After a week off for a trip to Colorado I'm back at it. I have been trying to figure out how to close out some gaps left in the covering, not just on the rudder but all covered parts. When I started covering I did not realize all the little nooks and cranny's there would be where the Oratex would not have something to actually attach to. For instance, the rudder. Around the control horns at the bottom of the rudder, the Oratex would have to be cut to go around the horns leaving a gap, small or large depending on how good one is at cutting around parts. Besides being unsightly, the gaps allow wind and water to easily penetrate into the interior of the, in this case, rudder.
The easy way to address these areas is to fabricate a small plate to fit in the area and Hysol it into place before covering. Then when you are covering and get to that spot you have a nice place to attach the covering without leaving any gaps. The problem is if you don't know your going to need these plates, it's too late once the covering goes on. Of course, there is no mention of this in the manual.
So, one builder suggested putting the fabric plate on the outside of the fabric attaching it with super glue and then filling in the small gaps with Hysol. Then attaching finishing tapes over it. Although this would work, and I actually started down this path until I realized how bad it was going to look. I needed to come up with an alternate plan.
I decided to use Superfill epoxy, it's easy to sand and should be plenty strong. It worked pretty well. It bonded the semi-loose fabric to the rudder control horns and I was able to sand a nice transition fillet into it. It completely sealed up the gap and gave a nice surface to attach the finish tapes and doilies. I also used the technique to seal around the electrical wiring for the tail strobe that exits the front of the rudder and gets connected inside the fuselage and the tail strobe housing. It gave the wire some support as well.
After sanding everything I taped it all up to paint it matte black.
Today I applied all the finish tapes and the doilies around the control arms and electrical wire.
The last task is to put some doilies around the strobe housing. I'll get to that tomorrow.
