Left Wing April through July 2022:
The Saturday after returning from Sun & Fun some of my friends helped me to remove the left wing from the Pacer. The goal was to remove the fabric and inspect the wing in detail. Then fix anything that needs to be fixed and prime and paint all the metal fittings.
The only surprise I found was corrosion on top of the auxiliary tank. The fabric is lying right on top of the tank, and it looked like water got between the fabric and the tank and caused the corrosion. After consulting with my mechanic, we decided the best fix would be to apply two layers of fiber glass to the top of the tanks and then epoxy prime and paint it.
Other than that, I only found some surface corrosion on some of the metal fittings. All the aluminum parts (including the spars) looked in very good conditions and only needed general cleaning.
After everything was looked over, cleaned and metal pieces and auxiliary tank reinstalled, it was time to recover the wing. I use the Stewart water-based paint system. The painting was done in my backyard in a 20’ by 10’ tent.
Wing is off.
Fabric removed exposing the wing structure.
Metal fittings
Metal fittings cleaned and primed.
Fuel tank primed and ready for paint.
New (larger) inspection panels
Wing covered and ready for paint.
Wing in the paint booth
One wing done, one more to go.