Restoring a GP Patty Wagstaff's Extra 300S

[almmendes]

It is been some time that I've been looking for a "small" 50cc scale model but because the way the economy is and the family needs I didn't want to buy new and because you never know what you get when you buy used that you cannot see I decided to wait until someone locally would have one for sale and that happen a couple of weeks ago...

I found online a local gentleman named Greg that had a used Great Planes Patty Wagstaff Extra 300s for sale at a fair price. After contacting him and after a couple of e-mail's we decided on the price and I got a surprise from him... he had another Patty model for sale from World Models that he would sell as a combo at a great price. We met, I took a overlook at the models and we had a deal... The model with the black carbon landing gear on the picture is the World Models one...

I decided to start working on the Great Planes first. This model came with 1 JR DS-811 (throttle), 4 HiTec HS-625MG (rudder and Elevator), 2 MAXX MS-870MG (Ailerons), Switch and one Volt Watch. As a modeler I like to build and therefore I decided to do my "changes/improvements" before I even think about getting the needed motor and get it up in the air.

Please bear with me with this restoring and I'm open to suggestions on motor, batteries and building ideas. At the moment I'm thinking about the DL-50cc as a motor and that's it so far...

I already got some detail pictures that I'll post later.

Thanks for looking...

[JustPlaneCrazy]

Looking Good !

The DL50 should be a good engine for the Patty, try and keep it as light as possible.

[CSpaced]

I'll second the DL, I've got about two and a half gallons through mine and couldn't be happier with it.

What needs to be done to the planes?

[almmendes]

Here some more updates...

First I cleaned the covering and then started working in re-streching the covering. First I did the wings and yesterday the fuselage. Now I only need to get some matching white to cover here and there in some spots. I want to re-cover from the landing gear to the cowling area, one of the sides of the elevator servo and the bottom port of the rudder.

I did remove the landing gear, wheel pants and tail wheel. The wheel pants need to be sanded, cover small cracks and painted again... hopefully it won't be too hard. The landing gear needs to be stripped and re-painted too. I want to use a different wheel axel system than what originally had. (I'll post some pics of this later)

The engine mount has a wood advance that until I get the DL-50 I don’t know if I’ll need that or not, so I better waits there. Around the cowling there were screws of different type and therefore I want those to match too.

More updates later....

P.S.: This pics were taken before iron streching... It looks better now

[CSpaced]

Looks like she's seen some action! Nothing that can't be fixed up, sounds like you are heading in the right direction

[almmendes]

	Quote: Originally Posted by CSpaced
	I'll second the DL, I've got about two and a half gallons through mine and couldn't be happier with it. What needs to be done to the planes?

The airplane doesn't need much to be done... I just don't feel good about not taking care of stuff and getting it up in the air like this. I do want to make it look good and behave good. Here's some things I want to do:

* grab the hot gun and just strech some spots (bottom of the fuselage) that didn't strech with the iron
* I want to smoothly sand and varnish the engine area all over
* recover some parts that don't look that good
* create and apply some tags to identify the servos and extensions
* use a Du-bro antena for large scale models
* start thinking on what batteries to use for the ignition and the receiver (maybe use some Li-Po's and use 6v BEC's) (maybe someone can help me with this...)
* Need to buy and apply a fuel tank and tubing

Any ideas or advices ???

[IMACmike]

definetly R&R the fuel systems. Be careful about asthetics, it can add a substantial weight penalty to a small gasser. LiPo batteries are great, but require regulators for proper voltage. A123 do not need regulators, but they are slightly heavier (I don't know if the two systems would "wash" as far as weight is concerned). The servo's are probably adequate for most types of flying, but this is an area of the airplane that should not be compromised, IMO. Looks like a great job!

[almmendes]

Here's the canopy and the cowling cleaned... the gold color strings on the cowling seem to be coming out in some spots. How can I fix this? I used to use some nail varnish to do small touches but only in trainers, never in big scale and I'm afraid of what it might happen. Any ideas or suggestions?

The airframe "belly" contains a couple of wrinkels that seem not to come off. I tried hot gun and the hot iron but nothing. The iron makes them small but then the hot gun bubbles them. How can I fix this?

I stripped the landing gear almost to bright metal. Now I need to sand it smoothly and then paint it. My next step wil be the wheel pants and start looking for matching screws for LG, cowling and canopy.

Most of you have more experience in this issues/problems than I do and all the help or suggestions will be consider and even if I don't thank you personally please don't think that your opinion was ignored.

Thank you for looking and for your support.

[19Patrick83]

Hi! nice plane! I had one with 3MM TOC and fly very vell. No more weight for balance and 22-10menz prop. It turns about 6500rpm. Bye!

[CSpaced]

For new hardware check out www.microfasteners.com. I just got an order in from them and you can get hundreds of bolts, washers, and blind nuts at a fraction of the price you would pay from the LHS.

If the wrinkles on the belly aren't going away you may need to replace that piece of covering. Before you tear it off, do a quick search on the web and try to find out exactly what colors were used on the plane so that you can get an exact match. If you do pull off the covering, try to do it in such a way as to hide the seam when you put the new piece on, don't just put a small patch on a large area!

Wheel pants are no problem to repair. Use some light weight fiberglass cloth on the inside with epoxy to strengthen them were they are cracked, then sand the outside so its smooth to the touch. You don't have to go nuts with the sanding, not all of the paint has to come off! Just smooth it out and scuff the whole thing up. You can use a lot of things to fill cracks, but epoxy with micro balloons works well. Then depending on what paint you are using you may have to hit them with some primer before painting.

[Neogenesis]

I owned one some years back.....and I would stay as light as possible. I had a ZDZ 50 on the nose and while it flew great...landing it was a pain due to it being heavy. Do a good comparison of all the major brands out there....I would strongly suggest you go with the lightest possible while still getting great customer service.

As far as batteries.....I personally wouldn't go with lipo's in a plane with A123's being readily available. The weights are nearly the same and there are no Regulators needed then.

They are great flying planes though....I got into flying Giant Scale with mine. This model always loves the snap rolls. Oh what fun times.

Just my .02

Neo

[rcflyer007]

You wrote
* I want to smoothly sand and varnish the engine area all over (would not add more varnish, this plane needs to be as lite as you can make it.)
* recover some parts that don't look that good
* create and apply some tags to identify the servos and extensions
* use a Du-bro antena for large scale models (use the antena that comes with your receiver, don't add any weight)
* start thinking on what batteries to use for the ignition and the receiver (maybe use some Li-Po's and use 6v BEC's) (call Tom at Wild Hare he has the A123 batteries with two leads one for receiver and one for ignition) you will need to get a Cellpro 4s from FMA for A123 batteries.
If you paint keep it lite!! Mount the fuel tank centered on the balance point.
Try using CA glue on the gold strips on the cowl and paint where missing.
Have fun flying your Patty I did.

[almmendes]

	Quote: Originally Posted by CSpaced
	For new hardware check out www.microfasteners.com. I just got an order in from them and you can get hundreds of bolts, washers, and blind nuts at a fraction of the price you would pay from the LHS. If the wrinkles on the belly aren't going away you may need to replace that piece of covering. Before you tear it off, do a quick search on the web and try to find out exactly what colors were used on the plane so that you can get an exact match. If you do pull off the covering, try to do it in such a way as to hide the seam when you put the new piece on, don't just put a small patch on a large area! Wheel pants are no problem to repair. Use some light weight fiberglass cloth on the inside with epoxy to strengthen them were they are cracked, then sand the outside so its smooth to the touch. You don't have to go nuts with the sanding, not all of the paint has to come off! Just smooth it out and scuff the whole thing up. You can use a lot of things to fill cracks, but epoxy with micro balloons works well. Then depending on what paint you are using you may have to hit them with some primer before painting.

I think I won't bother now about getting those wrinkles out. I'll work a bit more with the hot iron and that's it. Later in the future I might need to replace that and then I'll do the matching white. Thanks for the tip about the matching color.

Regarding the hardware stuff I'm thinking on getting some nylon hex cap head for the cowling and canopy instead of metal.

Do you know if I'm going to use at all that wood "advance" that is glued to the firewall? It seems a bit weird that he had it like that. I asked what motor he had there but he doesn't remember.

About the wheel pants on this model, they are not broken, instead of a locking nut that came out, but they look pretty bad due to fuel exhaust. First I'll do some deep cleaning and then reinforce the locking nut area. maybe go nylon there too to save some more weight.

[almmendes]

	Quote: Originally Posted by rcflyer007
	You wrote * I want to smoothly sand and varnish the engine area all over (would not add more varnish, this plane needs to be as lite as you can make it.) * recover some parts that don't look that good * create and apply some tags to identify the servos and extensions * use a Du-bro antena for large scale models (use the antena that comes with your receiver, don't add any weight) * start thinking on what batteries to use for the ignition and the receiver (maybe use some Li-Po's and use 6v BEC's) (call Tom at Wild Hare he has the A123 batteries with two leads one for receiver and one for ignition) you will need to get a Cellpro 4s from FMA for A123 batteries. If you paint keep it lite!! Mount the fuel tank centered on the balance point. Try using CA glue on the gold strips on the cowl and paint where missing. Have fun flying your Patty I did.

Great ideas. Thanks

[CSpaced]

	Quote: Originally Posted by almmendes
	Do you know if I'm going to use at all that wood "advance" that is glued to the firewall? It seems a bit weird that he had it like that. I asked what motor he had there but he doesn't remember.

It depends on what engine you end up going with. I would leave it on there until you have your engine in hand and then figure out what to do for stand off's.