Hi Ian,
I had a similar experience of having to remove the lay up in the rear of my
Europa for the tail wheel spring mount. Although you can grind it out, you
can get the glass out quite easily with a sharp chisel. Get the corner of
the chisel under a piece of the lay up and you should be able to peel it
back a couple of layers at a time.
Cheers, Paul
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian Swankie" <ian@swankie.co.uk>
Subject: Europa-List: Europa List: Peel Ply on Root Rib
>
> Last Thursday was a Bad Day.
>
> If Ron Parigoris felt a little foolish after wasting just 20 minutes
scuff sanding the wing root peel ply, imaging how we feel. After reading
Ron's report on Thursday we made a close inspection of our wing roots....and
we were shocked to discover there are several faint red lines visible under
our beautifully executed lay ups.
>
> When we worked on the wing roots a couple of month's ago we read and
re-read the instruction to remove the peel ply. Like most XS builders, our
only experience of peel ply was the green stuff and there was no trace of
any on the wing roots, we just assumed this had been removed at the factory.
It just looked like a nicely finished lay up. We tried picking at the skin
and it all seemed sound. Although the red lines should have been a caution
there are plenty of parts with blue guide lines, and we just assumed they
were the same.
>
> So we scuff sanded the area and did the root to rib lay ups....three plies
on each side and on each wing with loads of flox on the corners!
>
> The implications dawned on us on Thursday and were confirmed by the
factory on Friday. Our only remedy (apart from transforming our project into
a boat instead) is to spend countless hours carefully grinding away the
glass back to this evil, almost transparent peel ply.
>
> Ron, if you want to swap foolish feelings then we'll take yours any day.
>
> I just wonder how many Europas may be flying with similarly camouflaged
peel ply, now concealed by a coat or two of white paint?
>
>
> Ian Swankie
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