John's Build

[airlina]

John , I can see why Vicki loves to fly with you , as I have seen the high quality of your work firsthand when you flew to OSH, and after 49 years of marriage , she obviously knows how conscientious you are . Amazed at that list of places you took your Thorpe, certainly wasn't a hangar queen. Bruce N199CL

[Flybyjim]

Great story John, and a happy couple in your photo. It is really nice you have found a plane that will work for your wife, I hope you have many flights together in the years to come.

[jrevens]

There was some info on sealing the horizontal trim slot with brush material from McMaster-Carr posted by Jim Ott recently. I wanted to thank Jim for the tip, and add a little info from my own experience. I think it was Jim who had mentioned doing this quite a long time ago also, and I got and used some of the same stuff that he recommended. I roughed up and cleaned the surface of the brush & where it mounted, and experimented a little with Hysol to glue it on. For some reason, the Hysol didn't adhere real well to the rubbery material on the brush... I could pretty easily peel it off. That bugged me so I tried some gel super glue. That was better, but when I flexed the panels to reinstall them the brushes came unglued at the ends. I didn't trust just glue at that point so I made some little SS clips and attached them with SS #4-40 screws. I guess it's overkill and a "belt & suspenders" situation. If so, guilty as charged.

[jiott]

That's interesting John. McMaster has quite a variety of those brushes and possibly yours were a different material than mine. Mine were all nylon, brushes and header. Just Hysol has kept mine on for about 5 years now, with the panels on and off every year for annual. Admittedly I have not pulled very hard to test them, just normal use and flexing when the panels are removed. Your method will certainly be secure.

[efwd]

Well John, you wrote my story. Like, down to the description. I lost a brush overboard somehow once I got to the CA glue. I am now on my third product, E6000. I haven't tugged hard on it but it tolerates the flexing of the panel. What are the clips? Look like something you would find for a photo frame or something. I was thinking of some sort of aluminum channel but smarter people repurpose from already existing stuff.

[jrevens]

Jim - I had looked at my invoice and they were the very same part # that you recently posted, so I don't know. The base is definitely not nylon, the bristles yes.

Eddie - I made the clips from some .015" SS shim stock. The one picture shows part of the process I went through... I bent them with the vice-grip seaming pliers you can see in the picture. Took me a couple of hours to make 12 of them. The shim stock has just the right amount of temper - it is springy, but can be bent sharply without cracking. It also cuts very cleanly with smooth jaw shears. Punched the holes with a Whitney punch then reamed to size.

[airlina]

John, I too was concerned with just gluing the rubber to the empennage panels, so since my panels are fiberglass ( a mod I did instead of aluminum) I used west system epoxy and made a fiberglass tape strip to cover the rubber brush base. I must admit that the brushes really make on difference on that pesky draft. Been ski flying in cold wx here in western NY and that blast of cold air I used to feel is now just a lslight draft. Thanks jim for the idea. Bruce N199CL

[efwd]

Well, some people are just too talented. Had me fooled, those certainly dont look scratch made. Nice job John.

[Delta Whisky]

John - great looking job. I considered something like your design but the idea of repainting, even touching up over rivet heads made me want to first try Eddie's suggestion of E6000. So far, so good. (And, thanks Eddie for the suggestion.)

BTW - I posted elsewhere but want to mention again - when I set about gluing the brushes I discovered that at least one of the bolts (nut with cotter pin) that attach the trim mechanism had been rubbing (read: gouging) the side panel. Turning the bolts around solved the issue even though the brush install closed what normally would be the clearance distance about 0.125 inches.

And, the breeze reduction was noticeable - thanks to Jim for the original post.

[jiott]

The inside of my panels had been epoxy primered with the Polyfiber primer. I glued the brushes to the primer. Maybe that is why mine have stuck-don't really know. The good thing is there is nothing safety critical or even very costly if one comes loose.
I have to give credit for the original idea to a flying buddy who owns a machine shop. He said, "Oh, we use brushes to seal up moving slots all the time on machine tools".