Empennage Tips

A couple of my empennage tips are asymmetric when viewed from the open end, probably from years of being stored for several hot summers on their sides. One side of the tip has a slight concave distortion and I am thinking that the best way to deal with this would be to sand off the gel coat in that area, mix up some resin and micro (or perhaps even use Bondo?) and fill in the area until it is symmetric with the other side. I'm a complete newbie at this fiberglass biz, so I thought I'd ask the experts! Thanks!

Is the distortion too bad to use a heat gun & bend back / reform? I used a heat gun to adjust the shape of my tips for a nice tight fit to the emp & they came out perfect!!! Just a thought.

I thought of that...in fact, Van's makes the point that fiberglass has some thermoplastic properties that allow it to be reformed somewhat with heat. The problem is that I can't control the curvatures that precisely with the heat gun and it risks creating problems elsewhere in the piece. What I like about the "filling" approach is that I can control the profile via sanding. The trick will be getting the filler to bond permanently and that's what I'm mostly concerned about.

I may give the heat gun a quick go and see if it does the trick.

Here is what I did via Dan H's suggestion. Use Hysol!!!! it's some tough stuff!!!

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/wppages/hysol.php

"Remove the gel coat (the white stuff) from the flange of the fiberglass parts (80 grit). Clean then roughen the inside of the metal flange. Apply a bead of T-88 or Hysol structural adhesive (best case) or plain 'ole West epoxy (should be fine) to the prepared surfaces, then rivet while wet and wipe away the excess. Allow to cure." & then fill with micro to fill to your liking

Daniel S. said:

Here is what I did via Dan H's suggestion. Use Hysol!!!! it's some tough stuff!!!

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/wppages/hysol.php

"Remove the gel coat (the white stuff) from the flange of the fiberglass parts (80 grit). Clean then roughen the inside of the metal flange. Apply a bead of T-88 or Hysol structural adhesive (best case) or plain 'ole West epoxy (should be fine) to the prepared surfaces, then rivet while wet and wipe away the excess. Allow to cure." & then fill with micro to fill to your liking

Click to expand...

That's what I would call a permanent installation. I'd hate to try to get it off again!

Also, West Systems / micro will bind just fine to scuffed gel coat... Just make sure you clean it really well with acetone before scuffing or you could risk pushing wax / mold release impurities further into the glass / gel coat.

permanant indeed!!!! I filled my tips. Check out my log. Oh yeah after filleing be sure to squeegee an epoxy shell over it.