Fabric Covering begins...

[EricP]

Our fabric arrived today. We are using Oratex 6000 in silver. Ordered from Better Aircraft Fabric out of Alaska. The fabric comes out of Germany. Can't imagine why my credit card fraud desk didn't think it looked like my normal profile! Thousands of dollars worth of fabric being bought from Alaska and shipped from Germany. Yeah, totally normal!

[Bdflies]

An exciting time! I was about to tell you that the covering process was the most fun and rewarding part of the build, till I read Oratex... Don't get me wrong; I don't have any problem with the Oratex. Just no experience with it. I've done Stits, in the past and More recently, Superflite on the Patrol. The project evolves from a gawky skeleton to an airplane, pretty quickly. Plus, being a child of the 70's, I kinda like the fumes..... But that's another story..
Seriously, though, you're entering an enjoyable phase of the project!

Bill

[EricP]

Brent and I have plenty of time invested in this "collection of airplane parts" so the fact that Oratex comes pre-doped and painted is just fine by us. Non-toxic glues are even better. It is more expensive up front but will save us time and money in the long run we think (not having to hire someone for the big painting). Even if it doesn't save money we like that it is faster and should be lighter weight as well.

[EricP]

Here are the first pics of our initial attempts at fabric work. We started with the interior of the doors, since they aren't "airworthy" items! We are definitely are on the learning curve but getting better as we go. I'm sure we will come back for more work on the cosmetics. We plan on trimming the area that opens for the door latch with some sort of nice trim ring to pretty it up. I want to add "patches" to the corners where the fabric goes under the cross brace.

We are liking how the Oratex fabric is working out so far. Very nice that it is pre-painted. We just cut, glue and heat shrink. It is done at that point!

[EricP]

Brent and I have been very busy lately but we have been able to get some time for the next couple weeks to work on the Tinhawk. We hope to finish up that time with going down to Sun N Fun where I plan to drain my checking account and buy some avionics, a prop and rotating beacon.

Today we had EAA Tech Counselor Dave Fortenbery come over and look over our project before we start fabric covering the outside. We had a great time and really appreciated his time and input. After Dave was finished we did some more work on covering the left interior rear seat and cargo area.

The pic with me is posed since I am always taking pics and Brent gets in them so this is my proof that I actually am building. Of course it is totally posed as I would not use a heat gun in that position but I wanted proof I was there!

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[EricP]

We got the basic headliner in today. This took about 6 hrs with the two of us. It is a big piece but we think it turned out well.
It is rib stiched in the "dome" over the cargo area but otherwise just glued. headliner2.jpg
headliner1.jpg

[Chris In Milwaukee]

Looks good! I've seen the Oratex folks' videos where they shape the stuff with a heat gun. Does the process use gun, iron, or both?

[EricP]

We are just using a heat gun. We have an iron but in reality so far we have just used the heat gun. However, we are still working on the interior at this point and have not gotten anything fully "completed" yet. So we may use the iron yet. The only issue we have is our heat gun in not temp calibrated and the iron is. So there has been a lot of "technique" with the heat gun. Having said that the heat gun works so well we are not sure if we will use the iron or not.

[JimParker256]

Eric, I thought you HAD to use the iron to activate the glue where the fabric attaches to the framework. At least that is what they showed us at their OSH forum. I'm really surprised you could get the metal and fabric both up to temp with just the heat gun by itself.

[EricP]

The glue will activate at a much lower temp than the fabric shrinks at. I forget exact numbers but you just give the glue very quick "dabs" of heat from the gun. The fabric requires a much more intensive amount of heat but as soon as we see it shrink we back off. We are getting better at it. I tried the iron and it wasn't working as well on the interior. We may use it more on the tail surfaces, we'll see. The glue seems to work very well. Once you heat it sets pretty quickly. We have been able to "reset" a few glued areas before we really shrink it but once we really hit the glue with the shrink heat level it is set.

[EricP]

rsz_pinking_tape.jpgrsz_1right_side_fabric.jpgrsz_loose_fabric.jpgrsz_2left_side_fabric.jpg
Brent and I were pretty busy for the past few months with work/family stuff but have made some headway on the fabric. The past few days we have gotten in some good work. Here are some pics of getting the fuselage basically covered. At this point we just have the bottom of the fuselage to do. The flight controls will be next.

[EricP]

Haven't posted in a while. We are getting "close" to the end...

Here are some pics of the door sills Brent made for the door openings. These are just cosmetic pieces "because we can".

Black tape is holding the sill in place as mastic drys. I am still finishing the pinking on the bottom of the fuselage.

[EricP]

The newest Bearhawker! Brent's grandson decided to join us in the shop tonight. He had been checking out various parts of our plane but decided to join Grandpa on the shop floor! Will.jpg

[Archer39J]

Awesome, looking good! Can I ask, did you cover the boot cowl and other exposed AL parts or paint? I’ve been wondering how I might go about that when it’s my time. I too plan to use silver 6000 on the interior but blue on the exterior. I’m concerned about the color match with paint, especially if I can expect some fading after a time.

[EricP]

We primed and painted the nose cowl and boot cowl. All metal parts were primed and painted whether aluminum or steel. I don't know what we will do with the prop spinner. Right now it is the only bare metal piece we have left. We used Oratex for our fabric.