Week 246 - Fuse base bonding

Hours to date: 2510.5

Enough faffing - time to bond on the fuse base!

A few more complications on this job for me because of my mods.

The oil cooler being the main one - everything has to line up mm perfect - the holes I made previously helped greatly to hold the panel in the correct position while it set. Not to mention the 12 clamps, 2 tie down straps and numerous bits of tape and other weights to hold it down.

Doing this job all by myself felt a little like a 'race against time' as you have to mix up lots of flock and micro and it is starting to go off by the time it is ready for the base to go on. From memory I used 400 grams of resin worth of micro and 150 grams of resin worth of flock for the job.

Enough jibber-jabber from me - I'll let the photos do the talking.

Throttle mount and cover painted and reinstalled.

Muffler back on after end mod.

Muffler now follows the profile of the fuse and cowling, giving good clearance.

I set the flaps to 30 degrees down to allow space for the fiberglass reinforcing tape on the edges.

Oil cooler scoop fitting very nicely to inlet duct. Will put a load of RTV on the joining faces when I go to install this for the final time - that should provide an air tight seal.

All flocked/microed/RTVed up and ready for the base to go on. The cardboard boxes are just to hold the base clear until I put the fresh air vent drain tube through it's hole from the inside. The boxes also allowed me to lower the fuse base down progressively as I was working by myself.

As you can see I piled the micro high so it was sure to contact the base for a good bond. This turned out to be just about the right amount - it oozed out the sides (inside) when I checked afterwards. Also note copious amounts of RTV on the rear outlet duct joining face for a good air tight seal to the base.

I borrowed a few clamps from my mate but still could have done with some more - get hold of as many as you can for this job.

Memory foam pillows under the Jerry cans help to distribute the weight evenly. A few shot bags would do the same job. I used old Acetone cans (on the left) filled with water to weigh down the side where I didn't have enough clamps.

Front fits pretty good - still some gaps in the leading edge though.

Other side at the front.

Back Port side - big gaps

Back Starboard side - not so bad.

Time to connect up the cowl flap with it's cockpit control knob. My hand only just fits through the access panel and I had to work blind to do the connection.

Cowl flap control all connected up.

Inside of the leading edges - I decided to use 2 layers of carbon to strengthen this area and allow for flock to be used on the outside to fill the holes between the fuse and base panel. This has worked out well and is now very strong.

Hoisted up so I can make a flange for the top access panel - last one to do!

Access panel in place to get the flange to bond in the correct position.