Friday, October 8, 2010

More brake lines




I managed to finish up the brake lines today. The left brake line was not as bad as the right one. Both of the internal clamps were still intact and the upper flare on the weatherhead fitting looked OK.

The lower fitting was a different story having been over-tightened multiple times to stop leaks.The copper line was so work hardened I had a tough time straightening it out enough for rework. I finally managed to push back the male weatherhead fitting and using a hacksaw blade cut off the existing flare. I decided to go with standard AN 37 degree flare fittings and ditch the hardware store original Cub stuff. Being unable to remove the copper line , I had just enough room to effect repairs. I hope this does not leak because there is not enough left to flare it again !


I did not have a 1/4 inch standard elbow so I had to use this bulkhead fitting temporarily . I will get one from A/C Spruce with my next order. Once again I went with copper line to the brake caliper.


Since the weather was absolutely beautiful I decided to start on the fabric repairs on the right "vee". I cut some repair patches from some ceconite 102 fabric scraps and attached them with Randolph Rand-O-Bond. This gear leg is pretty rough looking so I did not get too carried away. It still came out looking OK. Here I have removed the existing finish and then I smoothed the fabric with my little model iron set to 200 degrees.

I then cut and attached the fabric patches.




While I had the Randolph materials out I decided to fix a small rip and a hole in the interior fabric next to the rear throttle. I plan to repaint this side of the inside fuselage this week.


With these needing to dry overnight before shrinking, I went ahead and put the cotter pins in the wheels and installed the new hub caps. I also put the safety wire on the brakes. I'm still waiting on my bungee covers from Airtex (been 3 weeks now). I will bleed the brakes after the fabric work is complete, hopefully they won't leak too bad!

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