cowl chafe material

[murphey]

Noticed during the annual the chafe strip on the cowl is coming off….after 54 years, I’m not surprised. Any suggestions what I should get for a cherokee? Spruce has a variety, not sure which one to order. What’s on there now is an inch wide.

 

[Llewtrah381]

Do you mean the cloth-like tape on the joint between the upper cowling hinged doors and the bottom, or the “sacrificial” tape on the inside of the upper cowl, where the baffling rubs the sheet metal? I’ve replaced both.

For the former, this is what I used and it has lasted well over a decade: https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cspages/cowlingchafeseal.php?clickkey=6639
IIRC I used contact cement to apply it.

For the latter, I first used this stuff, I believe: https://www.aircraftspruce.com/pages/cs/tape_aluminum/3malumifoiltape.php

But then I discovered the tape used to hold Reflectix insulation together, available at HD for a fraction of the cost. That’s a sacrificial tape and I replace it every 2-300 hours but it’s easy to do and it works well, although it does “smoke” (like a moving rivet - not like a fire) and produces black stuff inside that wipes up easily with a paper towel during preflight. That has definitely saved my top cowlings.

 

[Mtns2Skies]

The above chafe tape didn't fit my plane (too thick), so instead I use this:
https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cspages/tefloncoatedtape.php?clickkey=12835

 

[EdFred]

Do you mean the cloth-like tape on the joint between the upper cowling hinged doors and the bottom, or the “sacrificial” tape on the inside of the upper cowl, where the baffling rubs the sheet metal? I’ve replaced both.

For the former, this is what I used and it has lasted well over a decade: https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cspages/cowlingchafeseal.php?clickkey=6639
IIRC I used contact cement to apply it.

For the latter, I first used this stuff, I believe: https://www.aircraftspruce.com/pages/cs/tape_aluminum/3malumifoiltape.php

But then I discovered the tape used to hold Reflectix insulation together, available at HD for a fraction of the cost. That’s a sacrificial tape and I replace it every 2-300 hours but it’s easy to do and it works well, although it does “smoke” (like a moving rivet - not like a fire) and produces black stuff inside that wipes up easily with a paper towel during preflight. That has definitely saved my top cowlings.

Also did the same with the aluminum tape from HD, or it may have been Lowe's, but yeah. I like it better.