I had enough confidence at this point to know I could at least do a decent job at fiberglass, but flat on a table with smooth plastic and plenty of room is not at all like trying to lay something up on a 3 dimensional object like the canopy/fuse junction, some of which is nearly vertical.
After reading and talking to some folks, I decided to cover the whole gap with blue painters tape (which will not stick or gum up even if you leave it for weeks) pulled as tightly as I could, then layer the cheap brown plastic box tape over that for a (hopefully) non-stick layer (it was). The only thing I forgot to do was insert the canopy handle and latch it. I didn't catch that til later after I'd pulled the tape so tight I moved the canopy. Oops. Came out ok anyway.
Here's the first layer of blue tape (and the wrinkles from the canopy sliding aft under the tension). Fixed that later.
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| From Finish Kit |
Starting on the cheap brown packing tape. With care, you can lay this stuff very smoothly. Does gum up stuff when you pull it off tho, so I was really glad I'd covered more than enough area with blue tape first.
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| From Finish Kit |
Finished, and now I'm finding and marking the canopy holes and fuse edges so I can know how large the fairing has to be.
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| From Finish Kit |
I made a paper template out of cheap brown painter's masking paper. If I had it to do over, I'd use freezer paper or kraft paper. This stuff reminds me of my Mom's sewing pattern paper - way too light.
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| From Finish Kit |
Starting to pre-cut the glass for the layup. This is about a 4oz deck cloth I got from Eastern Burlap.
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| From Finish Kit |
Laid up the whole thing as a pre-preg sandwich with plastic and peel-ply, then laid it on.
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| I don't actually have a picture of the above part except in bits of the picture. I was actually pretty funny. Something was wrong with my hardener pump (West System) and it wasn't measuring correctly. The epoxy came out like pliable plastic. Turned out to make a great template later, but it was a complete failure as a fairing. Below is my second attempt, where I did just one half, again as a pre-preg sandwich with plastic. I used my scales to weigh the epoxy after the initial failed cure and never had another problem. This part may have been the best part I made, but the glass was too light, and I couldn't figure out how to add the other side to this one and have a good part. I think I could do it now, but at the time I didn't have the skill/knowhow. |
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| From Finish Kit |
This is the layup that ended up being the real part. You can just catch a glimpse of the failed layup laying over the back of the fuse. I used it for the rest of this project as a template, and it was the most durable template I ever used, like floppy plastic fiberglass.
I tried a full pre-preg layup right before this, but with the 8.6oz glass and it being about 7 feet long, I was working by myself and it got wrinkled when I put it on. Beautifully strong and well done glass, but the wrinkles made it unusable.
I finally decided to just lay it up right on the plane, then peel plied over the top. I pre-cut about 20+ pieces of 18" or so glass on the bias, then laid it up in one go using 3 batches of epoxy. Took me maybe an hour total. I was pretty happy with how it came out.
After some light trimming and removing the peel ply.
Starting with the micro. Mixed it up too wet (first go - what can I say) and wasn't nearly smooth enough laying it on. I spent hours and hours sanding most of this back off. :<
After about 6 hours of sanding it's finally getting reasonable. Did another *very* light, much drier and smooth layer, then sanded that down.
Starting on the superfil. At this point it's looking pretty good. I took it out to the airport and showed Nick. He said it was nice work, which was a relief. I was pretty happy but if Nick say's it's ok, it's ok.
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| From Finish Kit |
After some light trimming and removing the peel ply.
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| From Finish Kit |
Starting with the micro. Mixed it up too wet (first go - what can I say) and wasn't nearly smooth enough laying it on. I spent hours and hours sanding most of this back off. :<
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| From Finish Kit |
After about 6 hours of sanding it's finally getting reasonable. Did another *very* light, much drier and smooth layer, then sanded that down.
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| From Finish Kit |
Starting on the superfil. At this point it's looking pretty good. I took it out to the airport and showed Nick. He said it was nice work, which was a relief. I was pretty happy but if Nick say's it's ok, it's ok.
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| From Finish Kit |
Here it is mostly done. I ended up being pretty happy with it. I took it to the chapter meeting and several of the composite guys said they would be very happy if their planes looked that good. That was nice to hear. Been quite a learning curve, but it was fun. And now I have a part I''m not embarassed to put on the plane.
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| From Finish Kit |
