How To Repair Small Indentions In Foam Rc Planes

July 2019: Maximillian (Max) Burton our Gild Treasurer, crashed his Hanger 9 Ultra Stick Wed, July 17th. Every bit you can come across non pretty. Yet; since I was flying at the field to maiden one of my rebuilt mash-ups and witnessed the 'thump', and looked at the remaining pieces, I offered to rebuild information technology for Max as a project and mail service the process and pictures to the website. Luckily for Max the OS .65 Engine was fine along with the servos. The receiver was toast, yet the satellite receiver was proficient. Bicycle pants pretty wrecked as well as fuel tank. Horizon has replacement wheel pants merely may try to repair since I'yard trying to practice with parts on mitt.

HANGAR ix 10cc ULTRA STICK

I did propose Max purchase a new receiver from Bruce Carr (A&E RC Products) at the Warbird Event so have that now. Then here we go. If you lot oasis't rebuilt a crashed bird I hope this helps if yous want to endeavour sometime since a lot of crashes are not automatically 'Trash Tin can Candidates'. Luckily, the crash recovery crew that day picked up almost all the pieces.

1. The starting signal is to assess the amount of damage and make up one's mind if it is salvageable. So several questions you need to inquire at this betoken:
A. Is this something I want and can do…..time, desire, skills, etc.?
B. Is there enough parts yet left undamaged to make it reasonable, cost & fourth dimension constructive?
C. Are there any plans, guides, resource, spare parts, etc., bachelor to use as templates or replacements?

ii. If so, accept everything back to the shop; if not, strip out everything useful and go on. Generally, non advisable to keep any radio gear.
NOTE: THERE IS ALWAYS MORE DAMAGE Subconscious BY Covering THAT HAS TO Exist FOUND AS I Volition SHOW YOU LATER.

Fun comment from guy on Balsa Model Aircraft Builders Association FB grouping in response to my mail of this rebuild….. "Cipher you can't rebuild with a bottle of $2 epoxy and popsicle sticks"!

PART I – ASSESSMENT & INITIAL FIXES

As you lot can see from the impairment the airplane impacted on the correct side of the olfactory organ virtually direct in. Fortunately, the left side was pretty much intact and provided a template for making a new correct side for the fuselage. I elected to do the fuselage repair first and salvage the wing for later.

3. First steps were to strip abroad some covering and foursquare upwardly the balsa underside, and then re-glue the fuselage where it had separated. I already know there is some additional impairment at the tail merely will do front- end get-go.The left side of the fuse where the power/receiver switch was needed some repair, so I removed that and glued and sanded the fuse while waiting on glue to dry.

4. The left side of fuse had a petty olfactory organ impairment which I repaired earlier using it every bit the template for the correct side replacement. Also, I straightened out the servo tray and re-glued information technology at that time. Later tracing the template onto some file folder stock I cutting it out to trace onto the 1/viii″ balsa strip.

STAY TUNED FOR Role II.

PART 2 – LANDING GEAR & Wing Hold Down BLOCKS

OK, so dorsum to the rebuild, posting work done up to 7/30/19. Had to take a intermission considering of elbow problem.

I had left off with replacing the right side of the fuselage and making some other modest fixes. The crash, as could be expected, ripped the landing gear from the plane only left the landing gear block pretty much intact fastened to the gear. I removed this and noticed that the block still had one interlocking tab left that fit the left side of the fuselage. This was actually fortunate in that it placed the gear block in the right position and as well showed me where to correctly fit the repaired wing hold-down former to the right identify. And so I epoxied the gear block into the fuselage first using the alignment tab using Loctite EA 9460 also known as 9460 HYSOL. This two-part epoxy is extremely strong and used by some of the all-time calibration builders where extra forcefulness is needed. Information technology sands easily and doesn't sag if applied vertically. Once dry I epoxied in the fly concord down one-time and glued on the correct-side balsa fuse replacement. Annotation: The underside balsa sheeting would butt up against the back and front of the gear cake. Encounter later notes in Function Iii.

In one case the fuselage was ready I needed to cheque the fit and alignment of the wing to the concord-downs. The wing was broke in many more than places than was seen at first since the roofing hid alot of the damage as mentioned at the beginning of this rebuild. The wing-bolt agree downs had been torn completely out of the wing and had to exist repaired and glued back into the wing. Also, the leading edge was damaged quite a chip and I made some minor fixes to strengthen prior to fitting wing to the plane.

I used forest glue on the nylon bolt hold down piece to allow it move around as I fit the wing and bolted information technology into position so it would dry with everything aligned. This aeroplane has a prissy feature with a thin aluminum plate that spreads the force of the bolts over the fly concur down.

You can conspicuously see in the above photo the amount of damage to the wing that croaky the sheeting and tore off the hold downs. At that place is more wing impairment and that will exist worked on afterwards I finish the fuselage with the firewall and fuel tank compartment and supersede the underneath sheeting.

Stay Tuned!

PART III – Burn down WALL / FUSELAGE & EMPENNAGE

Posting work done upwardly to viii/9/19. Project has moved along well. Fuse rebuilt and covered and working on wing and bicycle pants. Waiting for fuel tank, battery, and spinner to arrive.

Initially I was going to cut a brand new firewall but after looking again information technology made sense to go on the existing one and gear up the pocket-size cleaved part. This ensured the size was correct and I didn't have to supersede the blind nuts. I used popsicle sticks which are lite ply in a lot of places to fill minor areas and as reinforcing material.

I epoxied the repaired firewall into the fuse and also secured with screws on both sides. There is a application mixing gun that comes with the Loctite that you want to be sure to employ since it makes it and so easy to push out in equal parts to mix.

Added bottom 3/8″ balsa sheeting and ane/64″ lite ply over existing landing gear block. Finished sanded and prepped to use covering. Reinstalled bombardment/receiver/charging switch.

Once this was finished I started working on the tail group since I had noticed that the stabilizer was cracked on both sides and the tail wheel subclass had been bent and the concur downwardly screws ripped loose. I cut open ii small areas where the elevator leading edges were cracked and used thin CA to repair and then cut two pocket-size patches of roofing.

The crash had as well aptitude the tail cycle and ripped loose the mounting subclass. I straighten out the tail wheel and used a former trick for holding screws by inserting & epoxying pieces of Nyrod into the holes for the screws to bite into. This is especially useful in balsa or where the holes have wallowed out. I had to drill out the Nyrod slightly so the cap screws fit better.

I worked on a few things at a time as epoxy was drying, etc. I of these were the wheel pants which had been wrecked in the crash. Horizon offers replacements for well-nigh $20 simply they were on backorder; and the goal here was to exercise the rebuild with items on mitt and repair skills. Removed the cleaved bicycle pants from the landing gear and and so cleaned upwardly and done the fiberglass pants.

Next I used CA to make some fast fixes and stabilize the broken areas and place the ply holding plates dorsum into position. Then with 3M Air-conditioning aluminum tape I backed the inside missing areas. This tape is smashing as it sticks well to near anything, is easily malleable to become around compound curves and its lightweight. Next step was applying fiberglass fabric to the areas. I mixed 30 minute epoxy with some fiberglass filler then coated the tape, laid the textile on and then wetted out the textile. I applied a second layer about 2 hours subsequently. Information technology turned out very strong and the filler allows information technology to exist sanded better than without, while at the same time making it stronger. These will accept to completed as wing is worked on. Additional filling, sanding, prep and painting.

Continuing to work on wheel pants. Using Bondo Glazing & Spot Putty to fill minor holes, cracks, low spots, etc. Its like shooting fish in a barrel to work with. Spreads easily, dries fast, and easy to sand. Primed and painted.

PART IV – THE Fly
Piece of work on the wing is finished (Aug 12, 2109). Took longer than expected, equally does near rebuild work. The ARF wing on this bird is Ok only not the strongest in some places. After repairs and recovering I believe its stronger. Initial repairs to a lot of cracked and damaged areas as y'all can see before in the rebuild. Replaced sections that were too badly damaged.

Covered separate sections and worked towards the center on the bottom of the wing. Used a wire hook to pull servo wires through access holes when finished. Likewise, used a pointed stop on solder iron to dial thru and seal round screw holes on the servo hatches. Very useful in a lot of areas. Re-attached ailerons and flaps and re-glued hinges.

Finished the top of the fly by slightly changing stock covering design afterward repairing center department (see earlier photos), and then test fit to fuselage before final finish. Looking near brand new at this point.

Part V – FUEL TANK Encompass

Redesigned the fuel tank cover slightly to be a elementary one-slice cover. I used the existing bullheaded nut hold down and added a plastic wall spiral anchor as a hold down at the back that slides into a hole in the wing hold down erstwhile. As well added a Velcro hold down strap and foam rubber pad underneath the Sullivan 12 oz. slant replacement fuel tank. While doing that I also added a Velcro hold downwardly strap for the bombardment in the servo compartment only behind the wing concur downward former.

PART VI – Projection COMPLETE & DELIVERED August 25, 2019

Completed the rebuild project with final prop adapter added for two-1/iv″ Dave Brown aluminum and final painting/articulate coat on wheel pants. Delivered on August 25th, 2019. Enjoy and keep her flying Max!