Some questions for you Poly Fiber experts.

[SkwentnaMan]

Recently bought a plane that needs a little TLC. Covered in Ploy Fiber System. I pulled the wings and its in my garage now.

All the inspection rings had been glued on the fabric and have all came off now, no fabric over them.

Plan is to MEK down to bare fabric and do it right. Per Poly manual. So here are a few questions.

1. Plan is to ploytac on the rings and then should I use pre- shrunk light fabric over them or use Med. fabric and shrink it on after its glued on(repair/patch teq.) The holes are currently cut out and a little ragged.

2. Since i'm doing this in my home garage I would rather avoid spraying any products, can the poly spray and poly tone be applied with brush or roller and look OK for repairs/ inspection hole patches? Plane dosent need to look cherry its an Alaskan bush plane, but I dont want it to look like crap.

3. The fabric was put on in 1998 and still looks great, tight, no cracks except one place. Their had been a fill leak in one tank, looks like it filled the wing and sat for awhile. On the under side of wing it is stained and paint is cracking in places and around the tapes. The effected area is from under the tank plus about 2 ribs and staining along the trailing edge of wing. Should I try and do a spot rejuvination in the effected area? Or should I just clean\,scuff and repaint? Color is insignia white.

4. When re-painting with ploytone what is the standard way to pre the surface? (Fabric)

Thanks for any info / advice.

 

[bob turner]

You are saying that the rings all popped off, and there is no fabric damage elsewhere?

If so, get some metal rings from Steve Pierce, and glue them on with some heavy duty adhesive like Pliobond. Make doilies out of fabric, and glue them on top of the rings, extending about an inch outboard. A coffee can and a pencil will help make them round. You can glue them with Poly- tac or anything similar, since these are minor repairs. Then carefully brush whatever you think is necessary for UV protection and color. You might call Jason of Stewarts Systems for some good advice.

If you need the holes open, when the glue has set, cut the opening in pie shaped segments, and glue the pie slices inside the wing.

If you start stripping down to bare fabric, the fabric will become loose and you will not get a good looking repair.

Opinion.

 

[hatz215]

If you make your own doilies, be sure to pre-shrink them.

Steve G

 

[AlaskaAviator]

Make sure you cut them with pinking shears. Use preshrunk light fabric. I would spray the poly spray and polytone for sure. If your doing all the inspection rings I think I would do the whole bottom of the wing. Maybe the top too. Not that big of a deal. The plastic rings work fine. Use poly tak to glue them on. I would loan you my HVLP spraying unit if you need one. All you need to do is clean the surface with poly cleaner. I think its just week reducer. If you use straight reducer you stand a chance of loosening the tapes.

 

[mike mcs repair]

do NOT use polytack... it dries out and comes off... I only use that for fabric to fabric seams, never to a solid thing like a ring or metal

use a good contact cement like 3m fastbond 10 or such, it will stay stuck forever

no need for the dolly just glue rings on.... (I only do dollies at recover time)

no need to clean off paint down to fabric, just glue ring on.... do it all the time and they never come off

 

[mike mcs repair]

use stitts alkaline cleaner to scrub wing for paint prep stoddards has it

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cspages/pfcleaners2.php

 

[SkwentnaMan]

do NOT use polytack... it dries out and comes off... I only use that for fabric to fabric seams, never to a solid thing like a ring or metal

use a good contact cement like 3m fastbond 10 or such, it will stay stuck forever

no need for the dolly just glue rings on.... (I only do dollies at recover time)

no need to clean off paint down to fabric, just glue ring on.... do it all the time and they never come off

It looks like someone did that already and they came off, maybe they didnt use the right glue.

When you have a hole in your fabric / like inspection holes/ drain holes, I thought if was required to have double fabric?

So If I just glue the rings back on i'm not meeting the double fabric requierment, or is it OK to have a bunch of holes without the doubler fabric?

 

[Roger Peterson]

I would call Jason and get some of Stewarts glue. It is approved to use over anything and it won't come off.
If not certified, call Lars for a sample of his adhesive and 600 fabric for doilies

 

[mike mcs repair]

..I thought if was required to have double fabric?..

not required, just a good way to do it when covering...

 

[AlaskaAviator]

Funny my rings are sticking just fine using polytak. But I also put fabric over them as per the instructions.

 

[n40ff]

I did the whole poly system on my bipe as it had zero inspection holes. I cleaned with MEK down through the silver and glued with cement and then polytached srunk dollys and finished the process. Cost a bunch for a qt. of each color, etc...needed both red/white. 4 ea. new holesX 4 wings. Probably cost $300and a bunch of time. But it was perfect.....

NEVER again, use a good glue, 3M, stewarts whatever and slap a cover over it.

As Bob says,

Opinion