Chapter 7 – Fuselage Covering
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Another enjoyable chapter – did most of this in winter 2004, and in So Cal, though it doesnÕt freeze, temps were often high of 60-ish. I bought a propane heater for my garage, and used it for the lay-ups. Heated garage for ~30 minutes to 75* plus ,which is amazing given my garageÕs thin walls, open ceiling.
Shaping the urethane – this was real fun! |
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CanÕt recall who also saw this, but the urethane foam cut per plans didnÕt quite reach the tangent point of the fuselage bottom, so I microÕd an additional 2Ó or so. Turns out the cured micro, being cured and all, didnÕt sand as cleanly as surrounding foam. I think it would have been okay to leave a gap between end of urethane and fus bottom tangent point, and later fill with micro. No biggie – took a bit more time/effort, thatÕs all. |
Drilled out foam for alum slug inserts. |
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I bought a big-boy saws-all blade, grinded the end to fit my saber saw, and also cut a band-saw blade down for this part.
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Some confusion about the actual shape of this. From plans revision notes, and otherÕs pictures, this is what I thought the transition should be. Fingers crossed! |
Cut-out for center spar |
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HereÕs where the problem of fuselage sides not sitting fully down in cradles hit me. The 1/8Ó gap between foam and cradles translated to 1/8Ó gap between longeron and foam spacers when the sides were created. After assembly, foam and longerons werenÕt quite in place for the sides to be shaped right if I sanded down to expose ¼Ó of longeron. I created a corrected template with a radius the same as plansÕ, and used that to shape the sides. |
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Cleaned up transition and rounded sides. |
Routed out depression around speed brake |
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Installed glide-slope antenna (Jim Weir kit). Routed channel for cable – went to center heat duct for now. Still not sure if this will be IFR, but leaving options open. |
Laid up bottom, with LG reinforcements. I wasnÕt as tidy as IÕve see othersÕÉstruggled
a bit to hold layup down around corners and LG cover joggle, as many others
have. |
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Swivel rig was a ¼Ó bolt resting on a grabber-style
saw horse bracket. The bolt was
sunk in a 2x4, and clamped to F22 and the firewall. |
Another picure of the swivel rig I used. Side layups went easily. |
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