P-51 Mustang (Late
Feb,
2007)
This airplane has an interesting story. It was
given
to me back in the early
'80s by a then pilot for WalMart. It is a D&B Models
kit
having a fiberglass fuselage and foam wing. The plane had
been
started by the PO and if I recall correctly the sheeting was on
the
wing but I finished sheeting the flaps and ailerons, sealed the
wing with finishing resin and painted the whole with K&B two
part
epoxy paint, shortly afterwards discovering the sheeting
joints
in
the wing had curled to a sickening appearance.
My first impression and the assumption that stayed with me over
the
years was chemical attack to the foam from the finishing resin
through
the wing sheeting joints. I expected there were hollow
indentations
in the foam at each joint from the chemical attack and thus the
model
was likely ruined if the attack was deep.
Retrieved
the plane from the barn last night to assess to either trash can
or
save. The wing was pitiful to look at and my first
impression was
it was history, this plane would never fly. The years of
storage in the barn rafters had allowed
moist air to further attack the sheeting and it was now fully
delaminating in places as well as covered with twenty years of
barn
dust. I wished a picture had been taken of how it
looked.
It was easy to pull some of the delaminated sheeting up and see
that
the foam core had not suffered the feared chemical attack.
What
had happened - why had the
sheeting joints curled up? Will the plane ever fly?
Some
work (May
update:)
Has been done on the
P-51. The hardwood wing hold down block is
forward because of the aft radiator on the P-51 and it has been
fit and
set with silicone adhesive, which works better on fiberglass
than
epoxy. The wing in that area is simply foam and 1/16"
sheating so
the holes needed drilled, the hardwood block tapped and then the
wing
holes drilled oversize to 1/2", tape placed across the holes and
then
the holes filled with epoxy (leaving them recessed somewhat) to
be
redrilled for the 1/4 inch nylon bolts.
Also, a test strip was made to see if water based sanding sealer
would
install SkyLoft covering to the wing and it seems it will work
so the
wing covering should get done soon and then it will be on to
painting.
