|
Bill....All;
I fixed a buddy's Xtreme with
LE damage earlier this spring. The repair saved him from having to buy a new
panel. Some of this has been talked about here in the past, some of it is a
twist I ran across building foamies.
Anyway, as close as you can
get to the damaged area of the LE, use it as a male plug for a wet lay-up of
light glass. I used 2 ply, 3.cozy (?) and 1.75oz.... 1.75 facing
out. I have some 3" wide packing tape that I laid down on the mold area so
the FG wouldn't stick to the wing. I also used paste wax as a release
agent. If you have a vac system, bag the patch. I don't, so I supported the wing
LE up and used canvas draped over the wing and hanging below the flight surfaces
and clapped weight to the bottom of the canvas to apply pressure the curing
patch. I used blue wallyworld bag material in between the FG and canvas. Once
your patch is completely cured, slide it over to make sure it's big enough to
cover the damaged area and fits well. Next, cut out the damaged area and cut
your patch to fit inside the area you just cut out. You want to try to have
it fit as close to flush with the surface of the wing as possible. Hopefully
with very few gaps. Wick CA (foam friendly if the core is Rocell[sp?]) in to
hold the patch in place. Fill low spots with whatever you like that is EZ to
sand. Be careful not to knock the patch out. Next you will need a horse syringe
(35cc) and needle big enough to push thin lay-up epoxy (I used West
System). Drill a couple of holes the same size as the needle in your new patch.
Mix some epoxy and shoot just enough inside the wing, through your drilled
holes, to coat the inside of the patch and surrounding area. Just roll the wing
around to get the inside coated. I let the epoxy cure, LE down, so the
excess epoxy puddled in the LE. Don't use a crap load of epoxy. I used tape over
the drilled holes to keep the epoxy from leaking out.
This is where the foamy
building comes into play. I use this technique to fill gaps around
spars or whatever in EPP. Get a bottle of Gorilla Glue and another
syringe and same size needle as before. You have to do this step fairly fast.
But first I would suggest you do this little experiment. Get a Dixie Cup and put
in just enough Gorilla Glue to cover the bottom of the cup. Put in about
the same amount of water and stir. All the water won't mix in so just pour off
the excess after mixing for a minute or two. Watch the expansion rate of
the Gorilla Glue; it turns to foam. The foam that is produced by the mix will
collapse very ez and not force your LE apart to create a bulge, it is also
light. By doing this experiment you can kind of judge how much Gorilla Glue to
mix up. If you have a large area you might need 2 syringes full. I got by with
one 35cc syringe and the Gorilla Glue mix will push the plunger out of
the syringe if you don't watch it. Through the same drilled holes you put the
epoxy through, shoot the GG mixture into the wing. I left the wing laying flat
and tried to get about one inch overlap inside the wing. Once dry it really
helps support the repaired area and is light.
Next I wetted out some
of the 1.75 FG to cover the patch and about one inch of wing, same weighting
system....FG, wallyworld bag, weighted canvas. Once cured, finish the
repair however you like. My friend left his "raw", unfinished.
The repair turned out much
better than I had imagined. He was really expecting to have to buy a new wing
panel and just gave me the panel to mess with. Needless to say, he was
happy he didn't have to buy a new panel. For more tricks with Gorilla Glue see
the may issue of RCSD.
FWIW
Bob Peck
Tulsa
|
- [RCSE] Re: Extreme wing repair/e-bay Bob Peck
- [RCSE] Re: Extreme wing repair/e-bay Brian Smith
