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My aircraft spent most of its life in South Carolina, so I wasn't surprised that the 1977 conconite didn't respond well to Atlantic Canada's ice filled winter. My wings cracked and peeled over top of the ribs where the stripes are probably due to the extra paint. My fusalage is covered in poly fiber in 2010 and has a couple small cracks.
Is there a easy fix for this? I am in owner Maint and not concerned with mixing systems. I just want to get silver on to protect the fabric until I recover them in 2016 (winter).
Lineman
Just to add my 2 cents to what Gilbert and Jim have stated- we need to find what type of paint was used over the fabric- if it was some sort of enamel- we have a BIG problem.
take some MEK and wipe an affected area- if paint comes off- it's all good- if not..... sigh
if it is enamel you will have to sand the affected areas( carefully) down to the silver and then paint on some silver dope- don't mix the processes as bad things will happen to good people
(ie; Steve Whittman)
Fuselage is Poly-Fiber with Aerothane, wings are Ceconite 101 covered with Ditzer DAR enamel, and the horizontal stabilizer and elevator are dope and color dope.
My wings used Martin clips, is this going to cause problems during recover?
PPG Ditzer DAR enamel is a great old acrylic enamel. Just not on airplanes. At the time period it was quite common to use an acrylic enamel to get a shine without the work that dope required. The acrylic also dried much faster than the real old style enamels such as DuPont DuLux.
Now that you know some of the history, on to the main problem the cracking.
I do not know of any way to fix cracking due to old enamel. Having the Martin clips doesn't help the situation any
The reason I recovered my Champ in 1966 was due to enamel cracking after two years in service. No I did not use or put on the enamel.
Now if you read the old post on the use of the clips making the ribs unairworthy. I don't agree with that. The clips were a STC and made to be removed and reinstalled. The way they are supposed to be installed is use the metal template to lay out the location. Then the holes are punched in the ribs with the supplied punch after the reinforcing tape is on The holes are not drilled. I have used them. That is how I spotted them on your wing. Would I use them again???? No way.
Since you plan on recovering next year try and get by with what you have. If you keep the plane in a hanger or with covers the fabric will not rot.
An airshow pilot friend of mine didn't put on any silver on his Ceconite because he didn't want the extra weight. Yea he had to recover his plane about 20 years later.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news. Welcome to the wonderful world of airplane ownership.
The elevator dope crack (looks more like a cut) can be fixed with MEK or rejuvenator. Then put on some more dope.
Stewart Systems has the STCs to repair over anything. Using the Stewart process with your plane you would need to sand down to the primer coat around the damaged area, then you can glue right to that with the EkoBond glue.
I have a similar problem with my Pacer that I took out of service a few years ago.
It was recovered in the late 80's, the silver was top coated with flexible paint for fiberglass. The name escapes me at moment by maybe Imron? This was fairly popular in Western Canada back then.
I'm not sure how the paint and silver interacted but now I can take my pocket knife to a crack in paint and once I get the tip underneath I can shave large areas of paint and silver off leaving bare fabric. Oddly the paint is still quite flexible and it seems it's the silver that is lifting? I could probably strip the entire fabric area with a high pressure washer in a hour.
DougG