Went on an amazing Alaska cruise for 11 days the first part of June. Denali was unbelievable. Got to ride right seat in a turbine Otter at Ketchikan. Good times.
Really trying to make some major progress. I feel like the end is in sight, so I'm trying to work on the project at least 5 days a week. The bad part is I'm not that great at glass work, so it's going much more slowly than I'd like.
I'll try to go in more or less chronological order since my last update.
Greg helped me rivet on the forward most aft skin. By manuvering around and leaving one side up the whole time, we were able to back rivet all but about 5 or 6 rivets. Made for a *much* nicer finish.
Pretty happy with how it came out.
Mostly done with the left side. Just working through the ones on the aft bulkhead.
Pretty much finished up. Put the canopy back on and slid it forward to see how everything fit and how well the glass skirts fit at the back. Not too bad.
I'd been trying to figure out what to do with the panel and tried a couple of things. I ordered some of the 3m vinyl they use for wrapping vehicles (got it from Amazon). I was able to find a semi flat metallic grey that I liked. This is a test card with a scrap piece of aluminum. I tried various label ideas (white lettering on clear Brother P Touch) as well as a clear coat over the top of the letters.
I really like the vinyl - very easy to apply, super smooth, durable, and looks great. I nixed the matte vinyl overlay (you can sort of see it in the middle of this picture). It's actually glossier than the straight vinyl - I found it too shiny when I tried it in the cockpit with simulated lighting to what I'd be flying with.
I also tried a fairly flat grey paint. I loved the color and the gloss, but it just wasn't durable enough. I suspect the panel will take a beating. You can just make out the scrapes where I tried scratching it.
I decided to flush mount the map box so the door fits dead level with the panel and the hinges are nearly completely inside. I used an old server latch I got off one of our Sun servers - it was actually a Hartwell, which is funny because they make the oil cooler door latches for Cessna. Anyway, the mount came out great.
Here's the panel with the 3m vinyl and the door mounted. Really really like how this came out.
Since we had the aft skins done and the panel done and I was starting on the cowl, I decided to pop the windscreen back on to see what it would really look like since it's actually starting to look like an airplane.
Time to get going on the cowl. I've had the hinges drilled for a while, but now I need to clean those up, get the shimming right, then epoxy them on and rivet them.
