I’m looking at several M4 & M5s for purchase consideration. They all have original fabric in varying conditions. Although I’m not planning to create a project if one isn’t needed but it seems that a strip, replace stringers and recover job is a good candidate for owner assisted sweat equity.

I realize that things come up under the fabric requiring attention but what is a good estimate of man hour required to redo the fabric on an M4 or M5?

Thx!

I'd take a reasonable guess at around 400 hours plus or minus depending on the skill levels of the people involved and complexity of any repairs and paint scheme. I dropped mine off at a one man shop in August and it was completed in December as a full time project. I think it was the third Maule he had recovered among many other types.

Once you have the fabric off, all kinds of things occur to you as a good idea, which grows and prolongs the project. For example, addressing any corrosion issues with the tubing, replacing insulation, re-taping air leaks, replacing wooden stiffeners with metal (as you mentioned), welding on tubing attachments for rear shoulder belts and rear seaplane float attach points, replacing worn or corroded hardware and control cables/pulleys, replace scratched Plexiglass, etc. If you only have the fabric off once during your ownership, that's the best time to do all these things. In my case I was pretty sure that I would only have one shot at it so I did everything that I could imagine during the recover process and it took 8 months with Maule Flight. I had other things done too such as vortex generators, dual tail struts and ABI HD main gear legs but I don't think they contributed greatly to the length of time. Of course, they were working on more than just my airplane during that period. I think they may have had 6 aircraft there. As a single project with dedicated labor, it's probably a three month job. Painting the new fabric requires special equipment like a paint booth and takes a while by itself.

Wow! That is much worse than I expected. Thx for the feedback.

My first Maule was an M4. I bought it thinking I would recover it over the winter in my extra time. It didn't have any major problems to repair. Two and half years later I finally got it in the air. If you want a time consuming hobby buy a project. If you want to spend your time flying buy a good solid aircraft put gas in it and go.

I’m deep into such a project myself. If it was just a re-cover, with no other work to be done, 400 hours is probably a reasonable estimate. I had some welding to do, and I also completely stripped and repainted the fuselage tubes, which is VERY time consuming. I also am doing several modifications, including a removable metal belly, metal stringers, and others. Modifications in particular are time-consuming, as they involve a lot of sitting, staring, and thinking, trying to figure out exactly how to accomplish your aim. I was determined to not let this become a multi-year thing; I started in early October, and it is imperative that I have it flying again by March. To that end, I have been working on it 10-12 hours a day, seven days a week. In the three months I have been at this, I have taken exactly two days off the project. The mods are complete, the fuselage and tail feathers are painted and covered, and the interior is nearly complete. I have some reassembly to do, including installing a new windshield, which is its own special kind of fun. I currently have about 900 hours in it. I have also enlisted the services of another individual, who has about 130 hours in so far. I have farmed out the painting of the boot cowl (I fabricated a new one), the cowling, and various small bits. His time is not included here, as that is not done yet. Realistically, I probably have about another month of work to go to be 100% completed.

Hope this gives you a good rough idea of how long it takes. Many projects would not go as deep as this one, nor be as time-consuming. As witnessed by my experience, a big project like this CAN be done in a few months, but doing so requires doing it on a more-than-full-time basis. I’m lucky in that my work is seasonal, so I could set this time aside; most people don’t have that luxury. It’s worth noting that the longer a project gets stretched out, the more time (labor hours) it takes. A project that would take 1000 hours if done full-time over a winter, can take 1500 or 2000 hours if done over a few years. There is an efficiency inherent to staying focused.