The International Cessna^® 170 Association

Anyone got any alternative idea's for a quick, short term cowling chaff tape issue??? I have heard that 1" fiberglass reinforced shipping tape will work in a pinch.....

Teflon tape works quite well also. Do a search on this forum. I believe George Horn had some posts in this regard.

A thin layer of clear silicone RTV wiped on with your finger.

When I was active building RC I used silicone to make a perfect wing saddle on the fuselage. Would wrap wing with Saran food wrap. Apply excess silicone to the saddle then seat the wing in it. Let it cure for a day or two then carefully remove the wing and peel the Saran wrap off the silicone. Then trim the excess of the sides with a razor.

You could do the same with your 1:1 airplane under cowl doors. If the aluminum is rubbing just at the edge you will need to put a block of some sort between the surfaces to hold them slightly a part. Then area with be filled with silicone. After it cures the blocks can be removed and that space filled with silicone. In the end the silicone will hold the door and lip slightly apart.

I used black silicon as cowl chafe about 30 years ago and it worked very well for a long time and it was easy to patch but did not look too good.

One caution though, adding thickness to the cowl edges will change the tension on the cowl latches in an air box type cowl. Whatever type of spacers you use as a stand-off for gauging the thickness of the silicon sealer, make sure you can still close and latch the cowl before you apply the silicon. You may need to adjust the thickness so the latches will work properly.

I got away from silicon sealer and am now using a clear 1/2' wide tape made by 3M similar to Prop Guard. I think Spruce sells it but don't know as a friend gave me what I have. A layer on both mating edges works great and is just thick enough to hold the edges apart with no black smoke anywhere along the edges. More than one layer could be used if required in certain trouble spots.

You might put tape down on so that when you cut the edges to make a clean cut, the silicon you don't want is not adhered to the aircraft.

Also I accidentally found a few years ago about the only thing that will cut silicone to clean it off something is brake cleaner in a can which is designed to clean silicone brake fluid. Test if on your paint first of course but I haven't had it effect paint.

For my cowling, I used felt tape. Fairly thin and easy to work with. Latches seem to have the same tension and no new cracks in 200 hours.

I used the silicon trick for my plug wires. They were chafing on the airbox (1952) so I made a bead of silicon on the top of the wires so that chafes first.