Another Ozzie Extreme Composites 40% Extra 260 Build

[b0Bro's dad]

	Quote: Originally Posted by The Hobbyman
	Dont be too harsh on em Ian, it is a BIG job to paint one properly, rest of the build is looking good!

Glen,

The whinge was more about finding out they haven't started with the paint yet! I'm going out to see them tomorrow as I get the feeling they are a bit daunted by what they actually signed up for. I know it's a big job and I have the $1000 odd dollars you reckoned would be reasonable for a good two pack paint job. I still have confidence that they will do a great job because their hesitation is about 'getting it right'. Much preferrable to the 'just use more paint' approach.

Ian

[b0Bro's dad]

Ralph,

Thanks, I'll need to get the plane back and have a good look at how much room I've actually got to play with. As you have probably worked out, I'm pinning my faith on a properly tied in 2mm carbon top plate to take a lot of the load off the built-in and hard to reinforce bottom plate. Bye the way, the gophers over here are called wombats and you can hide a horse in their holes...bit of a pest actually, along with the kangaroos on the runway!
Cheers,
Ian

[RTK]

For some reason I always find the gopher holes at one of my sites, I probably wouldn't have any planes to fly if we had wombats.
Looking forward to seeing that paint job.
Ralph

[b0Bro's dad]

Glenn,

The real problem, as I discovered today, was that Peter (who picked up the model) didn't tell Richard (who will paint the model) that he had given the portfolio of photos and drawings to Lawrence (who runs the business). All sorted now (I think)

[b0Bro's dad]

Another weekend and still the beast isn't back from the paint shop. I chased them down last week and was a bit #$$&% off to find that they STILL hadn't started with the paint. The excuse this time was 'end of the month' (whatever that means) but I suspect the real problem was their worry about their 'revised quote'. I went out to the shop on Tuesday and we pulled it all out in front of the manager, assembled the bits and talked turkey. Net result is a fixed price quote for the polyurethane paint job with stencils is now $1,150 including GST and they promise they will finish the paint this week. I have my fingers crossed.

In the meantime, I have done a few small jobs including tinting the canopy and building the engine plate. The plate started out with me measuring the cone and dry fitting the engine to come up with dimensions of 140mm x 140mm. This size is small enough to allow the plate bolts to go into the carbon reinforcing in the cone yet large enough to still leave room to move the engine as needed to line up the spinner with the cowling. It was then a simple matter to mark and cut the three laminations (2 from 2mm carbon and 1 from 3mm birch ply) to size using my sewing machine adapted jig saw with a blade made from a hack saw. After 'scubbing' the surface of the carbon plates to get good adhesion, I used epoxy with a small amount of ground glass to glue the three laminations together in one step. The laminations were clamped together fairly hard and left to cure overnight. It was then a simple matter of cleaning the edges of the laminated plate with a face sander and drilling the corners for the M6x30 high tensile steel bolts. I using the plate as a template to drill the 6mm bolt holes through the cone and assembled the plate using 4 x 3mm hard rubber tap washers to space the plate and provide some vibration attenuation. I used Nyloc nuts and washers all round to make sure the plate stays put. I won't cut the plate or the cone for the engine bolts until I can line it all up with the cowling so this job is only half done until I get the plane back.

Tinting the inside of the canopy with VHT 'Smoke' SP-171 was pretty easy although I did need a second attempt when the first go showed I'd missed some dust which spotted the finish. This stuff cleans out easily with petrol and after an even more meticulous clean, I was much happier with the second attempt.

WARNING: Three months after tinting this canopy, I dropped it on a tiled floor from about 1 metre and it split right through the centre. I tested a bit of the flange and it was so brittle that my thumb just shattered it! It was a reasonably warm day, but not hot, so I thought that ambient temperature might be the problem. Subsequently, when my new canopy arrived, I stuck the off-cuts in the freezer overnight and found to my dismay that they had remained flexible. I can only conclude that the tint, or petrol used for cleaning, had reacted with the plastic and caused it to become brittle over three months. My new canopy is clear.

[The Hobbyman]

Hope to see it back soon Ian.

[b0Bro']

very neat job!

[b0Bro']

hey dad,
just found those pics of tonys throttle and choke set up with short rods...
Giants From Down Under

[b0Bro's dad]

Well, they say good things come to those that wait and in this case they might be right. The beast was finally delivered from the paint shop in the middle of a huge hail storm which I hope says good things for the effect Byron's Extra is going to have on the competition . Apart from missing stickers "Extra 260" on the wheel spats and the Australian flags being undersized, flying backwards on the right and mis-located all of which are very easily fixed, I am very happy with how the high gloss polyurethane paint scheme has turned out. I just hope that Byron likes his birthday present....umm Happy birthday Byron.
I temp fitted the old opaque tinted canopy (not the transparent tinted new one) and used some tape on the tru-turn spinner for the attached photos. I'll let the paint harden for a couple of days now and polish the whole thing up with lots of car wax to protect the finish from any accidental 'spills' and bubble wrap all the bits so I can work on them without worrying too much about scraching the paint Here's the pics...

[TROYS PIT-BITCH]

Very nice mate. Byron should be pleased

[rcdart]

That looks awesome, well done on the design, and obviously to the hand that applied it!

[b0Bro']

very pleased indeed troy!!! I must admit dad, i was sceptical when you told me you where going to paint that lovely tru turn red as well. However it looks awsome with the rest of the scheme. Thumbs up from me.