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Building Tips and technical articles. => 1/2 A building. => Topic started by: Jeffrey Olijar on August 19, 2009, 09:04:50 PM
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It seems like Arf has become the standard and when they crash the plane ends up in the trash when it could be easily repaired. I decided to document me repairing one of my old 1/2a planes and photograph the progress to post it on here.
A little backround on this plane. The design is called a super looper don't ask me where to get plans as I don't know If you really want I can trace my plane and scan it for you. It has had many crashes, bumps, scrapes and mishaps at some point it lost its smallish rudder and it was decided that it looked better without it and with the offset of the engine it didn't need one. The plane was glued back together crooked at the field at some point and it has cracks all throughout the body. The paint is chipped in many places but the plane is not oil soaked.
The first thing I did was strip the plane of its control system.
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Then I cut out the damaged areas and sanded the plane smooth. The spots where there were cracks I gently spread it apart and put some wood glue inside and stuck it together.
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Then I took some scrap wood that was a bit thicker than the wing and made a piece to fit inside the wing. I also made a new crutch for the body. Allthough I don't have photographs of it I took the wing and the stab off the body and sanded it smooth and reglued the plane back together straight. Also I took a piece of 1/4" square hardwood and glued and clamped it to the underside. I think it will help prevent future damage to the crutch.
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After that was done I painted the whole thing with Rustoleum Gloss while paint. I am going to apply another coat of white and then I am going to do a coat or two of Rustoleum Gloss black on the design I drew. I made a design and masked it out without putting a base coat on. silly me I guess I shouldnt work on planes when tired. So I peeled off the masking tape and im going to trace the design onto a sheet of paper then paint the whole thing white and remask it.... HB~> took me like 2 1/2 hours the first time....
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Very nice job! Dont give away too many repair secrets or folks will stop leaving such nice planes in the trash at the field... (grinning) Honestly the only thing I would do differently is to use dope instead of rustoleum as later repairs on dope are a bit easier to hide.
Bob Furr
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I would have used dope but I have a self imposed deadline as I am in the process of moving and spraypaint is faster. I guess that makes me lazy. ;D
and as for the planes in the trash can I aways thought it was funny that the combat guys would take there engine and tank off their plane and their handle and throw away the plane lines and all when they crash. Though it is a bit hard to glue together 10,000 bits of styrofoam that are strewn out over 500m.
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I used to at least pull the controls out first.
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I did except the control horn. It was glued on and I didnt see any sense in removing it.
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Usually when I put a plane in the trash bin it is not worth rebuilding. Especially combat jobs. It was so much faster to build new than rebuild. Of course the old log planes were rebuilt or given away. Wish I had some of them back now. Still having fun, DOC Holliday
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The Super Looper as shown was from America's Hobby Center for maybe a dollar. Friend had one and it flew OK.
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$1? Musta been a million years ago.
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I can still remembed the 25 cent magazines, 15 to 25 cent propellors, fuel at almost a dollar a pint and so many more things that if I had the wages I made today back in the day of those prices I would have filled a warehouse. Especially the $3.95 combat planes with the $15.95 Fox's, K&B's as well as Johnson .35's. Times have changed and I am still having fun even tho I can't afford it. DOC Holliday
PS:My first .35 was a $10.00 engine in a plastic blue box with clear lid. jeh
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I clearly remember paying $12.95 for a my first Flite Streak kit years ago. I picked one up on eBay the other day for $60.00.