Rib Stitching

lwford

lwford

New member
Jan 15th, I took a razor to the crate, said to myself OK this is it, this is what you said you were going to do for 2 years now. Five weeks later, the crate is a skeleton. The controls are covered and the tail is covered. I'm in my 6th day of rib stitching my right hand is swollen and large blisters on my little finger from pulling cord! Count how many one inch stiches there are on these birds and then try just one stitch you will get the picture. The wings are sanded and we started some woodwork on the fuselage. I have been all over this plane in 5 years repairing and rebuilding yet everyday I learn some new surprise about it---some good some bad. I guess it's all been said BUT not until you been there does it all make a difference. I took a covering course at OSH three years ago taught by none other than Lynn Zaro (she did the Poly-Fiber Video) she made rib stitching look easy. Wow what a LESSON when you do hundreds over and over. I can see now where the cheapest quote I got for a recover was 25K. Time was 80% of the job. I press on for the tour. Lynn the crate N9818B :mrgreen:
 
When I was rib stitching, I found that the lacing cord was really cutting into the joint of my first finger when I pulled the knot tight. I found that wrapping that joint with a single layer (no more than two layers) protected my fingers and did not interfere with my normal sense of touch like a glove does.

The other rib stitching items that caused problems were:
1) figuring out how to get the cover on the bend in the flap of my 14-19 and stitched down. The factory told me to glue and stitch the rib at the bend first, then glue and carefully shrink the fabric on the rest of the flap.
2) how to stitch the elevators without making the surfaces concave (or too loose) since there is no rib surface to pull the fabric down snug against. The factory said that I just needed to redefine what a "tight" stitch was. It took a while to learn how to consistently make the stitch with just the slightest bit of tension against the fabric. I must have ripped out and redone a dozen lines of stitches before I got it just right.

Dave York
 
Boys, the hardest stitching you will find is the stab., With the stupid way Bellanca has the flying wires you will have to 1/2 rib stitch that rib where they attach a real pain in the ass ! Six hours per each side! This was the only real problem that faced me. I'm now done with the dame stiching and we are pulling the wings for the next great challange. Lynn :evil:
 
Oh man- I gotta get GOING! I'm still trying to cover the ailerons. Wings are sanded and ready for cover. Hoping to hit the lottery to clear up my budget for the finale :D
Lynn- what about the engine? Will you do an overhaul while it's out? Any new avionics or instruments? Any "in progress" pictures?
 
Double D , the engine is done and got 800 hours on it. I topped it 300hrs ago, avionics are ok. Just finished taping today. Got to clean up for the wing pull. Cy Galley sent me an excellent deal on covering those bad boys. I don't know how I'm going to cover the rudderlets. The tear drop is a problem. I press on at maximun effort to finish this crate in June. It's cold as hell here and the weather in Pgh. sucks. Lynn :mrgreen:
 
Re: stitching your stab.........You know you are in for some severe entertainment when you do the top of the fuselage........and you really should do the bottom,too.
 
Dan, the taping was the most annoying part of the job. The crate has screws on the bottom fuselage fabric and the top is rib stitched. I prefer rib stitching to the taping any day. Wearing the respirator mask and the stench from polybrush sucks big time! We are now preparing to pull the wings. I had an excellent e-mail from Cy Galley on how to cover these mothers. Lynn :mrgreen:
 
Cover the wings like the factory did. A diagonal splice on the underside, covered with a two inch tape. No tape on the leading edge. Be careful removing the old fabric. I've seen chunks of skin pulled up by folks in too much hurry and little imagination.
 
Dan:
I plan on coating the wing with Poly-Brush, laying the fabric down, and using Poly-Brush to tack the fabric in place where there are compound curves.
Question I have is what about the aileron area? How should I set about covering that? The biggest obstacle is those little gussets that help support the top wing sheeting where it overhangs the aileron. I fear those :shock:
 
The Polyfiber manual address covering wood skinned wings. Make sure the wings are ready for cover. All repairs complete. All cosmetic issues with the plywood taken care of. Any imperfections will show! Vac out any debris from the inside of the wing. I like to spray 'Bellanca Sealer" on the inside of the wing. Apply the same to any new skin on the outside. Then brush two coats of polybrush- the first, well thinned to the whole outside of the wing. When the wing is upside down, and you are covering, pay particular attention to gluing the undercambered areas. Work the glue into the fabric. The aileron well area just takes patience, an xacto knife and small pair of sharp scissors. By the way, you can use light fabric on your wings, if you want.
 
Robert,

Any chance we could get that "excellent e-mail from Cy Galley on how to cover {the wings]" published in the newsletter?

Thanks,

Dave York
 
Dan,

It is a good idea to reference the Polyfiber manual when covering the wings. Years ago, I asked Ray Stits about covering the Bellanca wings at his Polyfiber booth at Oshkosh. At the time, he was covering a plywood covered horizontal stabilizer for one of the EAA's warbird restorations (a Corsair, I think). Anyway, I got to watch him go through the whole procedure.

As you said, the basic idea is to lay down some layers of Polybrush directly on the wing, then put the fabric on the wing - tacking it down as necessary to hold it in place. Then, using highly thinned Polybrush, apply the Polybrush to the fabric and work it down through the fabric. The thinned Polybrush will cause the underlying layers on the wing to soften and bond with the new, thinned olybrush and generating greater adhesion to the fabric. After it all dries out, you then follow the standard procedure in the book for adding additional Polybrush and finishing coats.

Apparently, in the old days when using cotton (or linen) fabric, this technique was not always used. Often the fabric was just laid on the bare wood and the dope applied to the top of the fabric and worked into the cotton with a brush. It seems that the cotton fibers acted like a tiny mops and the dope got liberally applied to the underlying wood, thus creating good adhesion between the fabric and the wood. Modern dacron type fabrics have a much tighter weave and tend to block the flow of normal dope through the fabric. Therefore, it is essential to put down starting layers of polybrush on the wood, then work the thinned polybrush into the polyfiber fabric.

If I recall correctly, analysis of the fatal mid-air disintegration of Steve Whitman's airplane showed that there was no underlying coat on the wing surfaces immediately ahead of the ailerons. Steve was a longtime mechanic and may have used the older cotton/dope approach to apply the dacron fabric on the wing. At any rate, the analysis that I read said that there was insufficient adhesion between the fabric and wing surface, even though the plane had flown for years. During the fatal flight, the fabric pulled loose from the wing surface just ahead of one aileron and puffed up into the airstream, blocking airflow to the aileron and inducing immediate, catastrophic aileron flutter that lead to the sudden destruction of both the aileron and wing.

So doing this operation correctly IS important.
 
Danno, your right the factory used a diagonal from the wheel well to the tip. It just happens to be at the lowest section of the cancave surface. If you glue your light fabric at that point there is not much worry about ballooning when you heat shrink. The PolyFiber manual covers this in the appendix. Cy's e-mail also covered (no Pun) this. Pulling the wings was fairly simple. I removed the wheel and tire,safetied .040 the sissors down and with no hyd. could move the gear leg into the well and held it there with wire. Got some work to do on the wing walk area reglue and fiberglass for strength. You have to pull the wing to get in there! The spars and wood are excellent so I'll be covering these mothers very soon. The race is on to get lipstick on this pig and be flying soon. Lynn the crate N9818B :wink:
 
Lynn:

Do you need some drawings to play with the paint scheme? I have some blank (no color or trim) Cruisair 3-Ds I can share.
BTW what IS your new paint scheme if I may ask :?:
 
Double D, paint will be factory original. Bahama Blue, Daytona White in Aerothane. Just like N9800B, 9805B and 9848B. Making good progress in the past 8 weeks. Lynn N9818B :mrgreen:
 
Lynn:

Just like N9800B, 9805B and 9848B
Click to expand...

And N9840B; that answers that question. I was going to email you and ask what color you going back with. I have decided to change the colors of 40B but stick with the same scheme. One of my pet peeves is someone building or restoring a beautiful aircraft and screwing it up with the paint. So watch me do it :!: Sounds like you're getting along a lot faster than I am. I have my gear all together. (Lot of extra pieces, is that good :?: ) All the damage is repaired and starting to go back together.
Going to sell the 210 that should motivate me to get back in the air. :lol:

Pray for warm weather:
Monty
 
Some color schemes may be original, but they sucked then and they suck now. Then again, such suckage may well suck less than many subsequent owner sensibilities.

If such language offends, rely on an old line of mine: "You don't need venturis on that airplane. The color scheme alone provides all the vacuum you'll ever need."
 
JB, remember the dude with the sharkmouth and pink paint on the dash 2? Enough said about SUCK. Whats wrong with your Cruisemaster? Lynn :mrgreen:
 
A lot is to be said about a conservative, original or 'original type' paint scheme..........Say, don't I remember a Cruisair painted up in a Spitfire-like scheme---------to go along with the Luftwaffe job!
 
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