Lindy
7/7/2009
I got out to the hangar a bit later than usual tonight, but I still was able to meet my goal for the night. I started by riveting the hinges to the sides of the FW for the bottom cowl. Here's the right side...the gap here is nearly perfect! Yes, I did pop rivet the bottom five...
Then I turned my attention to the left side gap. Here we can see the gap, and the two layers of tape I put down. The packing tape is used as a release (marked with the red arrows), and the green electrical tape was used to peel off immediately after I pasted the slurry in the gap to give a rough line.
I used one pump of epoxy and hardener, then mixed in cotton flox to make a nice, thick slurry to set in the gap. I had plenty left over, but there's no accurate way to get less than one pump of each to mix. I spread it evenly down the gap, then removed as much as I could to make sanding easier when cured.
Next I used an exacto blade to "cut" the slurry along the forward edge of the green tape, being careful not to cut through the packing tape, and then remove the green tape for it to cure overnight.
Tomorrow that should be cured, and I can sand it smooth and create the paint gap I wanted to begin with. I'll have to do this to the top cowl as well, but that will include some further work to add filler to the outer surface of the cowl out to meet the curve of the firewall.
1.5 hours