Disaster Strikes - Evan - Post # 4

But please read the "Wing Bagging" post below this first before reading this one!

Well things don't always go according to plan. -- Own up! -- Who wasn't holding thumbs?

Two hours after the wing went into the bag the power went off and I lost vacuum. Fortunately I had used LR20 with SLC30 Hardener so the resin was well into the green stage, so I just held thumbs that the skins would stick.
The next morning I opened the bag and removed the wing. It felt okay! Was I going to get lucky?



So I stripped off the kitchen towel and Peel ply from the LE. So far all looked normal.

But as soon as I started lifting the Mylar I realised there was a problem. The paint started flaking off.What had happened is that I had left the paint on the Mylars for too long before bagging. In fact I had painted the Mylars about a month before. It was also a power failure that had prevented me from bagging the wing that day and I had to leave them until I could get another gap.

So another lesson has been learned. I normally paint and bag on the same day and have never had this problem before. It is obvious, but do not allow the paint to dry for too long before bagging.

What can I say. This is Africa and power failures are a very common thing!

But all is not lost. At least the bottom skin is more or less okay, and I will just have to live with the few patches that pulled off.

The adhesion to the paint was so bad in places that big pieces pealed away like Solafilm, so it was easy to removed all the paint on the top surface, which I'll sand and re-spray later.

Next, the fuselage!