New Window Latch

[Tomlin]

Mike, that's incredible how good that is looking and also that's a good idea too- putting up the interior trim with the double sided tape. Is that the real solution, or just temp?

[Michael Carter]

That is the real solution. The stuff is incredibly tacky and sticks to anything smooth or rough. It takes a few hours for a permanent bond, but once bonded it will come apart before the bond fails.

Pre-bending the plastic at the correct spots helps too. The plastic was pretty much already shaped before it was installed. It took a couple of hours to measure out and cut correctly, but it was worth it.

[Tomlin]

Can you send a link to the material that you have and where you got it from, and also do you think it would work well for the interior lining for the LJ45 shell?

[Michael Carter]

I don't have a link for the stuff, but any plastic supply company will sell this stuff by the sheet. Probably all the way up to 4x8 if you want. The sheets I'm using are about 28"x36"

I get it from work. They screen print advertising on the opposite side. When the ad is over they throw it away and replace it with another. I've been hoarding it for nearly four years now not knowing what I was going to use it for until I started building my cockpit.

I think it will work great as long as there are no compund curves to cover. That would be a definate excersise in geometry to get it cut and fit correctly over a compound curve. I had great difficulty trying to form the concave area where the steering tiller goes. In fact it looks like crap around the edges. It does take heat well if you can heat it evenly and slowly. It tends to shrink when heated and that is a problem if the piece you are heating is already attached to something (as I found out).

I does bend easily and 90° angles and a bit greater are no problem without splitting or cracking. It takes super glue, body glaze, and other adhesives very well with no attacking.

[Tomlin]

I have had my eye on this material at Lowes for quite some time now. It's 4x8 sheet of fiberglass reinforced plastic from the best I can tell. It's white, and is smooth on one side and has the slight bumby surface on the opposite side and is used (of all places) in restrooms and kitchens for wall surface.

It's $32 a sheet and highly bendable at about 1/8" thick. Im thinking it may be usable, but Ive also given considerable thought to laying wax paper in my two LJ45 shell halves (with them on their sides, and then inserting screen door material in there and bending/fixing to the ribs. Then after it's shaped, layup fiberglass cloth and resin. The wax paper would prevent the resin from adhering to the MDF and the screen (as you suggested earlier) would not only give a shape to hold the cloth/resin on for drying, but would reinforce the parts too. Then they could be taken in and out. However, I think $$$ I would be cheaper to buy the big sheets of the fiberglass plastic stuff. But, I still then have the problem of the compound curves :-/

Thoughts?

[Michael Carter]

An 1/8" is pretty thick material. You might want to buy a small sample if available and try a few 90° angles and see how it holds up under that much stress. The thicker the material the larger the bend radius will be.

The plastic I'm using is .030". It's suprisingly sturdy with only limited backing support. I know you saw the skeleton of my shell before covering it. It does sound like a bass drum if you happen to tap it while getting in or out, but there is virtually no stress on the plastic at all so there are no worries about punching a hole in it or having it tear.

[Tomlin]

Yeah, I did a bend and fold test on that material this past weekend and it's not going to work, but I did think of another method.

1) Line the inside frame with hardware cloth
2) Cover the hardware cloth with this 1/8" closed cell foam that's wrapped with clear plastic that keeps it from cracking (I think it's some kind of floating floor insulation)
3) Cover the foam with vinal/leather.

That foam allowed me to bend it over at the corner like a scroll and didnt crack or break one bit, so it's the current winner for filler material, and the hardware cloth is there for form and rigidity. The vinal/pleather gives the smooth factory finish.

This is my current choice of ease of use and cost effective interior finishing.

[Michael Carter]

That sounds like a winner Eric.

I think I have a few scraps of that type of foam laying around in the shop so I know what you're talking about.

In a LearJet the leather will look right at home.

I really would have liked to try the hardware cloth/fibreglass idea on my own sim, but there isn't enough ventlation down here to safely try it.

[Michael Carter]

But I'm having serious second thoughts now.

I'm buying the hardware cloth tomorrow and I'm going to try and get this shaped correctly around the eyebrow windows. I figure this isn't enough area to seriously contaminate the whole house so I'm going to try it in a week or so after I'm satisfied with the way the hardware cloth is shaped.

I really have few options for this eyebrow window frame. I could fart around trying to cut plastic to size after trial and error with the bending and blending I'd have to do around corners and where pieces join, but I think it'd look like crap when finished.

I think the hardware cloth/fibreglass idea would work best under these circumstances.

[PDT 200]

Looking good. I was at the "Wings of Eagles" Museum at the airport in Elmira NY (KELM) and they have a 727 simulator that American Airlines used to operate. Here is a pic of the port side window handle. My avatar is from that sim.
Regards,
Brian