Confusion on Wing Fabric Installation

[LetMeFly]

When doing the wing fabric for the first time, it's a bit confusing to follow Section 5 of the Poly Fiber manual, the Fabric Section of the Kitfox manual, and Appendix C of the Poly Fiber manual (dealing with a concave wing bottom). Add to this looking at videos online of builders and actual Poly Fiber videos, and I only THOUGHT I had it down. It confused me enough that I made mistakes and I ended up ripping off the whole bottom fabric and will start again.

I took the sections of the manuals and reformed them to describe the process in the order required, instead of jumping between books. I've attached this in a PDF and I'd like some comment and criticism of the text from those who have done it.

Poly-Fiber Wing instructions reformatted.pdf

Thanks!

[Jerrytex]

It would help to know what parts, specifically you are confused about?

The polyfiber videos on you tube show an actual kitfox wing being covered, step by step.

[LetMeFly]

It would help to know what parts, specifically you are confused about?

The polyfiber videos on you tube show an actual kitfox wing being covered, step by step.

Yes, I watched those videos several times. He doesn't do it like the Kitfox manual though. He even does some things different than the Poly Fiber manual! Like applying an iron at 350 deg on a glued surface, which can ruin the glue according to the polyfiber manual!

My confusion was in going back and forth in three different sections of two different manuals and doing one thing from one manual, that conflicted with another part of another manual, etc. My lower fabric was so messed up that when I finally decided to rip it off, I could then see how badly I did it. Like only about 75% of the TE was glued down, even though the glue was soaked into the fabric! Don't ask me how that happened.

I'm just asking if anyone sees anything missing or wrong from my attachment write-up. I'm using that next time, after the coat of varnish that I had to re-apply cures in a few days.

[Jerrytex]

It does seem like with the fabric install, there are several ways to "skin a cat".

I used the build manual to give me some direction as for as how the pieces of fabric should go, but for the actual process, I pretty much followed the polyfiber manual and had good results.

I have seen some deviation from the manual on videos. I think it's like anything else. People who do this kind of work will find ways to get better, easier results and sometimes that will be slightly different from other instructions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk-vaAxd2eE

The girl on this series of youtube videos does amazing work.

One tip that I used which deviated from the manual, was her tip of diluting the poly tak 50/50 with MEK. She dilutes, and then paints 2 coats on, lets it dry, and the then lays the fabric down. She then brushes over the fabric with the 50/50. This activates the painted on glue and really gets a good soak through the fabric.

This was a game changer for me since before using this method, it seems like it was a race to beat the drying polytak glue, which resulted in clumpy glue and areas where the fabric didn't adhere well, kind of like you describe.

Might give this technique a shot.....

[LetMeFly]

...The girl on this series of youtube videos does amazing work.

One tip that I used which deviated from the manual, was her tip of diluting the poly tak 50/50 with MEK. She dilutes, and then paints 2 coats on, lets it dry, and the then lays the fabric down. She then brushes over the fabric with the 50/50. This activates the painted on glue and really gets a good soak through the fabric....

Yes! I've seen her videos too (I watched a lot of videos before trying this. Which might be part of the problem ). I re-watched some of her videos today, slowed down by half, and it does look like she gets good penetration of the glue in the fabric. I had a problem with that in the first go but maybe I needed to thin it just a bit more, so I may try it that way.

[LetMeFly]

I've updated the document a bit, and gave it a "Rev A". I'll be using it as a sort of checklist to go through as I do the wings. Maybe someone else might get some use out of it!
Poly-Fiber Wing instructions reformatted Rev A.pdf