Rudder work

[bryan]

Hi gang, I started work on the rudder recently and wanted to see if I could get some opinions as to how to do some repairs on it. First, here are a couple of photos for you so you can see the extent of the damage:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyberwisp/4413914955/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyberwisp/4414682332/

You can see the large broken off area - that is my main point of attention. Can anyone recommend how and with what I could fill that in? Epoxy? What kind, etc. There's another ding in the middle top of the rudder that would need repairing too. After filling it in I want to then sand it down and refinish/repaint the whole rudder.

As always - thanks in advance.

[hp18carr]

Bryan

Good question... I'm all ears to hear what our fellow forum buddies will say on this topic. I too will soon be working on my rudder as well, good luck.



Terrence
Wilmington N.C.
Chrysler 26 1980
Pandora (for now)

[Guillaume C.]

Epoxy putty(epoxy resin+whatever filler you want) to fill the void then a few layer of light fiberglass cloth, 6 oz would work fine (epoxy resin, of course).

[Paul the Denverite]

The composite aircraft guys use the Great Stuff expansion foam to fill soft spots in wings, etc. After hard you can carve to shape and glass. This might work where we have soft spots in our upper hull serfaces as well. One huge caveat is to make sure and use sparingly!!! This stuff really does expand and can have enough pressure to create a bubble where there was previously a divot. When that happens it's time to get out the sander, remove the gel coat, cloth and sand enough of a new divot to reapply glass matting and re-gel coat.

When it came to making wing cores, Home Depot sells a pier flotation foam billet made by DOW. It wire saws real well and is compatible for use with vinylester resins. I made a 23' wing out of the stuff and it worked real well.

[hp18carr]

This is not my post, but thank you for the information. This may be the greatest asset of a forum like this. One persons question can benefit so many others.

Terrence
Wilmington N.C.
Chrysler 26 1980
Pandora (for now)

[bryan]

Yes, I'll second what hp18carr says; its great to get all your help and opinons - thanks to all of you. I've got your info noted and will now start planning the job