I wondering how best to deal with recovering the aileron area of my high wing trainer.
If they were CA hinges I'd cut them off and rehinge.
This word models skyraider MK I arf came with what looks like metal pinned hinges (not sure of terms? pin is through the pivot of the hinge. I dont mean pinned to hold it in place)
I do like the easy movement of this hinge..

Sooo, how can I remove the old hinges or should I just cover around them the best I can?


Thanks

When I recover I just work around the hinge. Its not that difficult. Depending on the gap, cut notches where the hinges are before putting it in place, slide the covering through the gap and then just seal it down on the far side. Cover one side at a time, bottom first, then the top. That way your sealed edges will be facing downward and won't be a noticable.

Brad

Since the hinges are pinned, you should be able to remove the center pin and then recovering will be much easier. I have used sewing needles to pin a hinge back together if i lost 1.
dan

Yea, The World Models Skyraider hinges are tin with pins.

I'm guessing that the Mk I has a single aileron servo (the Mk II does). TWM does not glue the aileron torque rods into the ailerons - they simply drill a hole in the balsa and then insert the rod. After a while balsa will deteriorate resulting in aileron slop and in extreme cases pokes out of the covering. You should take the opportunity to cut the hinges, recover, use CA hinges (easy to install) and use epoxy in the holes for the torque rods. Before you do make sure that the exposed wire is clean and then rough it up with some 80 grit.

Good luck ...

Thats what I did on the tail.. I've been picking coating out of the aileron gap for the past 45 minutes...
Prettry tight gap on this arf... I can see that one hinge is crooked. probably why that aileron is a little tighter than the onther..

Some of the covering comes off clean, other parts only the clearcoat comes off and the color stays on the wood. I've picked and sanded it. some is not going to come off.

I've covered a few birds but this is my first stripping...

I cover my wings and ailerons with one piece of covering so I have no gap, most the time. It's an old habit I got into, not only does it seal the hinge gap it makes clean up easier. It's not for everyone though but I have been doing it for a lot of years.

I've tried Gray Beard's approach without much previous experience and the ailerons ended up a bit saggy as the covering wasn't real straight at the hinge line resulting in more wrinkles than I could shrink out. With more practice ...

I have run into that with Monocote but I have only been using Ultracote for a lot of years now. Covering and how it shrinks is a good point. I also leave my covering several inches over size just so I have something to grab onto and stretch over the surfaces. It takes a little time to get it figured out. Not really a must do thing but I thought I would mention it.

I use Ultracote exclusively - haven't been doing it that long so I never have tried Monokote. I followed a suggestion by RCKen in his LT-40 build thread. The trailing edge of the fin, stab and wing and the leading edge of the rudder, elevators and ailerons are first covered with a strip of covering. Then the pieces are hinged. Finally the wing/aileron, fin/rudder and stab/elevator pairs are covered. Like GB said - the result is very easy to clean and the hinge lines are sealed providing for optimal performance of the various control surfaces. Definitely worth a try.

Wing is done!
After rtemoving all the old covering I covered the wing with 8 pieces of covering starting with the bottom ailerons. I cut half inch "fingers" in the covering and fit it through the hinge line, wrapping around the back.
I've always used Monokote but went with Coverite 21st century fabric in cub yellow on the top of the wing and cheap towercoat yellow on the bottom.
Both worked well, just used a lower temp than the Monokote.
I like the look of the fabric.. not as glossy as regular film but its expensive..

Thanks

Steve

So I can understand your method. Do you hinge the ailerons first, or just use the covering as the hinge??

Hi Gene, I do what is called fillets first thing, just small pieces of covering in places where it would be hard {to say the least} to get covering into. I will talk you through the wing and ailerons. Fillets on the inside corners or the wing where the ailerons will fit and I over lap these corners. Outside tips and corners of the ailerons themselves. Now I hinge the ailerons to the wing. Now when I'm covering the wing the covering is over sized so I can do it with one sheet. When I get to the ailerons I cut the covering so it is loose at the ailerons, Just slice it where the ail. is almost touching the wing, finish covering the wing then I pull the aileron down to it's full deflection and run my iron into the hinge groove and over the LE of the aileron. Now it's just pulling and covering the aileron. It isn't hard if you have three hands. I shrink with my iron when I'm close to the ail. because if you use a heat gun you can over shrink and loose some deflection. Hope that made sense to you?? I know a guy on RCU that is covering a plane right now. The young man is really good. I will check and see if he is doing it in one piece or not. If he is I will put you onto his thread.
Gene

Thanks Gene
I a lot of times do seal the gap but I have been doing it with clear. I am going to try your method. Thanks again.