Hoenshell's Build

[Hoenshell]

Paul, Do you have the one piece aluminum or steel spring?

[Av8r_Sed]

It’s the one piece Grove aluminum spring. With a solid Maule tailwheel it was pretty stiff, but the pneumatic wheel smooths it down nicely.

[Hoenshell]

I've ordered a Matco 8" pneumatic tire and 3 leaf steel spring for the tail wheel. As far as painting goes, I'm mostly going to be painting the steel tube frame, cowl, wing tips, aluminum panel, landing gear all same color of matte grey. I'm not going to be doing much painting of grey on the fabric. Should I get something different than Poly-Fiber paint to paint these parts since it would be easier and probably less money? What are you guys doing? Using all Poly-Tone paint or something different for other than fabric painting. I don't think any painting of grey on my fabric will do will have to match exactly if my only reason is to match colors.

[avidflyer]

If your new paint will be against areas that you are covering with the poly fiber system, it is best if it's epoxy paint. Regular paint can get dissolved by the solvents in the poly fiber chemicals. JImChuk

[Esser]

High quality urethane paint won’t be damaged by the solvents either.

[HighWing]

Historically it has been found that Polytone adheres very poorly to hard surfaces like fiberglass. Typically if used there an epoxy primer was sprayed first and after solvent evaporation, but before curing, the Polytone was sprayed on. A friend after doing that on his build many years ago was recently attempting to remove the Polytone top coat with solvents and no go. An automotive urethane works well on the fiberglass parts.

[efwd]

I used Poly Tone on everything except small parts like the hub caps. I found a matching rattle can and it has turned out well. I sprayed color onto my Oratex and it has turned out beautiful with Poly Tone. As for my fiberglass and flapperons I don't know. I primered, allowed it to cure, sprayed another coat of primer let it get tacky and then put down the color. I have serious doubts about this factory recommended technique to get Poly Tone to stick. I can tell you I have put small scratches in my engine cowl at the spinner. It takes very little to scratch. I am betting after 100 hrs I will be in the paint shop at my local airport for a repaint with something more durable. Or maybe it will be look cool with the color pealing back. After all, many folks have had paint jobs with what appears to be fabric pealing back in the wind.
Eddie

[Hoenshell]

Ok, while I'm waiting on parts from Kitfox I thought I would finish up my wings. I need to build the fuel sight gauge and I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to do this. I really like the idea of using 90 degree elbows with the little red pill that comes in these fuel sight gauge kits. I would like to build a panel that covers the rib and supports the sight tubes with a 90 degree fitting poking through. I believe I've seen similar setups, but my tanks sit 2.5" behind that rib. Has anyone else done something similar to what I'm looking for?

[Hoenshell]

I got a couple of camlocs installed on my bottom smooth cowling; although, starboard and port bottom forward camlocs have a 1/4" gap between the fuselage tab and the cowling. I can easily push the cowling in to close the gap, but concerned if I should "warp" the cowling that much to attach? Any thoughts?
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