Kitfox iv wing repair

[alexM]

I second the others and suggest the full monty, in bits to save on package size. Would it save on freight ?

Shipping to Australia is INSANELY expensive and I imagine New Zealand is the same. One of my side activities is designing and prototyping motorcycle parts, which eventually get built by others. Shipping a motorcycle engine sump guard to Australia was $450 USD. They guy insisted he wanted one of my prototype units which I valued at about $200. It shipped in a box that was 12x18x10 and weighed about five pounds all up. I quoted DHL, UPS, FedEx and USPS. USPS was the cheapest by a long ways at that $450 price .

Second craziest shipping costs are to Canada. Also shipping a couple of very small motorcycle parts recently (windshield spacers made of UHMW) it was about $15 USD to Belgium and the UK and over $50 to the middle of Canada. The quickest to arrive was Belgium. The last arrived weeks later in the UK.

A spar crate to NZ? Has to be eye watering.

[Eric Page]

I assume hysol (1994 kit)...

My Series 5 dates from April 1995 and used Scotch-Weld, so the change to Hysol was definitely after my kit was produced.

[taff]

I just had a brain gush!

Your insured for that repair.
To repair, the aircraft needs parts.
To acquire the parts you maybe need the insurance to settle also for shipment of parts.

What's the point of insurance, if your paying an expensive portion of the repair. That should be built in to the claim? Or negotiable.
Think of any repair shop. They provide the insurance co. a price/cost for doing the repair. If they need parts, Piper, Cessna or Kitfox. the shipping is included into the total repair estimate.

Maybe this could work?

[avidflyer]

Dont want to speak for someone else, but say you are insured for $30000 hull coverage. Insurance company says to themselves it will cost more then that to hire someone to repair the plane. They take the cheaper route, and pay you the $30,000. They let you buy back the plane for what ever is agreed to. For instance, say it's $5000. All you have left to repair the plane is $25,000 now. The question then becomes, how do you do that without breaking the bank ($25,000) JImChuk

[Maverick]

Something else you might consider is to build your new ribs yourself. If you can obtain the plywood you could salvage one of the ribs from your old wing and create an aluminum template of the wing from it and then use it to router out all the ribs you need. Getting the plywood shipped (if you need to) might be easier if it is cut down to smaller size sheets since package size has a lot to do with shipping cost. It also would give you some options for the wood type, i.e. a five layer marine grade plywood could work. EAA has a great book on building with wood that has info on selecting wood that can be used in lieu of birch or spruce. When I built my first homebuilt from scratch I used Douglas Fir marine grade plywood for the ribs and Douglas Fir planks that met the EAA criteria for the spars. I bought all of it locally. When I made my ribs, after getting my template made I made a set of 24 ribs in a day.

https://www.eaa.org/shop/product-det...926&pr=2516729

I don't know about governmental restrictions there so this might not even be an option but if so this could save you a lot of time and money. However, if you are ordering spars, I would just order the entire wing kit less anything else that comes with it that you might not need like struts.

I wonder if this would help get the fuel tanks out? DesertFox4 turned me onto this for cutting PVC and I wonder if it could somehow be used to cut through the stuff holding the wing tank to the spar.
https://www.amazon.com/General-Tools...a-420978968769
Maverick

[Jim2Fly]

Murle Williams suggests removing hysol by softening with a heat gun.

[efwd]

If I were to try this I would cut the spars into segments and try heating the spar from inside exclusively as to avoid burning the wood. My heat gun (Steinel) can be turned up to temps adequate for soldering, 1200F. Expensive but You will save a gob of time once your proper temp is determined to release the Hysol. Having a digital temp control makes putting Oratex on a much easier process, that is how I came into this gun.

[TJay]

The spars are 6160 2 1/2" OD aluminum tube with a .065" thick wall. I would think that could be bought in NZ or Australia. To get the spar and wood ribs seperated, I would imagine it would be best to cut the spars in pieces, so you are only dealing with one rib at a time. If you only have a 1" long piece of spar in the rib, you should be able to cut it in quarters and peal it off of the epoxy with some heat applied to the aluminum. Then use a dremmel or similar cutter to remove the epoxy. Front spar will come off easier, but I can't imagine pulling out the rear spar in one piece. And if you are replacing it anyway, it must be junk.... JImChuk

Don't forget they are Drawn Tubes if your sourcing them else where

[David47]

Thanks for the replies
I assume hysol (1994 kit) ,chopping the Spars individually and replacing one at a time may be an option. I will get 2 spars and inserts from kitfox.
My rear spar maybe OK we wont know untill the bent front spar is removed or temporarily straightened.

Any specialist aluminum has to come from overseas and I am happy to support kitfox.

Strongly recommend you buy the spars from Kitfox. Aluminium suppliers here in Australia only supply in 12 ft lengths and if your KF5 has the same wing as the KF7 then suppliers other than Kitfox won't get you the length you need. I know this because I had an "incident" on my KF7 wing build and ordered locally - Kaiser manufactured in the USA. I had to design an extension to the outer section for an extra 18". Also, as already suggested by Jim Chuk, a heat gun will soften Hysol if that's what was used. Any other adhesive used in the original build - don't know.

[Dusty]

I have ordered the Spars and inserts from kitfox so I can be assured of the quality.
I have also ordered the rivets from kitfox.

Using a heat gun on the inside of the old spars makes easy work of removing the old glue. The fuel tank is held in with a mixture of structural adhesive and soft caulking glue.
I haven't progressed much with the wings until the parts arrive as the wing will be very fragile to move if I get too far ahead of myself. Overall this doesn't appear to be too big a job but I am using the waiting time (4-6 months) to learn what I can regarding rigging etc.