Rebuild Thread - EF 104 Extra

Top job it's always a nice feeling after you bent it, to see it coming back to life for more punishment.

Nice work Jon. Do you think that drawing up new formers in CAD and getting parts CNC cut would have been a reasonable alternative to hand cutting? We must have some CAD experts in the club.

What's your plan for the wing repairs? I'm guessing that the wing tube damage extends to all the associated internal ribs.

CNC cut parts would have been great Alan, just don't know anyone who could do it, or how much work it would be.

I will update on the wing as I am planning on starting on it today!

So, progress over the weekend.

One wing is badly damaged with the wing tube broken out, wing skins are damaged in some places.

First job is to remove the covering, I intended to try to get away with one side only, I chose the top as it will then be all nice and shiny when finished.

First a cut with a sharp blade along the aileron hinge line, then using a covering iron to heat the adhesive, the film is removed.

Some damage is obvious at the tip and root, root rib pretty broken!

I then carefully removed the balsa skins full length to reveal the whole structure as I want to be sure I have found and repaired all of the damage as there may be broken joints that would not be obvious without doing this, when doing this I was careful not to damage any of the structure which seemed intact..

Once removed, all of the damage is revealed, both the root and second ribs are basically destroyed, but further out the structure is pretty much unaffected, considering the carbon wing tube snapped in the crash, this says something about the strength of the wing structure!

In the photos I have inserted the carbon wing tube to straighten out the glass liner tube which was bent and is fractured, but all of the pieces are there. I just need to decide how I repair this while keeping it's shape and not gluing the wing tube in permanently! I have some ideas but haven't yet decided on the best one.

Most of the damaged structure is now removed in these photos, I also removed the vertical ply web still in place in these images.

Now the internals were revealed it was clear that to do a proper job I would also need to remove the covering from the bottom as well, as there are a few areas of damage to the bottom sheet, I think I should be able to patch these without having to remove all of this sheeting though.

Final bit completed was making a start on making new parts, using the original bits tacked back together to create a pattern, just as I did with the motor box.

To be continued!!

Looks like your making good progress, keep the photos coming will be interesting to see how you repair everything

Nice work Jon! Nice to see you are not frightened of a bit of major surgery on a model, as many would have binned it :woohoo: