I've cocked up the weeks in the titles somehow so I'm leaving that out of the title until we are actually on Week 54.
Had a bit of a scary moment on the weekend when I went to remove the ali tube that goes through the tail tunnel - it wouldn't budge!
I finally got it to move with a wooden block and a few hefty whacks with the rubber mallet.
Phew.
The problem is that the fiberglass tube tunnel inside the fin was porous in certain places - partly my fault for not checking this - so the flock and resin from the reinforcing had seeped through and onto the ali tube.
Also there was quite a bit of overspray from the gel coating which got melted by the resin and stuck to the tube.
Obviously I cannot use anything metal to remove all this mess - as it will scratch the tube. So far my fingernail seems to be the best thing to get it off. This will take several hours to put right.
I cleaned the inside of the tail tube with acetone and this has removed all the gel coat overspray.
I will also add a few layers of mould release wax to the ail tube before I put it back in. If I could do the job again I would check the inside first and also wax the tube before attempting this part of the job.
The other photos are of some urethane blocks that I ordered which will be used to carve the plugs for the oil cooler scoop, inlet and outlet ducts. They have been cut in half and stuck on top of one another to get the right shape to begin with. This is done using slightly runny micro balloons (and lots of weight on top). This will be a moldless construction - that is the plug is layed up on directly and then the foam is removed after the fiberglass has set (thereby destroying the plug).
Final pic is of the long awaited inlet rings for the cowling.
They are indeed things of beauty, having been machined out of a solid piece of aluminium.
Not cheap as you can imagine. 90 USD each and then I had to pay for shipping from the USA and VAT when they got here.
I bought them from James Aircraft who make aftermarket cowlings for the Vans series of kits.
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| Pipe stuck in place! |
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| Partly removed - you can see resin and gelcoat stuck on it. |
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| Both ribs now bonded in tail |
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| Micro-ing foam blocks together |
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| Beautiful inlet rings |
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