Fairings and a Sweet Jacket! (Ep88)

[@erikherje3414]

I use a lot of duct tape at work, to make sure my conference guests don’t trip / stumble over a microphone cable on the stage floor. Or the carpeted floor.. And I realized that the cheaper duct tape I bought at a automotive store, left a lot of glue on the carpets or the painted stage modules.. Then I asked a sound technician what he used, and he said: original Gaffa tape.. It’s 4 times as expensive, but it leaves no glue. The cheaper one also left a lot of sticky glue on my microphone cables.. a real mess. So if you’re using duct tape a lot on your projects, invest in a roll of Gaffa. Sound people / stage technicians probably can get it for you. Btw: always fun to watch your videos! Impressed with how nice everything turns out !

[@MarkSDCA]

Jacket looks like a "Black Cat" PBY squadron from WWII. Those guys were night fighters alright. Low, slow and throwing bombs at shipping. I know a guy who went to New Orleans from San Diego to help them set up production there. A lot of neat stories from him (ex Consolidated employee).

[@KitplaneEnthusiast]

I just ordered a book from Amazon about the Black Cat squadron. It will be fun to learn more about them.

[@rocroc]

As valuable as duck tape can be, there are also some problems associated with it. At Christmas I got one of those MyQ garage door monitors. I wasn't sure if it would be any good so put the unit that goes on the door in a plastic bag and taped around it. When I took the bag off to install the unit, the tape tore off the paint and left the surface tacky. As soon as I saw that tape on the plane earlier I knew it was going to be a pain to get off. The fairings make such an improvement I am shocked they don't already have them available. I recall they recently made some available for the Cruzer but nothing I recall for the 750. Now that you have an impression you could make a mold and sell them.

[@davidrobins4025]

Those fairings turned out very nice. The "leather" jacket add an ambience to the whole equation.

[@n206ja]

Thanks for the detail on laying-up the fairings. I'm a relative novice at fabricating with fiberglass and every time you go into detail like this, I learn something!

[@KitplaneEnthusiast]

Every time I work with Len on making fiberglass parts I learn something new too.

[@ginacalabrese3869]

If MEK or Goo Gone doesn't work for the glue residue toluene will. Just have good ventilation or a respirator.

[@ginacalabrese3869]

The Black Eagle was one of the black painted PBY Catalinas called the Black Cats that had a pretty cool mission worth reading about.

[@KitplaneEnthusiast]

Cool I’ll have to look up the history.

[@davejoynt6276]

Nice pleather (plastic) jacket, goes good with the interior.

[@AnonyMous-jf4lc]

Totally delighted to see that! Perfect!

[@davidwhite2011]

Goo Gone is my go to for duck tape residue.

[@KitplaneEnthusiast]

I think I have some Goo Gone here-I'll try it.

[@larrydodge4562]

Enjoying watching the process. Thanks for taking the time to share with us!! Question - what screws do you plan on using to hold on the fairings?

[@KitplaneEnthusiast]

Small sheet metal screws-same ones I used on the upper strut fairings on the Cruzer.

[@craigsanders6925]

I saturate my fiberglass between sheets of plastic or a large ziplock, then squeegee the excess while it's in the plastic. I'd have used packing tape instead of the duck tape, less residue and it's thinner.

[@KitplaneEnthusiast]

Some of my fairings I've made that way also. Because of the curves of this fairing, we used a different technique. First we wet the surface with a thin layer of resin, then put the glass on dry. This let us be able to move the glass and stretch it to fit perfectly over the curve. Then the glass was saturated with another layer of resin, allowed to soak in, and then the second layer was added. Laying the glass out on plastic and soaking it with resin works well when you're making something relatively flat (or at least on direction of curve). The plastic and glass can then be laid on the mold and then the plastic removed. Works great. I might have aa video showing that method because that's how I made the two fairings on the forward wing skins.

[@homertalk]

Looks good, like $59 jacket.

[@taildragger7355]

Make that patch your nose art and you win.

[@rickwiggins283]

Looks great. Bombs away!

[@johnfitzpatrick2469]

G,day Mark from Sydney Australia. I was wondering about the type of tape and it's reaction to fibreglass resins. Most surfboard/boat resins are clear: not that I've done/seen much. You screw them or rivet them on? 🌏🇦🇺

[@jamesrea8454]

Mark. What epoxy resin did you use? The brown color has me wondering. I use the West System on my work which is more clear.

[@KitplaneEnthusiast]

E-Z Poxy 10A Resin and E-Z 83B hardner

[@LTVoyager]

Where is the video of doing the layup?

[@KitplaneEnthusiast]

I had already stated that I was not going to film it since I have 3-4 other videos showing it. Plus I wanted to pay attention and learn and not worry about filming.