Lindy
8/3/2009 Happy Birthday Sis!!
Back from a great trip up north for Oshkosh! Time to get back to business...I got the inlet rings laid in the cowl tonight. First I taped the front and rear openings in the rings over and waxed them up so the slurry mix doesn't stick to them...they are made to be removable.
Then I put some clay up front between the top and bottom cowls to make a dam between the two to keep them from being glued together.
I also put some clay on the rings to match up with the clay on the cowl...see below...
Before the rings were laid in place, I made a cover for the inlet holes to keep epoxy from flowing out the bottom when the cowl was tipped up. I laid two layers of tape together, stuck to each other so the epoxy won't stick to it.
Then I put the rings in place, and added more clay...
Time to mix up the slurry with cotton flox, and lay it in place around the "key slot" in each ring. Here's the left side looking good...
The right side I'm a little worried about...I don't think I put enough flox in this mixture, but we'll see what I have tomorrow...
There is a lot of flox in the mix, but I think it's gonna take longer to cure.
Here's how the cowl is sitting for the next 24 hours (at least)...
The aluminum was used to shim up each side, and there is a small 5/8" block under the intake opening to keep it from tilting back.
I already know that I have a bit of a mess to clean up (sand) on the right side because that mix is too thin, and it's running out the bottom a bit. Shouldn't be too bad, but it's gonna take more work.
Keeping my fingers crossed...
2.25 hours