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I've been wanting to post pictures of the project for a while now, but am only now getting to doing it. I had a long post written but managed to lose the whole post prior to submitting it, so now I'll let the pictures do the talking! enjoy:
Thanks for the comments guys. Sorry again for the disorganized post. Maybe when I get some extra time I'll edit and clean it up.
Hemna,
I only recovered the wings. I did them one at a time and it consisted of removing the old fabric, pressure washing, a few rib repairs, removing all corroded pieces and cleaning them up then priming and painting them before reinstallation, re-wiring, replacing the aileron hinge brackets and finally recovering, priming and painting the whole wing. I worked on it at my house in the shop as I had time (maybe 25+\- hours per week). The first wing took me about three months. The second one took me a little over a month. Keep in mind that there were some weeks with less time put into the project and some of my project time was spent working on other parts of the fuselage, engine and panel. With the right preparation, info gathering and experience it can be done pretty quick. If I had another to do right now it would certainly take less time. I spent a lot of time watching instructional videos before getting started each day.
Looks great! How much paint did it take to do the top-coat with the Stewarts? I'm painting the top of my wings right now and I have put three coats on so far and it hasn't covered the eko-fill yet and probably used 1/4 gallon. I'm just wondering if I need to order another gallon of paint. Oh I really like your panel lay-out as well.
If I recall correctly, it took between three and four quarts of Idaho Snow topcoat per wing. I followed the instructions closely that Stewarts put out and it took the recommended four coats increasing the amount through the paint gun each round and completely finishing the entire topcoat process in about an hour and a half or two. They recommended not letting the previous coat dry before beginning the next coat. At 70 degrees in the shop that equated to about 15 minutes between the first and second coat and about 20-25 minutes before the last coat. Each coat took about 10-12 minutes to apply. I also built some rotating wing stands and was able to do the entire wing at once although I've heard that doing it one side at a time works well.
Hope this helps. I'm happy to answer any other questions you may have too.
Wayne
Last edited by 108pc; 11-17-2011 at 09:54 PM.
Reason: Quarts instead of coats