So I bought this Carden RTF from a local flyer here who got out of the hobby to pursue another hobby. Great deal so I could not pass it up. However, I could not leave well enough alone so here is my progress on recover and re-install of radio gear.

I started with removing the old covering off the H Stabs. Everything looked great and only a few small parts of hard to remove covering. I am going to go with a straight forward scheme with good room for graphics. A friend is going to help with painting the cowl, landing gear and wheel pants.

Looking Good!!

I would try and cut another servo hole to have 2 servos per elevator. Those huge elevators need two servos.

Originally Posted by TeamFlatout

I would try and cut another servo hole to have 2 servos per elevator. Those huge elevators need two servos.

Good point, if it's a 40%, although Dennis never did use 2 in his, but I would!!! 30-35% 1 8611 is good
Tom

I am going to use either 1 8611A or 1 5955 per elevator half. It had been flying with one 5945 per elevator half and two for the ailerons. I think 5945's are plenty for 35% planes. I fly mainly 3D and I have yet to strip out a 5945 flying hard 3d.

I have split planes in two doing hard walls and 5945's held up just fine...lol. I think I will be fine with a single 5955.

I'm only going to run 1 5955 per elevator on my AW 39% Extra, try if you can to use lipos and run them @ 7.4V if possible for MO-POWER!

Like I said the plane has been flying for the past several years on one 5945 per servo. Yeah I have all Fromeco's in the plane right now so that wont be a problem. I will fly it with one 5955 per. I mean it will be easy to tell whats up after I fly it. I plan on just beating the heck out of this thing flying 3D.

Lookin' good, man! That plane was a STEAL!!! Too bad it was on the market a month before I was ready to buy.

I wanted to finish the H-stabs tonight but I ended up working on the fuse. I will do all my sanding in one round outside when its not raining. I will test a few areas where the covering has left some color on the sheeting. My hope is that it wont show through the new covering. Otherwise some more sanding! Tommorow I might get to the wings.

This looks like it will be cake to cover as everything is more or less flat with no open frame structure. Open frame fuses aint all that bad either though.

Now I have to decide on what scheme to go with. I will also have to order a new canopy from Carden as when I tried to remove the other one it just cracked up. Might order some new wheel pants also.

A shot of the current setup inside. This was taken before I removed the covering.

On the covering scheme not sure if I want to go with either the current Matt Chapman scheme or something similar to what my Extra 260 will be. Only thing that would not be cool about the Matt Chapman scheme is I am sure some retard will think its the GP Cap. I can see it now...in the IMAA magazine somewhere and some editor will put in that its a GP 35% Cap.

That would just be sacrilage! I can see it happening though. On the other hand, I think covering a Carden with that gawdawful paintball scheme would be sacrilage too!

You have to think about this, the plane might have been using one servo on the elevator for a while but think about it, you have 3 servos on the rudder, 2 on each aileron and one on just each elevator half. I know how expensive these big airplanes will cost to completely rebuild and I wouldnt want to lose the airplane because I didnt want to spend an extra $200 on 2 servos. Just my .02

Originally Posted by TeamFlatout

You have to think about this, the plane might have been using one servo on the elevator for a while but think about it, you have 3 servos on the rudder, 2 on each aileron and one on just each elevator half. I know how expensive these big airplanes will cost to completely rebuild and I wouldnt want to lose the airplane because I didnt want to spend an extra $200 on 2 servos. Just my .02

On the Carden 40% Cap 232, I have one 8411 and it is plenty. Trust me.

Mike Darr

If Dennis from Carden said it would be ok and he designed the plane then I guess I am just crazy. The plane is the cheap part of the equation. Its the engine and servos I care about. If the Dalton 260 can fly on one servo per half then I am sure this will be fine. If you think I dont want to spend extra money on servos you obviously dont know me too well. This is not the first and wont be the last 40% to fly on one servo per elevator half.

Not sure but last time I checked 4 servos on the rudder still equals 4 servos.

Ok guys sorry it has been a while since I uploaded any pictures. I ran into the problem of having some of the old covering leaving behind its color in the wood. Not a problem if I was going to use the same color or darker covering.

However I am going with a lighter color so this had to be fixed. Sanding seemed like it might take a good amount of time and possibly make a lot of time filling in voids.

I came up with a solution that is a good compromise and works fast and easy! For any part that needed sanding I masked it off with some 3M painters tape. I am not the first to do this and it works awesome. It allows you to sand down an area and not affect the rest around it. Wish I would have done this the last time I stripped a plane down.

Well on to what I came up with. Using a sharp razor (see picture) I simply slid it back and forth as though I was removing a decal or sticker from glass or similar hard surface. This allows you to remove the stubborn areas of covering as well as areas where the adhesive and or dye from the covering has stuck itself on the wood. Its almost like sanding but not quite. The advantage is you remove what you want without having much an effect on the sheeting around it. It almost gives it a polished look.

I am just about finished with the stabs and wings. I will have to remove the pencil/pen lines drawn on for the last covering job as on my test cover areas it would show through the covering.