Thorp Air Command - T18.net

Hello All. I am rebuilding a project that was originally begun by my father. Due to some workmanship that I was unsatisfied with, I have re-skinned the outer wing panels, re-skinned the horizontal tail, built a new rudder and ailerons, and re-skinned the deck under the canopy. I have now turned my attention to the center wing section. It has the extra rivets in the nose ribs, but does not have the extra row of rivets in the spar, nor the vertical stiffeners on the spar web. Also, it also uses .025 thick material for the skin. For these reasons I plan to re-skin it so that I can add the mods and use .032 material. I noted the post in "suppliers" that Richard Ecklund does not support the T-18 anymore. I did attempt an email to thorpt18@jps.net, and sure enough, it could not be delivered.

So, where can I obtain a pair of pre-bent, .032, wing skins WITHOUT holes? Or do I have to go back to the 1960's and do it with a 2X10 board and lots of muscle?

Thanks for any help.

Bob Hartmaier, Thorp T-18 S/N 573

Bob,

It's not as hard as you think. Since you already have rivet patterns from the old skins, just bend an over sized sheet and fit it to the frame. Then mock it up to match your outer panels. I made a stand to hold the center wing with outriggers so I could mount the whole wing.

_________________
Bob Highley
N711SH
SN 835
KLAL

Happen to be doing the same thing right now. Listen to Bob, reskinning a wing is considerably easier than starting from scratch... the leg work has already been done.

_________________
Lee Walton
Houston, TX
N51863,N118LW
KEFD

Thorp Central does provide prebent skins if needed.
Cubes

I did the .025 skins for the outer panels, and they came out OK, but I am trying to save as much time as possible and make life as easy as possible now.

Cubes, I was not sure if you could/would supply the 4 ft wide panels for the original T-18. I would want them slightly long so that I can match them up to top and bottom the rear spar on the center section, and without pre drilled holes. I will take a look at the Thorp Central site.

Thanks to all for the comments and encouragement.

Bob

Bob,
Of course do as you wish and I would never suggest not supporting Cubes but if you're just buying skins "pre-bent" I would recommend just buying a couple of rolled 4x8 sheets. Bending the leading edge is by far the easiest part of the process. Just take each sheet,fold the edges back on each other, drill and cleco the edge,then walk a 2x4 down and bend the leading edge.

_________________
Lee Walton
Houston, TX
N51863,N118LW
KEFD