My last piece of fabric to install was the fuselage top and all went well up to this point. Am trying to do with one piece of fabric and having a difficult time getting the fabric to tack down to the point where I feel comfortable gluing and shrinking.
Is it easier doing as two pieces and with a fabric overlay along the tubing that becomes the finback. Is the finback considered structural so it can have a fabric overlay seam? Seems as much structural as a longeron for this purpose. By the way, were talking a model 7 Supersport. jetjock
Hi Jeff,
This is how I completed the task with one piece on the top.
http://www.teamkitfox.com/Forums/album.php?albumid=317&pictureid=3827 Step 1 glue the razorback. Step 2 glue the front of the fabric to the tubing. Step 3 glue the sides back to the handle. Step 4 pull the fabric to the bottom right corner where the fuse meets the verticle stab. Good luck. This took me 3 tries to figure this out. There are lots of pictures of how I did it in my Covering Photo Album.
Pros to one piece installation:
You don't have the pizza pie shaped relief cuts along the razor back where the two pieces of fabric are joined. This is the first thing I noticed on planes when I was first looking at fabric jobs.
It is easier to finish the fabric around the handle.
It just looks good!
Cons:
You end up with a seam on each side of the fueselage vs one seam along the razor back.
You have to cut relief cuts on the second piece of fabric along the razor back.
I thought it was pretty hard to get the single piece to work out. It took lots of time to get it just right.
The Factory SLSA aircraft are done with two pieces. Basically your trading one seam along the razor back for two seams along the sides.
You can definitely do the razerback in 1 piece, but like AirFox, it took me a failure. DO NOT start the fabric from the turtle deck part of the fuselage (my 1st attempt). For all of us that were not happy on our first few attempts, we probably started by anchoring the fabric at the turtle deck cross member.
START your fabric at the tail. With the right amount of shaping with the iron at 225, enough tugging and pulling, it will turn out great! I was even able to do this alone without my build partner.
Here's what you can get. Total time with the MEK tear-off and redo was (according to my log) - 5 hrs.
Thanks to the folks responding to my SOS. Ended up doing the fabric in two pieces. First side needed some small slits on the inside curve but disappeared when wrapped around tubing. On second half I cut out very narrow darts and then filled the wedges with fabric after shrunk. With finishing tape and gray paint am sure it will look fine. Apparently the factory now does the fuselage in 3 pieces. Belly, and each side all the way to the finback.
As I previously noted I did fabric in two pieces and had to cut darts, which I filled with matching triangles of fabric.
Best part is putting on the finishing tape. 4" bias tape worked like a charm. I'm using the Stewart System. Run a narrow line of glue along the tube of the finback, when tacked up lay the bias tape on and heat clamp quickly, Glue and work the fabric (bias) down to smooth and wipe off excess glue. So easy I thought it was a trick.
Fabric fuslelage top (finback)
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