Sunday, May 29, 2005

Heat Shrink Left Wing - 7.5 Hours (79 Total)

Today I started ironing out the wrinkles on the left wing. Unfortunately, the green fabric changes color when ironed. This wasn't a big problem but required me to iron the entire fabric instead of just spot ironing like I had done earlier.

I installed the top and bottom ribs without too much problem. I quickly learned that extra finesse is needed to make sure the ribs are inserted in the pockets. I did break one of the plastic heals. The piece is still inside the wing. I'll need to order a new one since I don't have any extras. The top rib was very difficult to fully insert. I don't know what caused this or what allowed it to fully insert. I ended up playing with it for ~25 minutes.

I used my soldering iron to cut exit holes for the two strut plates, jury strut bracket, and fuel tank filler.

I used the hot air gun and iron to remove any remaining wrinkles. For the most part, the fabric is nice and taunt. The exception is the wing tip. I was able to get most of the slack out but the last few wrinkles wont come out. I ended up melting some of the fabric with the hot air gun. Luckily the fabric is reinforced with multiple layers in that location.