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Rebuilding a 1956 Certified Cub

The previous owner had covered the flight controls and wings already, so we are gearing up to inspect them and paint while its warm out and we don't need to heat the spray booth. I got some fluorescent light fixtures from a place in the valley and we have turned the trailer that we have been storing the plane in into a spray booth. Seems like it will work good, and the house won't smell like paint all summer.

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And a happy Father's Day to all the Supercub.org dads, I'm blessed to have a Dad that knows how to build an airplane and can teach me how too, this is a favorite picture of me and my dad clamming several years ago.

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Summer is chugging along and we have done a lot and finished a little.

All the tail surfaces are painted and done other than the rudder which will get some stripes whenever the fuselage is ready to go. They turned out really nice.

The wings had had the leading edge extended but only to the last aileron rib, it wasn't continued out to the tip and it just looked weird so we cut the fabric and made those skins. I decided to go with just a standard nav light rather than the tip strobes that were already installed so we took out the power packs that were out in the wingtip while we were at it. The fabric repair on the wing tip turned out good and I will be stitching and taping the 2 ribs soon. We also redid some of the inspection rings on the bottom of the wing because the amount of glue the previous owner used was incredible. There are still some spots that I don't want to look too close at but the paint is really going to help and it's way better now!

If you don't want your VGs to come off then install them before you paint and put a piece of tape over them. You might need to straighten them out once and a while but they aren't coming off!

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You can use combination nav and strobe LED units that don't require power packs. They use less than 10% of the power required for just one incandescent nav light and are also electrically 'quite'.

Web
 
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I thought about buying something like that but I decided to spend my money elsewhere. There are definitely some cool options out there for lights though.
 
We got one wing painted and the other one is coming along as well. We ended up redoing all of the inspection hole grommets because of the amount of glue and bubbles that were there to start with.

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This was an idea my dad and his IA came up with several years ago for the strut area with the patches and grommets to make it easier and look cleaner to do, it would look better if we didn't have to clean so much glue off with MEK before we started.

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The proper way is to run an iron on low over the grommets and bubbles, Edges of the tape areas too after everything is dry.

It smoothes it down and makes it pretty Before the base UV coat.

Not necessary to redo it like you did it makes it worse and show through the paint.
 
The proper way is to run an iron on low over the grommets and bubbles, Edges of the tape areas too after everything is dry.

It smoothes it down and makes it pretty Before the base UV coat.

Not necessary to redo it like you did it makes it worse and show through the paint.

We replaced them in light of what happened on the other wing. After ironing for way too long the bubbles wouldn't go away and ended up showing through the paint. Maybe because of how old the glue was I don't really know. The ones we redid look great though.
 
Hardtailjohn is our Stewarts expert. Hopefully he'll chime in here. Anyway, He taught me to use a "cleaning eraser stick for sanding belts" to remove stewarts glue from fabric, or any airframe part. I recently installed interior fabric and was not happy with my workmanship. I did some extensive remove and replacement of tapes/panels last week and the eraser worked great to remove glue residue! I have not painted yet, but I am very optimistic that repair areas will not show thru when I paint because the eraser seems to leave less glue residue (based on what my finger tip can sense) on the fabric than wiping we do with a shop towel after we normally apply glue to the tapes.

Slight Dilution of fresh glue (~10%) with distilled water helps enable the glue to penetrate the overlaying patch avoiding the bubbles. Old glue seems to thicken. Thinning it a bit more seems reasonable.

I'll expand on what AKjurnees says above....his "Low" temp....If you have digital iron,220F wont shrink the fabric and will activate the glue under the bubble. Hardtail also shows us how to inject glue with a needle to get it under the fabric.

https://www.amazon.com/Cleaning-Eraser-Stick-Abrasive-Sanding/dp/B000H69U7G
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I was going to suggest injecting glue with a "diabetic syringe" . It works very well with thinned glue.
If you remove the glue with an eraser, you will be fine, as you're sealing your fabric with a coat of diluted glue anyway. I'd avoid MEK.
Also, when you're ironing over glue, save yourself a bunch of work and use a thin, teflon heat transfer sheet and about 220 degrees as noted above.
John
 
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This is superflite not Stewarts hence the MEK. The needle is a good idea though, I have a spot that it might just do the trick. I tried to take a picture of the ironed vs replaced patch with paint completed and you can kinda see what I mean. Once this wing is painted all the previous owner's fabric work will be history and hopefully I can avoid bubbles by doing it right the first time.
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Well it's back to Fairbanks for me. We ended up getting both wings painted so that means way less painting next summer! They ended up looking really good and makes it look like it might actually fly one of these days. Huge thanks to Dad for doing the last few coats of paint after I left so we didn't leave it unfinished.

Next up is taking apart the engine over Thanksgiving. Fingers crossed...

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After a very long semester I'm back to working on the cub. Over thanksgiving we tore down the engine and shipped all the parts to Aircraft Specialties and the case to Divco. Dad and I were both pleasantly surprised by the way the engine looked on the inside, since it had been sitting since 1993 (!) at least. The crank passed initial inspections but the interior failed for 160hp, bummer. The last thing we have heard is that they are working on grinding it to see if it will make a 150hp and looking around for a 160hp crank, fingers crossed.

I would say out of all the things we've done so far I have learned the most from the engine work, I helped my dad put new cylinders on his cub a couple of years ago and he helped my do the head gaskets on my car but I had never actually seen the inside of the case with the cam and crank etc. Very cool! Even though I knew how it worked it helped a lot to see it all up close.

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After Thanksgiving I went back to Fairbanks for 2 of the busiest weeks I have ever had between finals, projects, activities and all of the other miscellaneous obligations that seem like no big deal until they're all at the same time. When it was finally all over I drove back to Anchorage ready for some rest and to start getting some stuff done.

In the past week we have been working on the interior panels. Over the summer I made a bunch of paper patterns for them so we double checked those and cut them out of .020 2024.

To stiffen them up we borrowed a friend's bead roller. Lots of deliberation went into how to make the best looking beads, but luckily before we started going to town on them we started doing some research. We didn't know, but you need to pre-stretch the area that you are going to bead. Otherwise the piece will turn into a warped oil can that won't sit flat. Real professionals that have all of the tools use an english wheel to do their pre-stretch, but since we didn't have one of those we found some mismatching dies for the bead roller: one rounded, and instead of a female die, just a flat surface for the bottom. I tested it and it worked great! If I stretched on the opposite side of where I wanted the bead then did the real bead after on the correct side, the product was flat and much stiffer than it was before I started, success! Testing proved that you can bead deeper than your pre-stretch allows for though.

I started beading the actual panels a couple of days ago, I'm using a die that gives a step down on one side and I'm really happy with how they look so far! The narrower panels are easier because you don't have to contend with the throat depth of the roller, but if you're clever and try a dry run without clamping down the roller on the line you can make it work on the bigger panels. The pictures show the panels that are on the sides of the extended baggage, I have a few more done now, but it's a work in progress.

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We're getting geared up for the engine assembly and we can't find the sealant you're supposed to use on the case with the silk thread. There's a lycoming service instruction that calls out POB no. 4 but the company they list as the manufacturer is out of business.

Has anybody used something else with the thread? Or do you have any opinions about the loctite only method that is in the service instruction as well?
 
Aviation Permatex with silk thread or the Locktite product. Have used both and they work well. Aircraft Spruce and O'Reilly's Auto Parts both have the Permatex
 
I've used Hylomar aerograde PL32 together with the thread at the suggestion of my supervising IA. Also used it without thread for sump and accessory case. Perfect result.
 
I've been too busy enjoying summer to post any updates, but my project has been coming along nicely. In March we assembled the engine as planned, but the cylinders did not show up with the rest of the parts so I left for Fairbanks with only the lower end completed.

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The end of the semester was hectic and in the middle of it all I found out that my Dad was going to need a coronary bypass. He was able to schedule it for mid May and that gave us the same two weeks before I started work for the summer and he had surgery. In that time we were able to do quite a bit of work to my project. By the time I was home in Anchorage my cylinders had shown up so we installed them. I helped Dad put new cylinders on his cub several years ago so I enjoyed seeing what I remembered and being able to do lots more on my own this time around.

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Once we got to the end of my engine parts again we moved to the fuselage with the goal of putting getting it as close to ready for fabric as we could. That included installing the baggage floorboards, seat base, flap handle, control cables, and a bunch of other stuff. We were able to put the time to good use and made significant progress towards that goal. The picture below shows the interior panels that I had powdercoated. I'm really proud of the way that they turned out and I think they will continue to look good for years.

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Surgery came and went and the doctors are all very impressed by his progress, it seems like his pain is getting better all the time. My job for the summer is an internship funded by the Alaska Space Grant working at Helio Alaska. I have been learning lots of cool engineering stuff and getting to see the Helio along the way. I found a place where the flap cable rubbed against the sidewall and so I designed a little guide and one of the Helio guys helped me 3d print it.

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After a few weeks of recovery and chipping away after work we just started putting the belly fabric on, it's almost looking like an airplane!

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Last of all, Happy Fathers day to all of the dads here. The bypass gave me some perspective and I am more thankful than ever to have a Dad here who can teach me to be a man and to build an airplane along the way. My sister took this picture of us staring at some plane flying over while she waited for us, its a favorite of mine.

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School has started again for the last year and the cub is back in the trailer. We managed to cover and paint the fuselage before I left for Fairbanks.

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I'm really happy with how it came out and I got to learn a lot about covering while we did it. Before I was done for the summer at Helio, I learned to use the CNC router. I designed my panel and used the drawings from Christian's website to model it in CAD and then cut it on the router. I'm a better pilot and engineer after having worked there.

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Next up is Thanksgiving, we will either work on making the baggage door or do some wiring for the panel.
 

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Great update!! Before you get much more along you might want to see what it takes to remove the two front panels with that dash in place!! They will come out much easier if they are cut shorter on the top. Not a big issue if you have a three part boot cowl so you can get to everything but a major pain if you don't. Also don't build mount the boot cowl without the engine or weight on the front of the airframe it will flex. Once the build quality is top
DENNY
 
Over thanksgiving I'm probably going to build the baggage door. Dad and I have speculated about the best ways to do it for a while so I'm looking for some pictures or descriptions of what others have done.
 
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This is one of the first ones done after Butch got the STC for the big baggage door. I did not like how I trimmed out along the top but the sides and bottom worked well with U channel I bent up to fit. Will be interested to see how others finished out the upper frame as I only had the fuselage tubes and 3 tabs welded on for the latches.
My upper baggage door and frame turned out much better, used formed sheet metal aluminum frame and bonded foam core composite around the gingerbread.

Note the leather seal on the big baggage door. I put in a carbon monoxide detector this spring and found I was getting CO leaks around the door, make the door seal tight.
 

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This is my baggage door. Butch Cavanaugh's Performance Air Motive STC. Needs half as many fasteners. These are SouthCos like the cowl. Almost half way down this photo album air photos of the door being built. https://photos.app.goo.gl/JpEzvEbAaX4uG4DU2
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I built a cover over the frame out of .016" aluminum which stiffened up the door.
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Is there an STC available that's specific to an upper baggage door similar to LiteCub's post #50? (I think the photos are upside down). The Cavanaugh and CubCrafters STC appear to be for a lower baggage door. If there's nothing for the upper area, would you try to go the Field Approval route?

Jim
 
Is there an STC available that's specific to an upper baggage door similar to LiteCub's post #50? (I think the photos are upside down). The Cavanaugh and CubCrafters STC appear to be for a lower baggage door. If there's nothing for the upper area, would you try to go the Field Approval route?

Jim

No structure was changed, if you “modify” the battery access door to the side instead of the top, build the frame in a similar fashion, seems pretty minor to me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
My upper baggage and door are field approved. Can send a copy of the paperwork if you would like it.


Sent from my iPad using SuperCub.Org
 
My upper baggage and door are field approved. Can send a copy of the paperwork if you would like it.


Sent from my iPad using SuperCub.Org

Thanks, I'd appreciate that. I've been trying to send a Private Message with my address, but it doesn't seem like it's going through. I'll keep trying.

Jim
 
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Well a project update is long overdue, instead of writing it all out I'll share some of my favorite pictures from the past months. I'm extremely proud of the work we have done and all the hard work and head scratching has paid off. We are pretty much done and are waiting to have the IA look over everything one more time and sign off the annual before we go flying in the next few days. This will be the first time this airplane has flown since it was taken apart in 1993, evenly 30 years

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I use those latches on the hatches in my floats. They have been in there 25 years with no issue and they are flat to walk on.
 
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