Next comes the application of cloth anti-chafe tape. It has the feel of electrical friction tape. Small pieces of the tape are put down at every location in which a raised surface contacts the wing fabric. Every nose rib protrusion, every sheet metal edge, every rivet head, is an invitation to a hole in the fabric from chafing. Then Poly-Brush is brushed onto the anti-chafe tape. Poly-Brush is a high-solids adhesive coating used for the first and second coats over fabric. It is distinguished by its red oxide tint most of us call pink.
Only now are we ready to drape the fabric over the wing for covering. The fabric has a tendency to move around on the wing; it is very smooth. To keep that from happening I used clamps to hold the
fabric over the trailing edge. Knowing I would have to remove the clamps, I weighted the fabric with shot-filled bean bags over
the leading edge. These are made from old Levi jeans and filled with steel shot; I use them in my radio control modeling. Now for gluing the fabric with Poly-Tak. First the seams are glued down to the ribs on both top and bottom. This takes
some time.
With the fabric clamped at the wing bow and root rib, the next step is to glue the fabric down to the false spar and then the trailing edge. There is a requirement that the fabric be overlapped in a special way and by a certain measurement. This guidance comes from the Poly-Fiber manual and AC-43-13. SportAir Workshops sells a DVD on aircraft fabric covering which is indispensable.
The covering of the wing bows and root ribs takes some care, but I thought the process fun. There are many steps which
I will not elaborate. You can see several of the steps in the photos.