Hi Ho Silver

Paul came to mow NK71's runways and taxi areas when the "Tin Man" (aka Piper Clipper) caught his eye. At last Nick and Tom have gotten to this stage, after being delayed and dismayed by technical problems such as malfunctioning spray paint guns, etc. (sound familiar readers?) Your guess is as good as mine as to what Paul was trying to illustrate to Nick: "the runway grass is this tall - about right?", or maybe "I hear you guys have layers of Poly-Tak/Brush/Spray this thick - isn't it time for the color now?"

See the orange Poly-Brush through the silver Poly-Spray?
At least two more cross-coats of silver are needed.

Now notice the difference one more cross-coat of Poly-Spray makes.
And still at least one more cross-coat of silver will be applied. 

Nick explained that the Poly-Spray protects the fabric from the sun's ultra-violet rays that would otherwise quickly deteriorate the fabric. But the silver color? Why silver? It isn't just any old silver "color" according to Nick.

According to the Poly-Fiber website: "The best blocking agent against the ultra violet rays of the sun is aluminum pigment. We take the same formulation of Poly-Brush and add aluminum pigment to it. It sprays on just like the spray coats of Poly-Brush. Silver is another term for the Poly-Spray coats. Some people refer to the aluminum coats as silver coats."

There's something about that matt silver coating that does seem substantial and solid. It still seems odd though that you have to "wet sand" the silver to eliminate the now visible imperfections.  Even weirder to me is that you iron out the protruding pinked tape ends and other minor rough spots through a piece of teflon. 

The silver coating has a way of highlighting little imperfections that escape your attention in the prior orange Poly-Brush stage.  

While Nick was working, a noisy helicopter decided to practice some maneuvers right outside the hangar doors. Nick, as usual, kept working.

One man's "tunnel vision"; another man's determination to get this baby in the air! 

Photos and text by Kathleen Jacques.

Adaptation and Creative Solutions

Sometimes you just don't know what you're getting into. Parts and pieces of a 1949 Piper Clipper have been shipped from Colorado and if guessing by the overflow of packages, you might conclude that everything you need is there for "easy" restoration. But some necessary bits are either well hidden at the bottom of full boxes, or in some cases you decide to alter the original design somewhat - now what?

Case in point: Nick and Tom decided that they didn't want a back seat and they adapted the area around the back windows for the redesign.  It wasn't easy to apply the Poly-Fiber around the new back windows but they managed. The rotating support that Nick built allows them to position the fuselage for best access. It only looks easy.

Here they have finished adding the interior's side fabric after much turning and repositioning the fuselage.  The reach is inevitably a couple of inches shorter than required, so Nick turns the whole thing on its side and works through the door openings. Another adaptation is the back interior wall. Now dressed in yet-to-be poly-brushed Poly-Fiber, it was originally planned as a metal barrier.  That didn't seem necessary after all - so Nick crawled under the frame to add the fabric.

When the Clipper was recently rotated for access to the interior cabin roof, I got to thinking about the uncommon views of the fuselage top and bottom. I pay more attention to these vantage points when planes pass overhead now.

One more uncommon view: Nick happily using a cell phone (mostly he mutters about the unnecessary clutter of the "instrument panel"). Once an analog instrument guy, always an analog instrument guy.

Photos and text by Kathleen Jacques.