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Tips on masking off long straight line down the fuselage??

supercub

supercub

MEMBER
Let me check my GPS, gee how'd we ever navigate w
I'm getting ready to mask off the fuselage for the lightening bolt on my project. I know the layout and dimensions, I'm just curious what technique you might use to lay out a straight line down the side of the fuselage. I've snapped a chalk line in the past, but just curious of other or perhaps better ideas. Thanks
 
Spinning laser level. Dunno how to make it not-level though. I haven't used it myself, but have seen pics being used on airframes.
 
Some handheld lasers have a lock feature for a straight line at any angle I use that but I find it’s just a guide, adjust to ‘look right’. A compound curve sometimes looks better not perfectly straight. Stripes on a Cobra taper at the ends but look straight.
 
My mechanic described taping a stripe on a Cub as like trying to draw a straight line on a banana. Several sets of eyes help.
 
I use the masking tape, with aim marks at the rear window and tail post. I don't think the original was dead straight - I perceive a slight curve.
 
When I put the stripe on my cub I wasn’t going to strip the cowling, just scuff and repaint, so I used the old strips from the pieces behind the boot cowl and made cardboard copies of the bullet and stripes on the cowl. I figured piper would have had a template, same for both sides. They didn’t. The stripe was in different spots on both sides, and left to right the bullet was different shapes. I’d imagine they just masked out what looked right. Plus. You can’t see both sides at the same time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I use a string, then put little pieces of tape every 2 feet or so, with just a corner of the tape on the side where my good paint tape will be...

if I'm in a REAL PICKY mood, or doing thin stripes, I will find 2" or 4" masking tape and lay that down opposite of my paint tape... wide tape is hard to get crooked... then put my paint tape right along that...

and as mentioned above, both sides of a cub are NOT the same dimensions as far as where rear windows are.....
 
Jim's Champ 007.jpgNow don't take this photo as any indication of how much oil is always streaked on my airplane. I think this stripe, except for color, is as close to factory as I could get. And yes, I have seen celluloid templates, but just use the dimensions that Clyde has. This was done by stretching the tape. it does have an up-sweep.

While I am bragging, that cowl was hammered out of 7075-O in 1966, complete with rolled edges. It survives to this day, 5000 hours later.
 

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why not find two people and use a 12 foot one by 4 or something and use a pencil, just find a straight board.
 
I use a $20 laser level from Craftsman. That being said, I'm going to use a newer green laser on the next one...they're much easier to see!! Works great when mounted on a camera tripod. I can get pretty much any angle to get the stripe to lay where I want up front and in back and follow the line between.
John
 
On a T-Craft fuselage side, only after you take great pains to lay out a perfectly straight line for the masking tape, using a laser or dry line, will you find that an actual straight line will appear "not straight". In order for it to look straight it must not be straight. Anyone else ever encounter that?
 
courierguy said:
On a T-Craft fuselage side, only after you take great pains to lay out a perfectly straight line for the masking tape, using a laser or dry line, will you find that an actual straight line will appear "not straight". In order for it to look straight it must not be straight. Anyone else ever encounter that?
Click to expand...
That's common on boats with compound curves. Sometimes you just need to stand away a bit and move the line to what looks right.

Sent from my SM-J320V using SuperCub.Org mobile app
 
courierguy said:
On a T-Craft fuselage side, only after you take great pains to lay out a perfectly straight line for the masking tape, using a laser or dry line, will you find that an actual straight line will appear "not straight". In order for it to look straight it must not be straight. Anyone else ever encounter that?
Click to expand...

Yup! One thing Ive done to help that (just had to on a Bearhawk) is to make sure the laser is the same height as the stripe and level to the airplane, and I set it off at about a 45* angle from the fuselage side. If I have the room, I'll go 90* to the side, but I'm usually doing this in the paint booth, so I'm lucky if I can even get the 45!
John
 
With a little more tequila, it won't matter8)


Watching others with OCD look over planes, the spots people really notice are where lines intercept windows, cowls and edges. Make sure the bolt intercepts the cowl and ends at the same points on each end, have them down the same distance from the windows. Have them the same width, and curves in same area.

Keeping it off of the cowl looks better in my mind, always hate the way the cowl cheeks look with a stripe gaped out from the boot cowl.:oops:

But as said above, 'strait' is not always the solution on a not so strait surface.
 
supercub said:
I'm getting ready to mask off the fuselage for the lightening bolt on my project. I know the layout and dimensions, I'm just curious what technique you might use to lay out a straight line down the side of the fuselage. I've snapped a chalk line in the past, but just curious of other or perhaps better ideas. Thanks
Click to expand...
What stage of assembly is your airplane? Turn the fuselage on it's side. This will eliminate the issue of the long masking tape sagging as you lay it on. No matter how wide your tape is, over the length required it will sag in the middle.

aktango58 said:
Watching others with OCD look over planes, the spots people really notice are where lines intercept windows, cowls and edges. Make sure the bolt intercepts the cowl and ends at the same points on each end, have them down the same distance from the windows. Have them the same width, and curves in same area.
Click to expand...
:up :up
 
courierguy said:
In order for it to look straight it must not be straight. Anyone else ever encounter that?
Click to expand...

Yes, the Greeks and the Romans. Look-up entasis.

A classic example in aircraft architecture is the biplane turtle deck. Build it dead straight and it will appear concave when viewing it from a distance. Entasis will correct the optical illusion.

Best,

HT
 
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