BARF Restoration Award!
10-18-2004, 05:58 PM
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BARF Restoration Award!
BARF Restoration Award - (Balled-up Almost Ready to Fly Restoration Award)
Considering all of the ARF's out there - I have to think that many of you have repaired a number.
I just completed the structure repair to a Great Planes Decathalon 82" ARF. A ground loop turned the Decathalon into a Citabria Pro. The entire cabin area of the fuse came off with the wing. The formers and ply sides broke in 16 different places. If it were not so easy to take all of the parts and place them in space to make it look like the original, I would not have repaired it. Little did I know it would take so much time to fix it. What I thought was going to take 3-4 hours took 20.
I do not think I will ever repair one again. Cleaning off hot melt glue is a crappy job. Most of it was sanded off using a rotary tool, sand paper and Exacto knife. The missing parts of the former were replaced or grafted with new ply (SIG of course). The grafted parts, broken pieces and cracks in the ply were repaired by glass cloth adhered with brushed on 30 minute epoxy resin. I also added two pieces of wire to attach the wing mount to the fuse bottom.
Amazing - the ply used in the original ARF has less bending strength than the 1/8" balsa I used to repair the cowl formed area ahead of the instrument panel.
If I had purchased the plane new, I would have glassed the high stressed areas right away and saved the damage from the relatively minor mishap. Attached is a photo of the repaired fuse, ready for cover. I think I deserve an award for the effort. How about your restoration project?
Regards,
BR-549
Considering all of the ARF's out there - I have to think that many of you have repaired a number.
I just completed the structure repair to a Great Planes Decathalon 82" ARF. A ground loop turned the Decathalon into a Citabria Pro. The entire cabin area of the fuse came off with the wing. The formers and ply sides broke in 16 different places. If it were not so easy to take all of the parts and place them in space to make it look like the original, I would not have repaired it. Little did I know it would take so much time to fix it. What I thought was going to take 3-4 hours took 20.
I do not think I will ever repair one again. Cleaning off hot melt glue is a crappy job. Most of it was sanded off using a rotary tool, sand paper and Exacto knife. The missing parts of the former were replaced or grafted with new ply (SIG of course). The grafted parts, broken pieces and cracks in the ply were repaired by glass cloth adhered with brushed on 30 minute epoxy resin. I also added two pieces of wire to attach the wing mount to the fuse bottom.
Amazing - the ply used in the original ARF has less bending strength than the 1/8" balsa I used to repair the cowl formed area ahead of the instrument panel.
If I had purchased the plane new, I would have glassed the high stressed areas right away and saved the damage from the relatively minor mishap. Attached is a photo of the repaired fuse, ready for cover. I think I deserve an award for the effort. How about your restoration project?
Regards,
BR-549
