Glass & rubber
Hours: 3.8 | Posted in Canopy & Frame, Cowling & BafflesBroke out the “fast” hardener and laid up several plies of glass inside the nose of both cowl halves. Once it cures, the cowls will be mounted on the plane, and the nose sanded back to a consistent distance behind the spinner. This may require some work on the cowl overlap flanges too, since thickness has been added. I think I’ll have to either sand the bottom flange (the “inside” piece) back before fitting, or cut the bottom flange off entirely, and lay up a new one once the nose job is finished, which would have the additional bonus of fitting perfectly (using the top cowl as a mold for the layup).
After leaving that to cure, started work on sanding the fwd canopy fairing, which so far is a giant bead of Sikaflex. It’s tedious to sand, but doesn’t wear the sandpaper at all. I found several air bubbles as I sanded down, though. Not sure yet if I’ll leave the Sika as is for now (with a primer for UV protection), or lay up a couple plies of glass on top…those who have gone before report mixed results with the Sika-only fairing — the air bubbles, and possible paint cracking due to the flexibility are of concern. I need to read up on the process for glassing the fairing.
