Hello guys,

Is it possible to reuse the covering on your plane?
Or is the adhesive backing no longer useable after heat is added the first time?

Noah

You will usually not have good luck reusing the covering, atleast I never have. Usually the old covering will have wood fibers stuck to it.

Usually the adhesive stays on the wood when you remove the covering so there is nothing on it to make it stick, plus it will have been through the shrinking process when first applied so you will probably have bad wrinkles that can't be removed. Buy new stuff in the colors of your choice and go from there.

What the others have said is right on the money. You'll need to buy new covering when you remove the old covering.

ken

I was afraid of that.

Well, you see, I discovered that 5 cross braces in the tail section of my Sig Kadet Seniors fuse, are loose. Almost as if they were never glued in place. I never even flew the plane yet!

I thought mabey I could get away with cutting away a bit of the covering to repair the cross braces and then just seal it back up.

At this point I am not too concerned about the looks of the Trainer, but I am concerned about it's functionality.

Is there any way I could do this, and use new covering to patch the hole? Or do I have to recover the entire Fuse?

Thanks for any help!!

Noah

what are you a scottsman? covering shrinks too much to be reused again. if the pieces are in contact with each other you could make a small hole, repeat very small hole and drizzle some thin ca into the joint and hope that will tighten up the loose balsa. then you could place a small patch of trim or maybe the proper colored packing tape to seal the slice. If it has never been flown there should be no residue on the covering so everything should seal nicely. make the slice on the side away from the exhaust.

You may want to try a method I used to repair the broken 3/16 sub spars on my 4*60's.. Carefully drill a small hole through the cover at the joint, and/or break. Use a pin vise and a small, sharp drill. If the wood is bent or out of place, another small hole to allow a servo mount screw to just bearly screw into the wood to move it in place. A drop or two of CA through the holes when the wood is in place and you are done. The CA will also seal the hole you just drilled and you will have just a bit of fogging at the hole from the CA.

Don

Great! These sound easy enough. Thanks for the wonderful tips guys!

Very much appreciative!

Noah.

If you have any of the covering at all that is spare, or if you get a roll of the covering, you can patch over the spot after you fix the problem. If you get the right colors, you probably will be the only person that would notice it.

CGr.

I can cut a slit then use my heat gun to left covering then iron it back down but removing covering then using it again doesn't work very well. It's an exact cut and doesn't fit well after it is removed all the way. I have just cut out some colored patterns on a wing bottom I will reuse but I will be covering the main area again with new covering then laying the pattern over that. Just buy a roll of fresh covering, you will nedd some sooner or later.

Some people won't like this answer, but if it is a trainer, jsut do the repairs then put some good clear shipping tape over the holes and fly. You will probably get a lot more holes before you are done with the trainer, and the trainer in my eyes is a tool to teach one how to fly, use and abuse

Another idea is to get stickers from differnt places, Futaba, Webra, OS, etc and put them on the wholes.

Jon

LOL!

I used packing tape! I took the advice of those who respnded earlier and ended up with some holes that were a little big. So I used clear packing tape. You know what, it really dosn't look all that bad.

I look at it like that too. This is my trainer, it is more of a learning tool as opposed to a peice of art.

I have learned soooo much thus far on this Kadet. And I believe she is going to be a great flyer with a little hanger rash!

Thanks again everyone for all the tips.

Noah

This is a story, from one of my buddies at the club, I do not know if it works. He said he snagged the fence and slammed his telemaster into the dirt knocking loose several of the braces he pushed a syringe through the sheeting pushed in some CA and squeezed it together at the field. good luck if you try it.

on second thought I am sure he is full of crap LOL

Interesting technique!

But it is all fixed now.

Thanks anyway Pheonix.

I've done that before!

RCKEN
i have a question on coverings can you just go over old covering and is their a cleaning solution you wipe on the old covering for the new to stick to?

You can put new covering over old covering, however it's difficult to do without getting bubbles in the top covering layer. If you are using Monokote you can use the Windex Method to apply monokote over old covering, regardless of what brand the bottom layer is. Here's a good guide for applying Monokote with windex.
[link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_603331/anchors_603331/mpage_1/key_flag/anchor/tm.htm#603331]Applying monokote with Windex.[/link]

I use alcohol to clean the old covering before applying new covering to it.

Ken

Crashed ARF's with open rib bays are a good source of small bits of patch material. It won't have any wood stuck to it.

I have a box of covering that came off various planes that I use for patching and covering small stuff like hatches. I'm not cheap I'm frugal.

Frugal is good...

But until I have various planes, I am out of luck when it comes down to being frugal.

Its great to know that it is possible, as long as the old covering had never adhered to wood before.

Clear Monokote works well to patch seams across two or more colors.