Apr 20, 2024     Canopy and cowl on; Tail stars and checkerboards complete - (2.1 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. I checked out the latest paint progress. The red stars on the tail are done (minus pulling the masks off their outline edges, and the checkerboards are done (again, minus removing the masks).

2. My painter and I put the canopy on the airplane, after cutting away just enough of the masking plastic and tape to do it. We closed it but did not attach the canopy angle to lock it. THis should be OK for what he wants to accomplish.

3. Next, we put the upper cowl on the airplane, so he can start on the nose numbers. This was a bit of a job, because we had to carefully cut away some of the masking tape and plastic, sand a bit of the primer from the Skybolt holes with a Dremel drum, and then get the already-tight cowl to fit. After some struggle, we decided I needed to cut away a fair amount of the forward side baffle material to get a good fit. After that, the cowl definitely fit a lot better. Photo 3 shows that some blood was shed in the effort today -- I bled all over my painter's nice lower cowl primer. Yeesh, no respect at all!

  Apr 19, 2024     Tail stars and checkerboards - (0.1 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

I sneaked into the paint shop to have a quick look at today's progress. The red part of the tail stars have been painted, along with the yellow boxes on the checkerboard. I was happy to see the shade of yellow I picked out the other day. It's perfect.

My painter is doing things in a very clever order. If I'd been painting this airplane, I would have made the mistake of painting the cammo, then adding the various insignias over the top. However, since the insignias have sharp, masked edges, there would have been NO room for error in taping or removing the masking tape later, since some of the sharp edges would have been right over one of the fuzzed edges of the cammo. You just can't fix an edge there.

So instead he's painting the sharp-edged insignias, then carefully masking them off and painting the cammo patterns. Genius.

Once the cammo is done, we'll start laying out the smaller masks such as the serial number and N-number, the data boxes, access panel labels, servicing instructions, and other elements.

  Apr 18, 2024     Tail star and nose number placement; White outlines - (3 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. My painter had painted the white basecoat outline for the tail stars, so he had me come over and we hashed out the exact location for the stars, checkerboards, and the "nose number" on the lower cowl. We had a long discussion about how to determine "level," where the airplane's visual longitudinal axis is, and how we were going to paint the various insignias on the airplane.

Notes to anyone who's going to paint a Vans RV: Fuselage skins aren't always "level." Skins aren't always 90 degrees at the corners, You can't place graphics in a way that simply matches the nearby skin line -- you have to line them up with a common reference (whatever that may be) and EVERYTHING has to match that, or it will probably look funny.

We made a lot of conceptual progress on how we'll paint all the details.

2. I also reordered a couple of paint masks from Aerographics: The USAF "stars and bars" are a bit too big, so I'm downsizing them to 80% scale. Also, the nose number masks are currently two-part (One for the inner color and one for the and outlines) but this would make them very hard to use because you can't see through the masks and therefore can't easily line them up properly. The new ones I ordered will be single masks.

3. We installed the lower cowl so we could verify the position of the numbers and also check the level-line of the seam between the cowls. As I thought, it is exactly parallel with the canopy sill and the fuselage skin seam -- which are the de facto "visual level" lines on the airplane, whether or not they are parallel to the actual longitudinal axis or not.

  Apr 16, 2024     Getting more paint; Wings put in position - (2.8 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. My painter needed more black and white paint, plus the yellow for the tail checkerboard, so I ran down to the Advance Auto Parts paint department and bought some more very expensive custom-mixed PPG Delfleet paint. The black and white were pretty easy colors to pick, but the yellow took a while to choose. I was looking for something that wasn't too yellow (lemon) or too orange (pumpkin) but someplace in between, and it's easy to lose one's way in the color sample books. There are too many choices. I finally picked one, and we're moving on!

2. The painter moved the fuselage out of his paint booth into his main bay, and he asked if I could come over and we'd place the wings in position for a few days. My fiends Jim and Jim helped with the job. We slid the spars in, and supported the wings with padded sawhorses. This arrangement ought to be okay as long as nobody moves the airplane. It was pretty cool seeing the painted wings on the airplane for the first time!

  Apr 15, 2024     Wing moving day; HS and elevator; Windshield fairing filler - (1 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. The main order of business today was to move the two previously-painted wings to the paint shop so my painter can use them as a reference for where the colors will continue onto the fuselage. My friends Jim and Jim helped me get the wings onto my trailer, and we drove them s-l-o-w-l-y down the taxiway, one at a time. We carried them in and put them on his wing rack.

2. All the filling and sanding is now done on the horizontal stab and elevator tips, and they've been primed. They look great -- the gaps are straight and the outboard edges match.

3. The painter also finished filling and sanding the windshield fairing. It is so good I can't believe it. He took my 100% effort and added another 10% to it.

  Apr 13, 2024     HS/Elevator and Windshield Fairing finish prep - (0.1 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

I checked in on the progress in the paint booth. My painter had primed the HS and elevator caps I worked on yesterday, then he applied a bit more Dolphin Glaze filler in several locations on the caps, the windshield fairing, and the top forward fuselage skin (boot cowl). Everything is looking really nice. He is definitely tuned in to what we want to accomplish with this airplane!

  Apr 11, 2024     HS cap re-profiling - (3.5 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. Sanded a new profile for the HS caps so they are the same as the elevator caps, and also straightened the gaps between them. I was pleased to find that the extra work I'd done yesterday to eliminate air voids worked very well. There were only a few surface divots I'd have to address. I headed back home to get some two-part lightweight filler -- the stuff I've always used.

2. My panter saw me preparing to use "my" filler, and that's when something magical happened -- he introduced me to Dolphin Glaze finishing filler. I swear, if I had known about this product eight month ago, I might be flying my airplane right now. It is FAR superior to everything I've been using so far -- it's super self-leveling, sets up to rock-hard in about 10 minutes, is easy to wet-sand, and feathers like a dream. I feel like building another airplane just to use this stuff some more.

The bottom line is, my repair job on the HS caps turned into an easy day-and-a-half job, and the end results look fantastic. Thanks for the tip, Jim!

(There are still a couple of minor nicks, which he's going to address after a shot of primer tomorrow.)

  Apr 10, 2024     Paint prep; HS cap re-profiling - (2.1 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

Paint prep continues:

1. The fuselage has been primed, and the elevators and rudder have received their base coat of paint.

2. My painter continues to perfect my windshield fairing. It's looking great.

3. Once my painter had hung the elevators on the airplane, he realized he wasn't as happy with the counterweight gaps as he'd like, so he called me over to discuss them. He pointed out some inconsistencies in the gap widths, and I concurred. It occurred to me that I had never actually hung the surfaces back on the airplane after I'd filled the elevator caps, so I'd just missed it. That's what I get for rushing. More alarmingly, I decided I didn't like how the outboard ends pf the elevators and HS lined up. When I built everything, I'd made measurements to get the alignment correct, but they clearly weren't quite right. I put together a mobile "fiberglass surgery kit" and got to work. I scuffed the HS caps, then mixed up a batch of thick flox/micro/cabosil and spread it on the caps. Then I spent some time tapping it firmly in place as it cured, attempting to remove as many voids as possible. Since time is of the essence here, I added way more than I knew I'd need, because I didn't want to go back and add more tomorrow. As it is, this looks like it could be a three or four day project, minimum.

  Apr 09, 2024     Fuselage paint prep - (0.2 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

Updates since my last visit:

--The fuselage is now in the paint booth, in preparation for primer application.
--Additional masking has been added to various locations on the fuselage and landing gear.
--The tail stinger has been stripped.
--Spot filler was added and sanded on the windshield fairing.

Once the first coat of primer is applied, we'll be able to assess what additional sanding and detail work will be needed on the windshield fairing.

My painter said he needed an additional 2 quarts of primer and 1 quart of catalyst, so I drove to the auto parts store and bought it. PPG products have gotten incredibly expensive -- the one-quart can I'm holding in the photo was $123!

  Apr 05, 2024     Fuselage paint prep - (0.1 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

Made a visit to the paint shop to check on things. The fuselage has been completely DA'ed (sanded), and my painter has spent some time perfecting the windshield fairing and some of the boot cowl skin rivets.

In the next few days, the fuselage will be ready to roll into the paint booth for the primer and base coat.

  Apr 01, 2024     Flap pushrod gap seals - (1.8 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fabricated the other flap pushrod seal, including the retaining plate and the foam seal.

Both seals are now ready for final installation when the floorboards are installed.

  Mar 27, 2024     Cowl, wheel pants, and control surface prep - (0.1 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

Checked in with my painter, who is making good progress on the prep work on the cowlings, gear leg fairings, wheel pants, rudder and elevators. I'm delighted with the lack of pinholes in everything, especially the cowlings!

  Mar 24, 2024     Flap pushrod gap seals - (0.6 hour)       Category: Fuselage

Continued work on the flap rod boots:

1. Used a piece of see-through plastic to draw a template around the pushrod hole in the floorboard, then used this to cut a piece of 0.025" aluminum. This will be the retaining plate for the foam. The plate will be kept in place by one of the #8 floorboard screws and two other #6 screws/nuts.

2, Drilled the attach holes.

3. Cut out the pushrod hole and several other holes -- and I made sure it they had plenty of intentional ragged edges. (These rough edges will retain the foam under the plate.)

4. Cut the foam to shape.

5. Used a hot soldering iron to create the screw holes through the foam.

  Mar 21, 2024     Glareshield cover - (0.3 hour)       Category: Assembly/Prep

With the help of my friend (and interior guru) Lorraine, I picked out a type of leatherette fabric for my glareshield. The type I picked is from the EnduraSoft 2 line from Active Foam Products, Inc. The color/texture is "Sierra Leathermate, black (ESS-958)." It seems to have very little reflectivity, which should be perfect for the glareshield.

  Mar 20, 2024     Edge work; Windshield fairing work; Cowling filler - (0.4 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

My own work today was limited to improving a tiny area of the right side of the windshield fairing where the canopy skirt slides underneath. I got it looking exactly like the other one, so I guess that's good.

I met with my painter to discuss the issue on the left side of the fairing. He basically said, "No problem. I'll take care of it." In fact, he identified about 10 small areas on the fairing that he's going to address. I've noticed that his shop is a lot dimmer than mine, and I'm astonished at how many more irregularities you can see in a surface when it's not flooded with direct light. That's a nice little detail I'm going to file away...

My cowls are making progress, with fewer pinholes every time I see them.

  Mar 19, 2024     Flap rod boots; Interior nutplate prep - (2.1 hours)       Category: Fuselage

1: Since the flap actuator rods go right through a big holes in the floor, I want to prevent too much cold air from getting in. I began construction of a pair of boots for the flap rods. Each one will be made from a foam painter's brush, with a capture plate made of scrap aluminum. The rods will slide through holes in the foam.

2. To speed up the final assembly of the airplane later on, I have begun running a tap through all the painted nutplates in the floorboards, side panel pieces, and any other interior piece containing a nutplate. Today, I did all the baggage compartment pieces, along with the aft floorboards.

  Mar 19, 2024     Paint prep - (0.8 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

1. I'd noticed that the curve of the windshield fairing wasn't consistent on the left side -- there was a bit of an abrupt transition in one spot. So yesterday I applied a smear of filler on that spot, to see if I couldn't sand a smoother curve there. Normally, this filler fully cures in 2 hours or so. Imagine my surprise when I arrived at the paint shop today and found that not only was it not cured, but I could peel it off with my thumbnail. This left a big ragged divot in my carefully sanded windshield fairing. I sanded the edges smooth and decided to let my painter attend to fixing this abomination. We are going to meet tomorrow to assess how to proceed. Argh.

2. Meanwhile, my painter had masked off the back end of the tail section, so I inspected the masking lines to make sure I liked them.

  Mar 18, 2024     Masking & painting prep - (1.7 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

Made another trip to the paint booth to get some miscellaneous tasks done.

1. Checked out the cowl progress. The upper cowl is 98% done, with just a couple areas of "weave pinholes" still remaining.
2, The lower cowl has had one coat of primer filler applied, but it still has a way to go. Lots of pinholes.
3. On the advice of my painter, I drilled a 5/32" hole in the bottom aft part of the rudder bottom cap as a water drain.
4. Spent some time re-profiling some small areas on the windshield fairing. More tomorrow.
5. Added a smoothed layer of silicone caulk to the tip rib of the VS, over the screen I installed yesterday.
6. Improved the taping and masking on the canopy, which is essentially ready for primer and basecoat.

  Mar 17, 2024     Paint masking - (2.1 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

I spent a couple of hours in the paint shop today, improving the fine-line masking along all four cockpit edges. I also added tape to some of the wing root wires, various fuselage openings, and the engine mask. Then I trimmed some of the closed-cell foam used to fill the spar slot and aileron pushrod slot.

Finally, I began masking the center canopy rail well, which is kind of a tricky area.

I think I've got these areas looking satisfactory for my liking!

  Mar 17, 2024     VS wiring tube removal - (.5 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

With the tube now gone, I set about fixing the 5/8" hole in the forward end of the VS top rib.

I cut a piece of windows screen to fit the hole, and bonded it in place with JB Weld. Once it sets up, I'll apply a layer of gray silicone caulk over the area and smooth it with my finger. Then I'll put the cap back in place once the painting is finished. You'll never know it's there, it will be nice and durable, and will keep moisture out of the vertical stabilizer.

  Mar 16, 2024     VS wiring tube removal - (1.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

More than 10 years ago, I decided to install a bullet camera at the top of the vertical stabilizer -- part of a multi-camera video system I was going to install. Since the VS was already closed up and riveted at that point, I had to figure out to run the camera wire (!) from the top of the tail down into the fuselage. I'd managed to insert a 1/4" ID thick plastic tube down into the leading edge, through the rib holes. Then, I'd bonded it at the top with flox, and at the bottom with E-6000 glue. It held pretty well at each end, but it had no support in the middle. At the time, I didn't give it much thought, and in the last decade, I'd completely forgotten about it. In fact, I'd long ago removed the camera wire after GoPro cameras became more popular and easier to use than hard-wired cameras.

The plastic tube's presence reemerged last week when my friend Jim and I were towing the airplane down the taxiway to the paint shop. I heard and felt a light "tapping" noise coming from inside the VS as the plane went over the cracks. Later that evening, after thinking about it, I figured out what it probably was -- the plastic wiring tube, slapping the inside of the skin. I was immediately ashamed of this halfass installation from the past, and decided to try to remedy it by removing the tube.

Today, I took a bin full of tools over to the paint shop and began work. I used a Dremel tool with various ball-end and cylindrical grinding tools to remove the flox from around (and in) the upper end of the tube, which went pretty well. Next, I tried pulling the tube upwards with a pair of needle-nose pliers, but the tube only stretched. I inserted a curved dental took under the lip of the VS and discovered that I could actually push inward on the bottom end of the tube, but not enough to get it to release. Finally Jim suggested using a heat gun to soften the glue and the tube, and this worked really well. The tube broke free and came out after a few minutes of heating.

Now I'll have to fill the hole with caulk or JB-Weld to prevent moisture from getting inside the VS.

Glad we got rid of that problem! It would have been really annoying.

  Mar 16, 2024     Paint prep update - (.1 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

I went over to my painter's place to check on things. Here's the latest progress:

1. Left elevator has been DA'd.
2. Rivets lines on fuselage have been scuffed.
3. VS cap has been removed.

  Mar 15, 2024     Stick grip labeling - (1.1 hours)       Category: Controls

I used my Brother label maker loaded with white-on-black labels to create some function labels for the various buttons on the FCP and RCP stick grips. (This is the same technique we use to label military grips at my other job, and it has always seemed to work just fine.)

  Mar 15, 2024     RCP stick wire sheathing - (0.1 hour)       Category: Electrical

Installed some protective wire loom ("snake skin") on the wire harness that connects to the RCP stick.

  Mar 14, 2024     New canopy roller - (0.8 hour)       Category: Canopy

The first time I drilled the right side canopy roller, I used a drill press because I thought it would be more precise. Unfortunately, it wasn't easy to keep the part in position, and there's no tactile "feel" of what you're doing when you use a drill press. As a result, the drill bit walked a bit as it began the hole, and I ended up with a slightly offset hole through the shaft of the roller. This meant that the roller was riding slightly crooked in the rail.

I ordered a new roller shaft the week before Van's bankruptcy announcement, and it arrived the day of the announcement. Lucky timing

Today, I remedied the issue by drilling the holes again, this time with some titanium bits in a hand-held drill. It worked beautifully. Now the canopy should glide open and shut like the weapons-bay doors on an F-35.

  Mar 14, 2024     Masking, filling, and other paint prep - (.5 hour)       Category: Paint / Decals

Today, I took the final items over to my painter -- The rudder, elevators, and wing root fairings.

While I was there, I checked on his progress. New projects underway are:

1. Canopy skirt has been DA'd (dual-action power-sanded) and is ready for primer.
2. Belly of the fuselage has been DA'd.
3. Cockpit totally masked.
4. All wing root wiring, fixtures, and holes have been masked and/or plugged.
5. Pedal access port has been masked.
6. Forward baggage compartment has been masked.
7. Filling and priming continue on the upper cowl and wheel pants. 99% of the pinholes have been eliminated, and there's one more coat of primer/filler to go.

Everything's looking great. We discussed the line of rivets along the bottom edge of the boot cowl, which he thinks will benefit from a skim coat of filler and some sanding. He'll be taking care of that shortly.

He also reiterated his commitment to help me "win an award" with this airplane, for whatever that's worth. I'm really impressed with the level of expertise he's gained over the past ten years, and I'm happy he's doing this project. Even if it never wins an award, I think it will be a nice airplane, and that's all that matters.

  Mar 12, 2024     Pinhole filling (wheel pants, cowl); Masking       Category: Paint / Decals

I went over to my painter's shop and had a look at the progress. The latest accomplishments are as follows:

1. Masked the canopy and windshield.
2. Sprayed filler primer on the upper cowling and the rear halves of the wheel pants. (This has already eliminated 80% of the pinholes.)

  Mar 09, 2024     Engine masking       Category: Paint / Decals

Went over to the paint shop to fit the cowl after filing away the excess RhinoLiner, only to find that the engine had already been masked off and bagged. Things are moving fast.

  Mar 08, 2024     Hangar straightening and cleaning       Category: Workshop

(6.0 hours) Continued the laborious process of putting away tools, supplies, work tables, and paperwork from many years of building. This will be a long process, but I got a lot done today.

  Mar 08, 2024     Wing root fairing prep - (0.7 hour)       Category: Wings

It's been so long since I built them that I almost forgot about prepping my wing root fairings for paint. I got them off the shelf and inspected them.

The upper fairings were still bare aluminum, so I roughed them up with a Scotchbrite pad, cleaned them up, and primed them with a coat of self-etching primer.

  Mar 08, 2024     Sanded clearance blisters - (0.6 hour)       Category: Wheel Pants

Sanded the clearance blisters and applied a coat of primer. They look 100% better. I think my painter will be pleased.

  Mar 08, 2024     Taking the plane to the paint shop! - (3.4 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

It was a big day!

1. First, I spent a few hours doing some final prep work on the airplane. I removed all stray bits of resin, tape, and anything else that shouldn't be on the outside of the airplane, I removed the final strip of electrical tape from the windshield and had a first look at the job I did on the windshield fairing sanding/feathering (it came out really nice!), taped up all the wing root wires and rudder wires, cleaned off a few stray Sharpie marks, covered interior with protective blankets, and did a few other jobs. (I wanted to mask the interior myself, but that's one of those jobs I just ran out of time for. My painter will take care of it.)

2. Next, with the help of my friend Jim, we rolled the plane out of my hangar, tied the tail wheel assembly to the back step of his golf cart, and drove it down the taxiway to its new home for the next month or two, where some magic will happen--at the talented hands of my OTHER friend Jim.

I got back to my place and had nothing to look at except a big empty spot in my hangar and a set of dusty tire tracks leading out onto the taxiway.

  Mar 08, 2024     Final fill/sand on R elevator - (0.75 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

I couldn't resist doing one more minor round of filling and sanding on the tip of the R elevator. (I suppose I could keep this up for the rest of my days, but I'll have to stop tomorrow when it goes into the paint shop.)

  Mar 08, 2024     Fiberglass weave mitigation - (0.4 hour)       Category: Wheel Pants

Since I have an extra day before I have to take the fiberglass parts to the paint shop, I decided to fill a bit of the weave that's showing on the brake-bleeder port "bump" on the wheel pants. I applied a brushed-on layer of UV Smooth Prime, which I'll sand in the morning. This should give my painter a little bit of a head-start on the preparation of the surface.

  Mar 07, 2024     Cowl attach hinges - (0.9 hour)       Category: Cowl

I wanted to get the plane to the paint shop with the cowls on, but I had some difficulty sliding the bottom cowl's right attachment pin through the piano hinge. In the interest of time, I decided to forego taking the cowls over to the paint shop until I could figure out why the lower cowl suddenly didn't fit.

I initially sanded a bunch of the built-up area at the lower corner of the cowl, but that didn't help much.

I later figured out that when I'd painted the inside of the cowls with RhinoLiner, I'd put a coat of it between the piano hinge eyes on the right side. This likely wasn't letting the hinge eyes mesh correctly. I filed away the liner between the hinge eyes, and I'm fairly certain this will solve the problem.

  Mar 06, 2024     Baggage door lift strut installation - (2.7 hours)       Category: Baggage Door

1. Removed the baggage door.
2. Marked the door and the cross-cabin firewall brace in the baggage compartment for the locations to be drilled.
3. Drilled three #30 holes in the right side of the baggage door for LP4-3 pull rivets.
4. Drilled #19 holes in the brace, then drilled the attach holes for two #8 nutplates. Countersunk the attach holes and deburred everything.
5. Riveted the nutplates in place.
6. Screwed the lower fitting of the lift strut into place and checked its fit and orientation, and verified clearances from the edge of the door opening.
7. I stashed the strut inside the baggage compartment while the painting takes place, and I'll rivet the upper end to the door later.

  Mar 06, 2024     Windshield fairing - interior RTV, part 2 - (0.7 hour)       Category: Windshield

1. Added a second bead of black RTV to the inside of the windshield fairing. Smoothed it out all over.
2. Removed all the protective tape from the rollover bar and the edges of the cockpit area.

  Mar 05, 2024     Windshield fairing - interior RTV - (1.6 hours)       Category: Windshield

1. Removed all masking tape and plastic drop cloths from the cockpit.
2. Cleaned and prepped the work area.
3. Masked off the rollover bar with electrical tape.
4. Applied a bead of black RTV in the seam between the windshield and the fairing, then smoothed it with my finger. Pulled off the electrical tape. I will let this layer set tonight, and tomorrow I'll add a second layer to get it up to the height I want. It looks really good so far.

  Mar 05, 2024     Final cowl sanding and profile improvements - (3 hours)       Category: Cowl

1. Filled and sanded several areas of the cowl that needed it, concentrating on the front inlet holes.
2. I had previously bonded a thin strip of aluminum to the edge of the oil door opening to serve as a shim to allow the oil door to sit at the correct height. After looking at it, I determined this needed to be beefed up, so I drilled three holes through the strip and the cowl, countersunk the holes, and squeezed three rivets there. That strip isn't going anywhere now.
3. Improved the consistency of the seam around the oil door. Also filled several divots there.

  Mar 05, 2024     Windshield fairing interior radius painting - (3.5 hours)       Category: Windshield

I wasn't really happy with the results of the hand-brushed paint from yesterday. It had a mottled look. In a final effort to get the interior fairing radius looking acceptable, I decided that this area had to be spray painted rather than hand-painted. This would hopefully get the smooth flow-out I wanted.

1. Removed all the previous tape and overspray plastic, because there were areas of it I didn't trust for spray painting.
2. Cleaned up the entire cockpit sill area and fairing.
3. Masked and applied plastic sheeting to the entire cockpit again.
4. Sprayed the fairing radius with two coats of satin-gloss black enamel.

This time, everything came out pretty well. I'm happy enough with it for now. I can always re-address it after paint, if I need to.

5. Closed the canopy and took photos of the entire forward fuselage to send to Bruce's Custom Covers, who are making a canopy cover for me.

  Mar 04, 2024     Exhaust ramp polishing - (1.7 hours)       Category: Fuselage

The paint scheme for the airplane is pretty well set in stone, but I've been thinking about one particular detail for a while -- how to deal with the exhaust ramp under the belly. It will be subject to a lot of heat, and I can see the potential for long-term heat-damage to any paint that's applied. So today, I decided to polish it.

I masked off the panel, then used Eagle One Nevr-Dull wadding polish to shine it up. It came out looking nice, but I wonder how quickly it will tarnish, and how much work it will be to keep it looking good. At least I didn't decide to polish the entire airplane.

  Mar 04, 2024     Cowl detail sanding and filling; Heat shield improvement - (2.7 hours)       Category: Cowl

1. Sanded yesterday's filler.
2. Inspected the entire cowl (upper and lower) for divots and larger pinholes. Filled them all.
3. I noticed a while ago that I'd installed the heat shield material inside the lower cowling right up to the edge of the cowl. This left no room to apply the same bead of high-temp RTV the rest of the heat shield has. So today, I used a sharp knife to trim off the heatshield about 1/8" away from the edge. This gave me enough room to apply a bead of RTV and smooth it out, without getting any on the edge. This will be important for painting.

  Mar 03, 2024     Gear leg fairing attachment and fit-check - (2.7 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

1. Sanded the gel coat off both gear leg fairings.
2. Attached both fairings to the fuselage to check their fit and assess what, if anything, I want to improve on them.
3. I noticed that the R fairing doesn't sit quite as flush to the fuselage side as the left one, but I think I'll be able to cure that with a strip of rubber U-channel grommet material around the edges after the plane is painted.

Overall, I think both fairings are acceptable. The "wing curve" on each fairing is still an unknown. I will have to work fast on the day we put the wings in place for painting -- marking the fairings for trimming, then removing them and getting them to the proper shape. This will probably be at least a week or two from now.

  Mar 03, 2024     Elevator final sanding and priming - (2.2 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

At long last, I am done fooling around with the end caps on the elevators. I sanded the final spots of filler (I think I'm actually getting good at this stuff), and shot some primer on them. Done!

  Mar 03, 2024     Windshield interior radius painting - (1 hour)       Category: Windshield

After the previous coat took over three days to dry, I was leery of adding the second coat. I grabbed the cans of paint and hardener to read them and make sure I was using the correct ratio. That's when I discovered that I had used acrylic hardener in epoxy paint. To be fair, the cans had identical graphics, were part of the same line of paint, were sold right next to each other, and there was no other hardener types on the shelf when I bought them. Still, I felt like an idiot, and fortunate that the paint had actually set--eventually.

I scuffed the first coat, mixed up another batch of paint (with the proper hardener this time), and carefully hand-brushed a second coat onto the surface with a smooth art brush. I'm hoping this is all I'll have to do on this project. We'll know tomorrow.

  Mar 03, 2024     Rhino liner; R pant attachment/assessment; Attachment nutplates - (5.3 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. I had some Rhino Liner left over from coating my cowlings, so I decided to apply a coat of it to the insides of my wheelpants. This stuff sets up quickly, so I had to mix up two batches to get the job done.
2. Installed the R wheelpant for the first time with all its final hardware, just to check its fit. Like the L one, there is a slight spread of the seam at the top of each fairing where it meets the gear leg. After looking at both sides, I decided to leave them "as is" for now. I'll ask my painter and some other friends about them, and see what they think.
3. Installed all the remaining wheelpant attachment nutplates on both landing gear. I think the "outboard screws vs. rivets" idea was just perfect, and will make servicing the brakes and tires a lot easier.

  Mar 02, 2024     Wheelpant filler, seams, joggles, nutplates, and profiling. - (4.3 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Began working on fixing the seams at the top of the gear leg fairings, which have opened up slightly since they were installed. I will probably also tighten up the fore & aft gaps a bit while I'm at it.
2. The gear leg fairings had slight misalignments when they were installed on the airplane, so I decided to add some small alignment joggles, like I did on the wheel pants. I cut small strips of 0.032" aluminum and flush-riveted them to the edge of the fairing. They work perfectly.
3. Upsized the outboard axle-support holes in each faring to #8, and did the same on the axle supports themselves.
4. Drilled the R inboard wheel pant bracket for #8 nutplates.
5. Re-profiled the L wheelpant to get rid of a slight ridge on the inboard top side.
6. Filled several divots on the trailing edge of the wheelpants.
7. Primed all the parts for a final look.

  Mar 02, 2024     Elevator filling and sanding - (0.6 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

Did some more sanding and filling on the R elevator.

  Mar 01, 2024     Exterior stencil layout - (2.5 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

Spent some time laying out drawings for my painter that will show where each of the graphics will go on the airplane. (These are only approximations, and some are not to scale...)

  Mar 01, 2024     Gear leg fairing attachments - (2.05 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

1. Positioned the two upper gear-leg fairings and taped them in place.
2. Located and drilled two access holes through each fairing and the fuselage underneath. The forward ones go through the bottom skin and into the cavity under the floor at that location. The aft ones go through the gear leg attachment access plates.
3. Opened up the forward holes with a step-drill, the used a micro file to file small notches for the keyed rivnuts.
4. Installed a #8 keyed rivnut at each of these locations. (I have now learned that, although I have two rivnut tools and both of them work, both of them are terrible and I need to get a new one.)
5. Removed the access plates, drilled out the holes to #8, and installed nutplates.
6. Sanded, cleaned, and primed the inside surfaces of the access plates.

  Mar 01, 2024     Spinner prep for paint - (0.3 hour)       Category: Propeller

1. Attached the three "blade pass-though" pieces to the spinner.
2. Cleaned and inspected the spinner to make sure it's ready for paint.

  Mar 01, 2024     Cowl filling and sanding - (2.3 hours)       Category: Cowl

1. Detail-sanded and feathered yesterday's filler.
2. Spent some additional time going over the cowlings -- filling divots, correcting profiles, and sharpening some seams.
3. Masked the Hartwell latches and hinge on the oil access door in preparation for painting.

  Mar 01, 2024     Elevator sanding; Access plate attachment; Tailcone prime - (2.9 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

1. Continued filling and sanding on the R elevator.
2. Ran a tap through the small ClickBond nutplates that attach the empennage fairings and tail access plates. Attached both access plates.
3. Used a ball-end Dremel bit to smooth out the small areas of flox filler I'd added long ago in the aftmost tail bulkhead. Cleaned and masked the area, then shot some primer on it.

  Feb 29, 2024     Upper gear leg fairings; L wheel pant final fit check - (2.8 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Marked the attach pin for the exhaust ramp and trimmed it so it will fit inside the R upper gear leg fairing.
2. Planned the installation of the upper gear leg fairings. Attached both gear attach cover plates. Screwed the upper fairings together and taped them in position on their respective gear legs. Planned how the fairings can be most easily attached, and I decided that two carefully-placed #8 screws should hold them in position -- one going through the fuselage skin with a rivnut, and another screwed into a nutplate in the gear attach plate itself.
3. Put on the L wheelpant to check its fit and decide if there's anything else I need to do to it. I might end up adding some flox to the very top seam, where the wheelpant fairing meets the gear leg.

  Feb 29, 2024     Lower cowl sanding and spot-filling - (2.2 hours)       Category: Cowl

Even though my painter is going to address the pinholes in the cowls, I spent a bit of time with a flashlight, a sanding block, and tube of filler to track down and correct any spots I felt were problems. The lower cowl seems like it had fewer issues than the upper cowl did yesterday. After some detail sanding tomorrow, it should be pretty much ready to go.

  Feb 29, 2024     Elevator seam filling and sanding - (2 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Spent another couple of hours getting VERY critical with a flashlight and a small sanding block, looking at the elevators from every angle to eliminate irregularities. I ended up adding a 6" long x 2" wide patch of filler on the topside of the R elevator, which will be block-sanded tomorrow to improve the profile.

  Feb 29, 2024     Windshield fairing inside radius painting - (0.9 hour)       Category: Windshield

Prepped and painted the inside radius of the windshield fairing with low-gloss black paint. For ease of maintenance, I used a common tractor paint and hardener. I suspect I will do a second coat tomorrow.

My plan is to eventually put a smooth bead of black RTV in the seam between the windshield and the rollbar.

  Feb 28, 2024     Elevator and fairing sanding/filing; Rudder final prep - (4 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

1. Did some more minor filling and sanding on the elevators.
2. Did more filling and sanding on the upper empennage fairing.
3. Removed all the protective plastic from the rudder (in place since 2002!). Cleaned off the manufacturer's ink stamps from the skin.
4. I noticed a small ding in the rudder skin. This may have happened in any number of ways, and might have happened years or even decades ago. In any case, l prepped and filled it, then later sanded it and primed it with self-etching primer. The rudder is now 100% ready to go to paint.

  Feb 28, 2024     Upper cowl sanding; Lower cowl heat-shield sealing - (3.3 hours)       Category: Cowl

1. Sanded the outside surfaces of the upper cowl. Got rid of a lot of the inconsistencies (except for the pinholes, which will be taken care of by my painter.)
2. Completed sealing of the heat-shield material inside the lower cowl.

  Feb 28, 2024     Windshield fairing inside radius - (1.2 hours)       Category: Windshield

Sanded the filler from yesterday and prepped the area for paint. (I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out. I got it smooth to the touch in just one session of filling and sanding.)

  Feb 27, 2024     Lower cowl heat-shield edge seal - (0.9 hour)       Category: Cowl

In an effort to keep oil from getting underneath the seams of the heat shield fabric on the inside of the lower cowl, I ran a bead of high-temp RTV along the seams, then smoothed them with my finger.

I ran out of RTV, so this project will be completed tomorrow.

  Feb 27, 2024     Elevator caps -- final sanding; Tailwheel chain attach points - (3.4 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

1. Final-sanded and primed the elevator cap seams. I think they're now VERY close to being done.
2. Drilled the two #12 holes in the rudder horn for the tailwheel chain attachments.

  Feb 27, 2024     Windshield fairing -- profile correction and inside radius filler - (2.6 hours)       Category: Windshield

Windshield fairing:
1. After my final inspection of the windshield fairing, I decided the right aft side needed a slight profile correction. (It had a slightly depressed area that was noticeable if I did the "flashlight test.") I sanded the area, mixed up some SuperFil filler, and applied it to the area.
2. This evening, after it had cured, I block-sanded it down to a nice profile, then began feathering the edges.
3, Finally, I applied some filler to several locations where some divots remained.

Inside radius sanding and filling:
1. Sanded yesterday's filler application into a nice smooth curved surface.
2. Prepped the surface and applied some spot filler to areas that needed it.

  Feb 26, 2024     Windshield fairing radius sanding & filling - (0.9 hour)       Category: Windshield

1. Sanded yesterday's filler on the inside radius of the upper windshield fairing. Although this worked a bit, I decided to try a different filler for the next step.
2. Mixed up some SuperFil filler and spread it along the radius.

  Feb 26, 2024     Elevator sanding and filling; Empennage fairing fitting - (3.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

1. Sanded and filling the elevator cap intersections.
2. Final sanded the inside of the upper empennage fairing, but one of the ClickBond nutplates popped off. I'll have to think about ways to remedy this.

  Feb 26, 2024     Windshield top fairing -- inside surfacing - (0.5 hour)       Category: Windshield

The inside lip of the upper windshield fairing has been sanded a couple of times, but it still had some irregularities I want to take care of.

Mixed up a fairly thin micro/cabosil mixture and brushed it on the inside radius of the fairing. Went back 10 minutes later and smoothed it with a fine, clean brush. I'm hoping that tomorrow the surface will be easily sandable into a nice smooth radius--or at least it will be a good start on the project.

  Feb 25, 2024     Rudder & elevators end cap filler; Empennage fairings - (6 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

1. Sanded and shaped the flox/micro filler on the forward sides of the elevator end caps, rounding the edges to match the profile of the aluminum. This actually came out really nice, and it looks like very little filler should be required.
2. Sanded yesterday's filler on the end cap seams, and applied a light coat of filler primer to everything to check the progress.
3. Did one more round of minor filler on the seams.
4. Sanded the filler on the lower empennage fairings. Added a bit more filler here and there.
5. Used very fine sandpaper to sand the upper empennage fairing. Countersunk the attach holes for #6 finish washers. Did one more light coat of sanding primer. After inspecting it, I think I'm going to call the upper fairing complete!

  Feb 24, 2024     Wheel pant sanding - (1 hour)       Category: Wheel Pants

Sanded all of the filler I applied earlier in the week. (Once I was done, I actually could not find any areas where I wanted to apply filler--so perhaps the wheel pants are close to finished!)

  Feb 24, 2024     Elevator & rudder filler; Empennage lower fairing filler - (3.3 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

1. Positioned the elevators in a vertical position. Mixed up a thick flox/micro/cabosil mixture and applied it to the forward ends of the elevator caps. As it began to cure, I shaped it and pressed it firmly to try to eliminate any air pockets.
2. Sanded yesterday's filler on the elevators and rudder, and filled areas that needed it.
3. Sanded and feathered yesterday's filler on the lower empennage fairings, and added some filler to a few new spots that popped up.

  Feb 23, 2024     Lower empennage fairing filler; Elevator & rudder filler - (1.7 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

1. Added filler to lower empennage fairing.
2. Sanded L elevator cap and added filler to both elevators and the rudder.

  Feb 23, 2024     Wheel pant pinhole filler - (0.4 hour)       Category: Wheel Pants

Added filler to pinholes on wheelpants and pant fairings.

  Feb 20, 2024     Empennage fairings; Rudder cable fairleads; Access cover nutplates - (4 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

1. Spent a considerable amount of time sanding and priming the three empennage fairings to get them in decent shape.
2. Installed the aftermarket aluminum fairleads where the rudder cables come out of the aft fuselage.
3. Installed the final four #6 ClickBond nutplates in the aft fuselage. These are the ones that will secure the upper screws of my custom aft fuselage access covers. (As has happened before, two of them were defective and the stems pulled out before the nutplate was seated. I ended up with a grand total of ONE spare after today.)

  Feb 20, 2024     Rudder & elevator seams - (4.4 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

1. Sanded both elevators seams some more. I got the L elevator into some semblance of shape, and got the R elevator through several iterations of primer & sanding to check for irregularities and divots.
2. Sanded and primed the rudder a couple of times to perfect its look. It's getting close to acceptable.

  Feb 19, 2024     Flap fairings - (1.6 hours)       Category: Fuselage

1. Sanded all of yesterday's filler in the flap fairing rivets.
2. Shot a quick coat of primer on each side to check if any more sanding needs to be done. (It does!)

  Feb 19, 2024     Elevator and rudder seam fill; Empennage fairings - (6.7 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

1. Spent most of the day sanding and filling the seams on the rudder and elevators. I used a bit of spot filler that ended up being a lot quicker drying and was slightly easier to sand than the filler I've been using. I also used an orbital palm sander to knock down the first bit of each line of flox/micro, which sped things up quite a bit.

2. Sanded yesterday's filler on the empennage fairings, and added some more filler.

3. Clecoed the lower fairings into place and drilled new aft side holes for them. This will allow me to tap the attach holes instead of installing nutplates. Opened up all the fairing holes to #27 for screws. Filled the unused hole in each fairing.

3. Cleaned and prepped the six locations for the ClickBond nutplates. Installed all six nutplates--two in the VS, two in the upper skins of the HS, and two in the lower skins of the HS.

  Feb 18, 2024     Elevator and rudder seam filling - (5.3 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

For a long time, I preferred to have natural seams between the elevator/rudder skins and their fiberglass fairings. After looking at the elevators and rudder with a critical eye, I decided that there's just too much waviness and seam inconsistency for me. (The 4th photo below--a "before shot"--shows the issue. It's almost impossible to avoid seam inconsistencies because of the overlapping aluminum skins along the sides of the caps.) So today, I made a lot more work for myself by filling the seams:

1. Sanded the end caps and skins with a 60-grit hard block.
2. Cleaned and prepped the areas.
3. Applied a moderately thick mix of flox/micro to the seams and skin overlap areas at the tips. Used a credit card to taper it down into a somewhat feathered edge, for ease of sanding tomorrow.

I'm sure this will make the control surfaces look great, but I hope I won't think of this as a mistake years from now. I'm hoping they aren't susceptible to cracking. (I am going to leave the small seams on the HS and VS caps, because those look great.)

  Feb 18, 2024     Final-shaping of R flap fairing; Attach R fairing; Fill rivet heads - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

1. Sanded both sides of my special R flap fairing to get it as thin and unnoticeable as possible.
2. Riveted R flap fairing to fuselage.
3. Filled all pull-rivet heads.

  Feb 18, 2024     Windshield fairing - (0.75 hour)       Category: Windshield

Made my daily inspection of the windshield fairing, followed by a bit more sanding and filling.

  Feb 17, 2024     R flap fairing prep - (0.8 hour)       Category: Fuselage

1. Carefully sanded both sides of the R flap fairing and primed it.
2. Clecoed and test-fit the fairing, and decided to sand the back side a bit more.
3, Removed the fairing, sanded the back side mostly flat, then re-primed it.

  Feb 17, 2024     Elevator caps - (1.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

1. Sanded and cleaned the flanges of the elevator caps, and the corresponding insides of the aluminum skins.
2. Mixed up a batch of resin/flox and applied it to the mating surfaces of the caps and elevators. (This should help prevent the typical waviness you sometimes see between rivets on these types of fiberglass flight control caps.)
3. Clecoed the caps onto the elevators.
4. Rived the caps in place. Clamped the elevator skins in certain locations to optimize the fit of the caps.
5. Filled the rivet heads with SuperFil filler.

  Feb 17, 2024     Empennage fairings -- nutplates, attach holes, and glass work - (1.1 hours)       Category: Fuselage

1. After much thought and experimentation, I figured out a way to attach four nutplates that will hold the forward end of the upper empennage fairing in place. I'd already ruled out rivnuts because they would cause the fairing to not lay flat on the fuselage skin. I've wanted to use ClickBond nutplates on the inside of the fuselage skin, but the area is almost inaccessible to human arms. Today, I realized that I could grab the rubber stem of the ClickBond plates with a 3-foot pickup tool, feed the tool through a narrow gap in the aft fuselage bulkhead, push the stem through the screw hole, and have a friend pull the adhesive side of the nutplate into position. With the help of my friend Jim, we did exactly that, and it worked great.

2. Opened up and tapped the two fuselage holes for the front end of the lower fairing.

3. Opened up and deburred all the remaining attach holes for the fairings.

4. Sanded off the various blobs of resin that managed to land on the tail and aft fuselage skins during the construction of the empennage fairings.

4. Sanded off spots of primer from the lower empennage fairings and filled some divots with filler.

  Feb 16, 2024     Flap fairing prep and attachment - (0.95 hour)       Category: Fuselage

1. Carefully sanded the backside of my "special" R flap fairing to make it as flat as I possibly could without compromising its appearance or structural strength.
2. Clecoed the R flap fairing in place. I think it will look OK (although *I* will be able to see its flaws every time I look at it. Oh well.
3. Riveted the L flap fairing onto the fuselage. It looks perfect.

  Feb 16, 2024     Wheel pant sanding, feathering, and seam shaping - (0.8 hour)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Sanded and feathered the last sections of filler on the pant/fairing intersections.
2. Tweaked the seams and joggles in several locations between the front and aft halves of the pants.
3. Shot a coat of sanding primer on the pants. Found one section of one pant that will require some more filler.

  Feb 16, 2024     Sanding and filling empennage fairing - (1.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

1. Sanded yesterday's filler.
2. Prepped the fairing and applied three coats of UV SmoothPrime filler.

  Feb 16, 2024     Fairing sanding and filling - (1.1 hours)       Category: Windshield

1. Sanded yesterday's filler, primed the fairing, and found some more spots that needed filling.
2. Added spots of filler here and there. (I have a feeling I'm going to be doing this routine for the next couple of weeks until the plane actually goes into the paint booth...)

  Feb 15, 2024     Windshield fairing -- edge sanding and details - (2.5 hours)       Category: Windshield

1. After thinking about the risks in feathering the "glass" edge of the fairing right onto the plexiglass canopy, I decided I was happy with it being about 0.25mm thick. So I taped up the edge again, sanded all the tinted filler to the level of the electrical tape, and called it good.
2. Applied filler to two very small areas on the edge that weren't quite right. They will be sanded tomorrow.
3. Block-sanded a few areas of the fairing again, after noticing some slight remaining irregularities.
4. Feathered the remaining areas where the fairing meets the top fuselage skin.
5. Primed the fairing.

  Feb 15, 2024     Canopy skirt -- final sanding - (0.75 hour)       Category: Canopy

Sanded yesterday's filler on several areas of the skirt.

  Feb 15, 2024     Elevator caps and skin details - (4.1 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

1. Sanded the foam filler blocks in the ends of the caps. Sanded the filler at the interior skin seam on the elevators.
2. Used a set of smooth-jaw pliers to add a slight pre-bend to the outboard ends of the elevators skins. This will help the caps fit better.
3. Fitted the caps to the elevators and clecoed them in place to check their fit.
4. Sanded the trim tab filler and several other areas of filler on the elevators.
5. After observing the way the curved elevator leading edges met in several spots, I decided to remedy them by adding four rivets -- two on each elevator. This improved the way the skins joined immensely.
6. Filed the openings in the L elevator skin and access cover where the elevator trim tab actuator arm passes through, to give it a bit more clearance.

  Feb 14, 2024     Empennage fairing -- filler - (0.2 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

Added some more filler to the empennage fairing in a few areas.

  Feb 14, 2024     Canopy skirt filler - (0.4 hour)       Category: Canopy

Added a few areas of filler to the canopy skirt, just to perfect the "flow" of its contour.

  Feb 14, 2024     Elevator counterweights and tip fairings - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Time to get back to completing the elevators! I haven't worked on them in many months.

1. Tightened the counterweight attach hardware in both elevators. (I removed the added counterweight washers from the left elevator, since I'm going to balance the elevators when they are bolted together on the airplane.)
2. Added a bit of filler at the inside overlap between the elevators skins. I think this will allow the seam in the elevator tips to look better once the tips are riveted in place.
3. Used thick flox/micro to bond the foam end pieces in the front ends of the elevator tips. As with the rudder and horizontal stabilizer, I recessed the foam about 1/16" to make room for the sandable filler I'm going to add next.

  Feb 14, 2024     Windshield fairing -- feather fill - (1.5 hours)       Category: Windshield

1. In an effort to create a perfect edge against the glass on the windshield fairing, I mixed up some SuperFil, then dyed it black. I applied this with a small metal spatula in the thin gap between the fairing and the electrical tape. In addition to being a good feathering edge, this filler should take care of the four or five areas where the edge of the carbon fiber layer was chipped because of the sanding I've been doing.
2. I waited about 50 minutes for the filler to begin setting, then pulled off the electrical tape. The resulting edge looks really nice. Tomorrow we'll see how well it can be sanded to a perfect feathered edge.

  Feb 13, 2024     Fairing ramp improvement; Windshield fairing taper sanding - (0.9 hour)       Category: Windshield

1. Block-sanded one area of the right-side fairing ramp to improve its profile, then primed it. There will be a few more iterations of this in the next day or so.
2. Finished detail-sanding the "glass" edge of the windshield fairing. The edge is now the thickness of one layer of electrical tape, which is as far as I can get it at this stage. Next will be filling this edge with black-tinted SuperFil filler, and sanding it again.

  Feb 11, 2024     Empennage fairing -- block sanding - (0.5 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

Block-sanded yesterday's filler.

  Feb 11, 2024     Windshield fairing -- feathering - (1.5 hours)       Category: Windshield

1. Taped a line about 3//32" out onto the windshield glass, using one layer of electrical tape.
2. Began feathering the edge of the fairing, using an 80-grit hard block. It seems like this technique should work fairly well. I intentionally allowed the windshield surface to be scuffed, because we will be painting up onto the glass there.
3. As a test, I also removed some of the protective plastic on the turtledeck skin and sanded along the paint edge to do some feathering there, too.

  Feb 10, 2024     Windshield fairing -- pulled tape - (1.2 hours)       Category: Windshield

1. Sanded yesterday's minor filler, then shot primer on it.
2. Pulled off the electrical tape from the perimeter of the windshield. Noted several areas where the bottom layer of tape ended up slightly under the edge of the adjoining fiberglass layer. I managed to get it all out, but the slightly ragged edge it left in spots reinforced my plan to re-tape the edge about 1/8" up from the existing edge, then feather the fiberglaass right onto the windshield.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the fairing, and I think it will look nice after paint.

  Feb 10, 2024     Empennage fairing -- sanding and filling - (1.4 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

1. Sanded yesterday's "seam-correction."
2. I decided that my upper empennage fairing has a few too many small bumps that cannot been seen visually, but can be felt with fingertips. I block-sanded the sides of the fairing, revealing a few of the waves, then applied filler to the largest of the areas.

  Feb 10, 2024     L & R Wheel pants - final details - (3.7 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Sanded the general filler areas from yesterday.
2. Spent a lot of time carefully filing the seam edges and especially the joggle areas where the front pants nests with the aft pants.
3. Attached both halves together and match-sanded the newly-filled contours of the fairings.

  Feb 09, 2024     Empennage fairing -- edge improvement - (0.7 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

1. With a bit of remaining flox mixture from my wheel pant work, I built up a new edge on the front right edge of the fairing. Once it's sanded, the seam will be a little tighter, matching the one on the left side.
2. Brushed on a second thin layer of resin to the inside surface of the fairing to protect the fuselage paint.