Covering interior corners

[TimHicks]

I mentioned this in another thread. But decided to give it its own thread.
I'm thinking about covering the interior of my cabin with ceconite instead of using a headliner.
But I don't know how to convince the fabric to stick to the inside corners.

I made a rough sketch below to try to illustrate a Hank Jarrett suggestion.

Hank's quote:
Re: Hydraulic Brakes for N96872
I think I would run a small "inside stringer" on the inside of the tubes and fabric so the fabric wouldn't pull down between attachment points. Even a piece of SS welding rod could be used so that the longeron was outside, with the fabric next and the rod on the inside laced around the tube and rod through the fabric. You could cover the corner with a piece of tape doped on. I saw a Cub with a fabric interior and the open areas looked good, but it puckered between stitches on the inside corners.

Hank

[barnstmr]

Re: Covering interior corners

Have you already covered the outer parts of the fuselage?

If not... pre-sew your headliner fabric so that it will have flaps to wrap around the corner tubes. You would end up with a sewn seam that runs parallel along the tubes. Glue the flaps to the longeron tubes first then shrink and dope the headliner. Does this make sense?

Mine is done this way without any stringers or stiffeners between longerons.

I am not sure how well you can see it in these photos, but this is the best I have.

[3Dreaming]

Re: Covering interior corners

I hate to say it, but I don't remember how I did mine 20-25 years ago. Like Terry says would work fine. The other way would be to wrap the sides over the top of the tube and then the top over the top of that, and a tape to cover the corner. Also there would be no big gain by tying the fabric up in the center. In any case the inside needs to be covered before the exterior covering is put on.

[Mark Julicher]

Re: Covering interior corners

Ditto on putting in the head liner before the exterior covering if you can possibly do that. Terry Bowden's headliner looks pretty darn nice too.
Having wrestled with this myself I am interested in your progress with a ceconite headliner.
Note that the Aeronca A7AC type headliners have tabs sewn onto the fabric in strategic places. The tabs are glued or tied to tubes and hold very nicely. I have tried this trick using velcro instead of tabs. Velcro works until the pieces on the tubing come unglued on a hot day. Velcro works OK if you sew a pile and a hook piece to the fabric of the headliner and loop them over the structural tubes, but you probably can't do that everywhere you want some support.
If you can get most of the wrinkles and sags out without heat-tautening the ceconite it ought to come out pretty well.

[TimHicks]

Re: Covering interior corners

Alright, Terry!
It looks like you have done what I want to do. See my crude sketch below to check if I'm interpreting the idea correctly.
I have a neighbor who is a good seamstress. Are there any specific things that I should tell her about how to stitch the seam? To make it strong enough?

In my mind, I'm still thinking about trying to pull the fabric up to the frame in the middle of the cabin. I'll keep y'all posted on my experiments.

FYI, I have not put any fabric on the fuse yet. My plan is to do this interior fabric first.

[barnstmr]

Re: Covering interior corners

Use Nylon Upholstery thread. You have the idea... exactly. I think the tape is optional, but certainly would look best.

[3Dreaming]

Re: Covering interior corners

I think the tape will add strength to the seam. As for pulling it up in the center you will gain maybe an inch of clearance in the middle, but will lose any cushioning effect by having the fabric down. The other thing you need to think about is since your is a 1946 you have the trim cables overhead to deal with.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Covering interior corners

Zippers in the right places on standard headliners are life savers. Unfortunately, I don't know how you do that with a fabric and dope headliner. It would probably e a huge help if you could open the edge over the door. Maybe use Velcro to hold the edge to the door frame so you can put your hand in from the edges?
Hank

[Robert Lees]

Re: Covering interior corners

Good point, Hank.

There is shirley a requirement to inspect the cables and lubricate the pulleys at annual?

Zippers are available to be glued into Ceconite, but they are a b@$t@rd to install. I've had to do a few on the exterior fabric of Austers and I don't like them.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Covering interior corners

In WW-I and into the 20s they would sew grommets or hooks into the fabric after it was finished so you could slice the fabric between them and lace the skin closed after an inspection. Look at some old WW-I photos where the fabric on the fuselage looks wrinkled. The wrinkles were usually caused by not getting the lacing right and when you have multiple photos from different days of the same aircraft the wrinkles will be there in some photos and not others. Small boot hooks sewn in a double staggered pattern would let you have an access slit and would actually look kind of cool all laced up.
Hank

[TimHicks]

Re: Covering interior corners

OK, so a couple of things for y'all to know.
First, the trim cables run above the overhead tubes. So pulling the fabric up doesn't have an effect on them. see pic below.

Also, since I have wing tanks, I plan to put rectangular inspection plates in the fabric panels over the doors. That way I can remove them to connect the wing tanks and inspect anything back there. You'll see something similar in Terry's pictures.

My new antenna doesn't have a BNC connector like in the picture below. The new connection has the wire entering at 90° to the antenna. So the wire runs parallel to the fabric. But I plan to have an round inspection plate in the fabric at the base of the antenna.

Also remember that the pulleys and cables are all still visible. They are on the same side of the fabric as the pilot. Again, you can see this in Terry's photos. And I don't plan to have the vertical panel that you see behind Terry's head. So in my installation, you'll be able to see the aileron cables that run horizontally behind your head.

[3Dreaming]

Re: Covering interior corners

The airplane I went and looked at had the trim cable guides on the bottom of the tubes, but it was a 1941 BF12-65 originally. Just check a 46 and they were on top of the tubes. My airplane that had the covered interior was a BL-65 and had the flipper trim. All the cables for that ran through the bottom.

[Robert Lees]

Re: Covering interior corners

...Also remember that the pulleys and cables are all still visible.

How right you are! My error; I'm just very nervous about folks who have headliners which provide no access for inspection to the overhead aileron cables. Yours & Terry's are not the case.

Incidentally, and personally, I have no great worry about the overhead trim cables, since an out-of-trim situation on post-wars can be easily overcome by push-pull forces on the elevator. We're not talking C182 trim forces here! New cable and/or pulleys will see another 60 years of service.

Rob

[cvavon]

Re: Covering interior corners

My plane has fabric covered head liner

[Guest]

Re: Covering interior corners

Have you already covered the outer parts of the fuselage?

If not... pre-sew your headliner fabric so that it will have flaps to wrap around the corner tubes. You would end up with a sewn seam that runs parallel along the tubes. Glue the flaps to the longeron tubes first then shrink and dope the headliner. Does this make sense?

Mine is done this way without any stringers or stiffeners between longerons.

I am not sure how well you can see it in these photos, but this is the best I have.

Nice happy pictures Terry!

Every time I scroll by them in this thread they make me smile!

Dave