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Bonding Dacron to Aluminium

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Jan Olieslagers

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 28, 2014
Messages
134
Location
Haacht, Belgium
I have a factory built machine* with alu wing ribs covered in Dacron (or Ceconite , isn't that another trade mark for essentially the same stuff?).
On the port root rib, the dacron is getting loose from the alu and I wonder how to fix it.**

I have some little experience in epoxy work so my first idea is to soak the whole place in epoxy and let it set - as soon as temperatures get a bit higher than the current near-freezing levels. But that sounds like too easy, and I'm not sure the epoxy would bond well to the Dacron.

Of course I could get a strip of the cloth and the associated chemistry and do a repair with that - but sure enough the issue would come back?

Is the epoxy idea workable/recommendable?
Whether I repair with epoxy or with dacron, how do I prepare the alu root rib for best adhesion?

*Apollo Fox, from Hungary, a derivative of the Kit Fox. We call it an ultralight here but I avoided the term because it might be misunderstood by the majority of readers, being in the USA where terminology is different

** I also wonder, though less, why it only occurs on one side
 
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