelift. For you new guys that are trying your first covering job, get a good heat gun! I tried it with my wifes hairdryer and it didn't do squat[:-]! I didn't have access to the good heat gun that I can go get, but the iron worked well. It sure looked like garbage before I held the iron to it for a while. The shrinking really takes up the slack and wrinkles great. The center was like an old woman's (you know) until I held the iron over it and shrunk it. This was literally the first time I have ever used this stuff, and believe it or not, its Towerkote! I have to give alot of credit to Minnflyer's videos. They were very similar to what I did on the top surface. The bottom just got a few stripes to give it some character.

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

Looks good, Brett! You will be amazed once you get a proper heat gun. I did some repairs to my plane, and have worked out some wrinkles with the iron. Then I went to my LHS to use his heat gun, and the wrinkles disappear in a flash! It's amazing.

Anyway, your wing looks very good. You should be proud

brett65

My Feedback: (18)

Here it is on the plane.

F4U Corsair

My Feedback: (22)

Wow, nice job, it really looks great. One question, did you go over the old covering or strip the old off? Did you have any trouble getting the old off? I have an old plane I bought at a sale that I would like to recover and would like to find the best way to get the covering off (that way, I can check for past damage as well).

Mr67Stang

That looks great... but are you going to finnish it?

brett65

My Feedback: (18)

I took the old off by heating it with a hair dryer to loosen the adhesive. The bottom of the plane is the original covering with just the stripes added. My plane is new, so I don't know if that will make a difference.

Rufcut

Looks great Brett65!! About 1000% better than my first covering attempt.

ChuckW

What? You don't like baby-blue basket weave?

Looks great now. Those planes really aren't bad looking if they'd just do something about the goofy pattern on the covering.

Nathan King

I'm impressed. My first covering job wasn't half as good. Great work!

Roo Man

My Feedback: (1)

Great job, also much better than my first that I flew for the first time today. My plane is a very old trainer and I was more interested in flying than looks.

The right tools do help greatly.

Gary

cappaj1

My Feedback: (1)

Nice looking job. I like the design too, how you can easily tell the bottom of the wing from the top!

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Very nice!

Oly

brett65,

Nice job! I've just finished covering a new plane and can appreciate what you've done.

Mine has wrinkles all over, is this normal?

Oly

brett65

My Feedback: (18)

Mine had alot of wrinkles until I stretched it. I used my iron to heat it to the stretching point, but a heat gun would work best. Did you try to stretch it yet. I was amazed at how many wrinkles actually completely dissapeared after stretching it.

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

Do you have to remove the epoxied tail pieces to re-cover a plane? I'd like to re-cover my plane some day, but I used a ton of epoxy to hold on the stabilizers.

brett65

My Feedback: (18)

I think it would be best if you could remove them since you could seal all the edges much better. I don't think that it would be a "must" though.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

No, you are better of leaving the tail surfaces in place and recover. First off, if you try to get them out you will probably do more damage than anything else. Leave them in place. Second, when you recover you want to create a seal with the covering where the surfaces join, this will keep fuel and exhaust residue (as well as the wind flow) from getting into seams where the covering meets.

If you are interested in the procedures for covering these surfaces take a look at my LT-40 Build thread as I discuss how to do it there.
[link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3439708/tm.htm]Pay It Forward build thread!! LT-40 build.[/link]

Ken

YUKONFLYR

Wow Brett - Nice Job

Tail feathers that are already on the plane stay there during a recover, much easier

Allfat

My Feedback: (1)

I have a question on this topic. I am building a Sig 4* 40 and was wondering if I should put the tail feathers on and then cover or cover everything and then attach them after the covering is done. Any suggestions?

Allfat

My Feedback: (1)

Woops, sorry about the double post

brett65

My Feedback: (18)

Check out RCKen's thread http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3439708/tm.htm and you'll prolly get a direct answer from him too in here.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

I'm here. Yes, I prefer to assemble the major structures and then cover them.

Ken

brett65

My Feedback: (18)

See? Told you so.

ChuckW

Depending on the glue joint, it may be nearly impossible to remove them without serious damage. I decided to re-cover my WM Rambler this weekend. I noticed some weak areas in the vertical stabilizer once the covering was off so I decided to build a new, stronger one. Removing it was not easy. Now I've ended up building both a horizontal and vertical stab, a rudder, both elevator halves and new tail fairings (Maybe I got a little carried away with the building but one thing always leads to another). If it weren't for the damage, I could have left these pieces in place and saved a lot of work.

Just be careful with the x-acto blade near the tail if you need to cut any covering away. If you accidentally score the tail too deep you could create a weak point and cause failure.