An Aileron a day

Yesterday brought cold weather and Leah and I decided to spend our Valentine's Day at home watching the Daytona 500 and the Olympics.  Sometime early in the afternoon we started taking fabric off the ailerons.  At some point I thought "I wonder if I could get this right aileron recovered today?"  So I decided to try.  The fabric came off pretty easy, Leah was a willing helper but not too interested in getting her picture taken.

Then it was time to sand.  We both grabbed some sandpaper and got to work.  It was pretty quick work to get the surface smoothed out.  Then I spent a little time with the wire brush cleaning up the hinges and control horns in preparation for a shot of Rustoleum Primer.  Next was a fair amount of time with paper and tape getting the aileron covered up so I could prime the metal parts.  Of course I had to take some precautions to avoid spray painting the rest of my apartment.  It all worked out fine.  Then I used the Stewart Systems cleaner to clean up the dust and junk off the wood, followed by a couple coats of the wood sealant.  It was looking nice at this point and the next step was fabric!

 

Got all my supplies together and cut out a piece of fabric that would wrap around the aileron.  Did a fair amount of himming and hawing while I figured out how I wanted this to work, and it ended up working out well.  Everything shrunk down well and I've got a decent looking aileron as a result, I think.  I didn't even have to stay up all night to finish it.

 

 

I do still need to burn some drain holes into the aileron with my soldering iron.  Once that is finished it should be ready for finish, whenever I get around to that.  

No I did not finish the second aileron today.  It is supposed to warm up in the next few days so hopefully I'll be back in the garage working on the wings.