I have a nosen 108" ws. Citibria. It is framed and ready to be covered. I am now wandering what size fiberglass cloth I need to apply for use with the Minwax polycrylic finish. Secondly, I see it will be easy to apply the cloth over the balsa sheeted area but what about over the wing ribs and other open areas where there are only ribs & spars? I guess what I am getting at is how do I get the cloth to stretch tight enough that there will not be any sags or loose places in the material. I have always used monokote in the past but this time it would be very expensive to cover a plane this size in monokote. I haven't had good experiences with monokote either. I heard about the polycrylic method and thought I would like to try it on this plane. I would really appreciate any help I could get with this.
Thanks
Cadflyer

Cadflyer:

You just plain don't use glass cloth on an open bay structure.

Sig Koverall works nicely, but you have to dope it down. Coverite fabric is iron-on, and pre-sealed. It is the easiest fabric I know of, but I've heard some say it lifts at the seams.

The absolute best fabric covering, IMHO, is the S t i t s system. It also costs a lot more than Monokote.

If you insist on 'glass and resin covering you could try putting silkspan over all the open areas, but that would still require doping it for enough strength to support the fiberglass. Afraid it would be quite heavy.

So, if you want the best possible, S t i t s.

Best price/appearance, Sig Koverall.

Fastest/easiest, Coverite. Also probably the cheapest to do.

Bill.

ok, great! I will check into the S**** covering. I do not really know anything about the S**** covering but I have heard good things about it before. Does the coverite work good in the open areas????
thanks
cadflyer

ok, lets try it this way, S T I T S , hahaha

Another good covering is the lightest weight Ceconite you get from Aircraft Spruce and specialty. This is probably the least expensive way but very labor intensive. You do need to use an adhesive (also available from them) and then finish with dope. As far as fabric coverings go, I find Solartex (also Colortex or Worldtex) to be easier to use than Coverite as it adheres better to itself at seams and goes around compound curves much better.

Rodney:

Just for general information, S t i t s is a very fine weave Ceconite, the S t i t s "System" is the fabric, adhesive, and the finishing materials needed. Including the color coats.

If you use "Generic" Ceconite you have to get all the bits separately. Might be less expensive, but it's a lot more convenient to get it all from one source.

Bill.

PS: The vulgarity filter is catching you when you type S t i t s without spaces between the letters. wr.

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