Fabric install on right side of fuselage (recovery)

We ran into a little problem when covering the right side of the fuselage with fabric.  Everything seemed to be going well, but after shrinking the fabric, we noticed that the top aluminum stringer was severely warped (scalloped) in the direction that the fabric was shrunk.  After looking into this in more detail, it appears that the mistake we made was to completely shrink the right-side fabric before covering the left side, which caused the top aluminum stringer to bend in the direction that it was pulled.  We could have just covered the left side in hopes that shrinking that side would pull everything back to normal, but we also figured that the odds of this actually working out right and looking good were pretty darn low.  Both sides really need to be shrunk at the same time so that there is no sideways force on the top stringer. 

With a heavy sigh, we decided a do-over was the right way to fix this.  We pulled out a couple of razor blades and cut out the entire piece of fabric on the right side, pulling off the fabric from the tubes where it was glued.  Doing this released the tension on the stringer, and it thankfully returned to its original (straight) shape.  We then cleaned up the glue, reapplied new glue, and started all over with a new sheet of fabric.  Overall, this went quicker than we expected and cost us a little over a week of work, plus about $90 in replacement fabric (including shipping which is not cheap).  Just chalk this one up as another learning experience.  The good thing is that the 2nd time around, we did a nicer job of covering around the window opening because we had already done it once and had some good experience.  Once the right fuselage fabric was glued down and the edges were ironed, we did a slight shrink, just enough to smooth it out so that we had a nice surface for attaching the left fuselage fabric, but not enough to cause the stringer to deform.  

Next, we applied more glue in preparation for installing the fabric on the left side of the fuselage.  Hours: 11.5

Removing the old fabric from the right side of the fuselage

New piece of fabric installed (fuselage is rotated, so Rt side is facing down in this pic)

Right Fuselage Fabric Covering

We are in the process of covering the right side of the fuselage.  We applied U500 glue to all the perimeter tubing and also around the rear window openings and baggage door opening.  Next we laid out a large sheet of fabric while the fuselage was rotated passenger side up, and cut it to approximate shape.  We tacked the fabric down to the perimeter tubing with a little glue to hold it in place, and then we measured and trimmed the fabric to fit.  We glued the edges down while wrapping the fabric around the tubing, except for the region where the fabric overlapped the lower fuselage fabric, in which case we ensured we had at least 1" of overlap.  We still have to do some ironing, but so far, so good.  Hours: 9.5

Michael stretching fabric over fuselage

Right side glued down around perimeter

Minor fabric work around gear pass-thru

We finished up a little bit of fabric work around the opening for the landing gear.  We added a few doilies that were missing around some of the smaller steel tubes, and ironed them to smooth out any wrinkles after the glue had dried.  Hours: 2.0

Window Work

Before covering the sides of the fuselage, we drilled perimeter holes for installation of small triangle windows that are located just aft of the doors.  We used a template that we got from a friend who very generously created some for us with his CNC machine.  We made some minor modifications as some of the tab locations were different between his airplane and ours, but that wasn't a major issue as we just moved a few of the holes slightly.   Hours: 2.0

Drilling holes using window template guide

Perimeter holes drilled in aluminum for back window

Bottom fuselage fabric

This past week, we made good progress on covering the lower fuselage.  We applied multiple coats of glue to the tubing at the bottom of the fuselage, then cut a long piece of fabric.  We tacked the fabric to the edges of the fuselage, and then cut the fabric out so that we would have at least 1" extra fabric around all the edges (as required).  We then wrapped it and glued it to the tubing by applying a thinned coat of glue as usual.

Once all the perimeter was glued, we used irons to get out any kinks and wrinkles around the perimeter.  Then, we shrunk the fabric in 3 stages to tighten it like a drum.  Pretty happy with how it came out.  Hours: 7.5

fabric draped over bottom of fuselage

Michael peeking through the future landing gear opening

Ed shrinking fabric

Fabric on lower fuselage glued down and shrunk