Polyfiber wrinkles

[JoeRuscito]

I think Ive answered my own question. I noticed there was some heat shrink directly above the spot, where I had added chafe sleeve to my brake lines.... well I must have gotten a bit too close with the heat gun without thinking. Pretty frustrated with myself that I didn't think about the fabric. It seems like the fabric is still strong I pushed and prodded it quite a bit. The paint and coatings still seem well secured. Should I be concerned about the fabric strength? In this spot I would think it should be ok.

[rawheels]

You could cut it out and add a patch if you feel the degraded fabric is in a flight-critical spot. It is really pretty easy with the poly-fiber system, just follow their directions in the book.

[JoeRuscito]

I don’t believe it’s flight critical. It’s right above the gear. Center of floor of the fuselage. Maybe only 2x2 absolute max area that would have gotten any heat.

[Dave S]

Joe,

If the fabric still has its tension as you indicated, I'd suspect the there is no integrity issue with that. The paint likely softened a bit from the heat and that may be why there are some things that look like sags. If the paint ever peels - not a big deal to repaint the spot.

If the fabric were REALLY overheated - it would start to lose it's tension and you would be able to detect that. If it is not flapping in the wind - I don't see a problem.

FWIW - I did what could be called a boo boo on the belly fabric - dropped a phillips screwdriver point down punching a perfectly round hole - so I slapped a grommet on it and called it a "Drain hole"

We all have some kind of imperfection somewhere on our planes - the belly out of sight is the perfect place.

Fly Well

[JoeRuscito]

Thanks Dave, I was definitely kicking myself when I figured it out.... Couldn't be happier with the placement of said mistake though... hard to see at all.