Fixing screw holes in fabric

[Brian Huffaker]

Its annual time for the Starduster, and I was wondering about the
screws that hold on the inspection covers. Around each inspection hole,
there is a thickened area in the fabric cover that the screws go into. The
holes have become stripped out over time, and screws won't stay in.

Is there some kind of epoxy or something that could be used to fill in
the holes to be redrilled? None of the current members of the
partnership know much about fabric, so I thought I'd ask here.

Brian Huffaker, DSWL )
RV-8A Installing seat nutplates
Starduster Too Flying.

[Ed Sullivan]

On Wed, 18 May 2005 02:01:52 +0000 (UTC), Brian Huffaker
> wrote:

> Its annual time for the Starduster, and I was wondering about the
>screws that hold on the inspection covers. Around each inspection hole,
>there is a thickened area in the fabric cover that the screws go into. The
>holes have become stripped out over time, and screws won't stay in.
>
> Is there some kind of epoxy or something that could be used to fill in
>the holes to be redrilled? None of the current members of the
>partnership know much about fabric, so I thought I'd ask here.
>
> Brian Huffaker, DSWL )
> RV-8A Installing seat nutplates
> Starduster Too Flying.

If these are the circular type inspection covers and the thickened
area you refer to is a plastic ring cemented to the fabric, you might
just rotate the cover to a new position and drill a small pilot hole
and start the screws in the new position.

Ed Sullivan

[Brian Huffaker]

Ed Sullivan > wrote:
> On Wed, 18 May 2005 02:01:52 +0000 (UTC), Brian Huffaker
> > wrote:

> If these are the circular type inspection covers and the thickened
> area you refer to is a plastic ring cemented to the fabric, you might
> just rotate the cover to a new position and drill a small pilot hole
> and start the screws in the new position.

No, these are square. It doesn't look like plastic to me.

Brian Huffaker

[Lou]

If I recall, this is sold by Aircraft Spruce, what do they say?
If the material that it screws into is wood then just epoxy in enough
wood to re-drill and screw.
Any reason you can't make new rings and glue them on top of the old?
Or just epoxy new parts over the old inside the fabric?

[Baby Lakes]

Perhaps you could slip a tinnerman nut over the screw hole - this would
provide a permanent and replacable fix