Scale Wendell Hostetler 30% Piper Cherokee Glass Fuselage Build.

[TonyHallo]

Ran the engine yesterday and today. The idle was unreliable and there was a flat spot all through the middle range. Swapped out the carb today for the Walbro WT962 that was on the Roto 85 FS in the Champ, if that didn't work I had planned to replace the Saito ignition with a RcExl unit. The carb swap worked out and it idles nicely around 1400 rpm and measured 6400 with a 22x10 prop. It would only go to 6000 RPM with the original carb.
When the swap was done I purchased a clone carb on Amazon to verify everything would fit then purchased a genuine Walbro WT962 that supposedly was from a DLE 40, it came from Hong Kong. There are a few differences like the Walbro name cast in the pump cover and the model number is laser etched rather than stamped. I don't know if it is knock off or not but it didn't work right. I did install the spiral spring diaphragm kit in it, maybe I messed it up? I'm taking it to a club get together on Tuesday and plan to make a short video.

 

[TonyHallo]

Work on the Cherokee has slowed to a crawl so I decided to rework the cowk for the next build. The front of the cowl is incorrect, the headlight recess is pointing down at 20 degree angle while the actual cowl is closer to flat has shown below.

I saved the plug that was used to make the mold for the cowl above have began to rework it closer to the actual full scale. There are several version of the cowl so I decided to use the one below as a template.

 

[TonyHallo]

The headlight recess was cut free and positioned closer to the vertical plane and the adjacent corners were filled with Bondo. A 3 1/2" 1/16" thick steel disc was installed at 3 degrees down to define engine center. When it's all said and gone it will be a little closer to the full scale. I plan to make a 3 piece mold with the parting lines at lines of the full scale, nose bowl, top and bottom section

 

[dhal22]

Another 70+ degree day here, very hard for me to work inside. I did a little after it got dark. Cold weathers coming though.

 

[TonyHallo]

Another 70+ degree day here, very hard for me to work inside. I did a little after it got dark. Cold weathers coming though.

Take the fuselage outside and work on it! An IPA, a little MEK and have at it.

 

[TonyHallo]

As promised, a short video.

 

[dhal22]

Careful there, thought you were going to lose the engine……

 

[TonyHallo]

While running the engine the spark plug wire came off one cylinder, I thought it wasn't pushed on far enough so I pushed it back on, after coming off the second time discovered that the temperature sensor wasn't allowing the plug cover to go past the hex. The plug gasket fits into a counterbore and the hex is captured in somewhat of a larger counterbore that caused the sensor to bend up and interfere. After studying the the heads and determined there is no good place to measure the temperature decided to mill off the larger counterbore on the back side of the head to allow the sensor to sit flat. The sensor is now sits flat between the gasket and the plug.

 

[TonyHallo]

Have the cowl mounted on the parting boards and two cats of tooling coat applied.

 

[TonyHallo]

Have the parting boards removed and ready to start the upper half of the cowl. No rush only sufficient resin for the tooling coats. More on the way sometime next week. The bottom lay up was 2 tooling coats, 1 layer 1 1/2 ounce cloth, 4 layers of 4 ounce cloth, 1 layer of 40 ounce cloth, that 40 ounce really soaks up the resin but builds fast.