K8 recovering

[blake]

Guys,

I have the airframe stripped now and was wondering how much covering to order?
I was thinking one 10m roll and one 5m roll.
Using Solartex if that makes a difference?

Thanks
Blake

[lenb]

You can never have too much, plus it's certainly less expensive in bulk

[blake]

Ok,

Two 10m rolls it is then!

Blake

[lenb]

Since you are using Solartex, are you planning to paint the plane?

[blake]

Len,

I was just going with one colour and some stripes. Do I need to paint the Solartex?

Blake

[lenb]

You don't need to paint Solartex, but most guys find it gets dirty very easy, so therefore they will spay a light satin clear coat over the surface to seal out the dirt and grime.

Len

[blake]

Len

Ok, I will add that to the list of things needed!

Blake

[blake]

Ok guys,

Here are a few shots of some of the work that that I'm doing on the K8.
While I'm waiting for the big shop to be finished I've been working on little jobs that I could do in the basement shop.
Thanks to the foresight and efforts of Steve R, the fuselage comes apart just aft of the wings so it makes it manageable to work on in confined areas.

So far I have installed a tail wheel. All I did was cut of the tip of the plastic skid and remove enough wood so the wheel would fit. I then fibreglassed the pocket and installed the wheel.
I started sheeting the forward section of the fuselage. I wanted do do this because it was almost impossible to pick up with just open bays. Finding a hardpoint to pick it up was very difficult.
Light fibreglass cloth will be used to cover the sheeting, then paint for final colour.


Tailwheel installed

Forward sheeting going on.



When I stripped the airframe I found some broken formers in the aft part of the fuselage. These were repaired and some additional doublers were installed on all of the lower aft formers.


More to come.....

Blake

[blake]

The next item that needed attention was the factory tow release, it had to go!
Following what Tom P and a few other owners have done, I did the extension dowel in the factory release tube. This moves the actual release upfront where it belongs.

Where it belongs!



The aluminum tube was epoxied in with the nose weights by Steve R. The wires run the entire length of the tube to the front release loop.


More to come....

[ARUP]

I'm lurking here!

[Mosquito]

That's no surprise...

[blake]

Ok,

Continuing on with this adventure.....onto the cockpit. The stock cockpit is shall we say, a bit "different", and personally I don't like it at all. Because I'm going with a more of a retro look with this rebuild I researched open cockpits for the K8 and found several different examples. As you can see from the photos, it totally changes the look of the airplane and is exactly what I want, so onto the the rework of the canopy frame.




I started with the stock canopy frame and removed the crazy looking pilot, and the floor. Then I carefully removed the canopy from the frame and set it aside for now. The windshield will be cut from it later on.



After looking at the various open cockpit designs I choose one that I liked the best, and I'm following that one.



Onto building the framework for the added planking needed to achieve the look I wanted.
Pretty straight forward actually, as you can see.



Planking started, and I added the centre string to keep things...well.... centered!




That's it for tonight as the glue is now drying.

Later guys.

[lenb]

I'm lurking here!

come out from the shadows Michael

[blake]

Progress on the airplane has slowed due to me moving everything into the new shop!
I can't believe that everything you see here came out of the little basement room where I was working before.

I am now building a new workbench along the windows, should have it done tonight.
Still going to take a while longer before I can get back to the build part of this thread.

[lenb]

Fabulous Blake!!!

What a wonderful thing to be able to put a shop together the way you want it.
Congratulations...

[blake]

Thanks Len!

Now a question to you guys about wall storage systems for wings and fuselages for these bigger gliders....what do you guys use?
The fuselage storage is pretty easy. I like the one in the photo attached here. But it's the large wing panels that I'm worried about. Do you lay them flat, stand them up etc?
I did a Google search and came up with some ideas...

Something like this for the fuselages?



What about the wings?



Any input would be greatly appreciated

Thank

Blake