Dorsal Fin

On the spur of the moment, I decided to add a little dorsal fairing. Pretty simple and quick. I just got an old block of foam and notched it to kind of fit the vertical fin. I always start with a block much larger than I think I'll need. I mixed a little TAP plastics X-30 foam and brushed it on the foam and on the fuselage, then jammed it in place.

After it set for in place for about 15 minutes, I broke out Mr. Sawzall and started carving away. I'll put one layer of BID over it, and I'll be done!

Taking It All Off!

Again, using chemical stripper I took off the top layer of paint, then used a sanding die grinder to take off the filler.

All of this reveals the scars and previous modifications of days past.

See the Hangar Heaters poster ? (As always, click on photo to enlarge). That gal has been keeping my hangar warm for over 20 years. She might even be a grandma by now.

Stripping act

I start going after the paint, using both chemical and mechanical means. The old lacquer paint is really hard to dig through. It gets really gummy when the sander/grinder heats it up.

I got some stripper from an automotive shop that works well. I don't need to use the chemical down to the fiberglass, I just want to get through the top coat. I put it on, let it sit for five minutes, then scrape it off. I immediately sponge it down with water, then I use mineral spirits on it to remove the residual parafins in the stripper.

This is a really crummy job and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

"Why don't you just paint the whole plane"?

About a hundred people have asked; "Why don't you just paint the whole thing?" The answer; "I really don't want to".

Way back in 1985 when I was in the filling process for this plane, I shared a hangar with a guy that was an authorized Quickie Aircraft dealer. He had built a plane and was my "expert".

One of the main tasks of the finishing process is mixing up dry micro and laying it on the wings and everything to make a smooth surface and be ready for paint. This hangar was in Minnesota and curing temperatures was always an issue. The normal cure time for epoxy-based dry micro was 24 hours if the temp was 72F or higher. If we could only maintain 62F, it could take days to cure.

Well this guy said said he found some stuff that you could use and it would set up right away! He got it at a hobby store in gallon containers and there was a small bottle of hardener that you mixed with it. Since it cured quickly, we would mix microballoons with the resin and when that was ready we would add the hardener and lay it on the fiberglass surfaces. It would harden quick enough in an hour to be able to get back to work.

Well, I had shit for brains so it seemed like a good idea at the time. What I didn't know was, we were using a polyester resin, similar to "Bondo". It seemed fine until four or five years later when the resin started to crack. And it cracked. And it cracked. And it cracked. I had finish cracks all over the plane; on the fuselage, on the canard, and it also caused depressions in the underside of the rear wing.

Over the years, some of this has been corrected, some not. Fast forward to 2008 and I now have to paint the new wing and cowl. I really didn't want to paint the whole plane, since I knew I would have to remove the paint, then dig out all the old polyester micro - and I really didn't want to do all that.

Having said all that, I now accept the fact that I won't be making it to Oshkosh this year. Spot painting will probably look goofy, and there are still all those places where the filler is cracked.

So, I guess I'm going to paint most of the whole thing.

Rats.

Trying to get the cowling finished.

Well, my brother Rob is gone and I'm once again left to my own devices. It sometimes takes a lot of will to take up another damned piece of sand paper and keep at it. I have no doubt that it takes longer to make mods that it takes to build the first time.

A few days ago I smeared on West epoxy/micro, so I may as well work on that one. I first hit it with my Stanley Surform file to knock off the high spots. I thought I'd try something new, to help me see where I was, so I sprayed the lower cowl with the remnants of an old can of gray primer that I had laying around.

As I worked at it, the primer did a nice job of showing me where the remaining low spots were. I did the same thing with my upper wing using a pencil.

I'm not crazy about the large protrusions around the exhaust exits - but screw it. Maybe next year I'll totally revamp the exhaust and modify the cowl to suit.

Or maybe I'll take up golf.

I Hate Painting

The final finishing process is the one I really hate. I guess it's because that I don't know what I'm doing and because it exposes flaws.

Rob has a lot more experience and he was really happy to use the SIU AvTech paint booth. For this trip, we were only able to get paint on the elevators and ailerons.

Cascades of Dust

I was able to convince my little brother, Rob, to ride his Harley down and help with painting the new wing, cowl, etc. Everyone said I should just repaint the whole thing, but that I not a job I really want to take on.

Rob has a lot of experience painting motorcycles and recently took first place in a show in the Chicago area.

We are going to paint it in the brand new spray booth at SIU, but they won't be open on the upcoming 4th of July - so we are in a rush to get done what we can.

Exhaust & Cowling

In order to streamline everything better, I had to change how the exhaust exits the cowling. Unfortunately, I don't have those welding skills or the equipment. Fortunately, I met a fellow that had both. Don Bartlett is an engineer who has returned to school to get his A&P at SIU. I asked if he could help and he foolishly agreed.

I figured it would be a Saturday morning type job and we would be finished by noon. Wouldn't you know, we (he) wrapped it up by 7:00 P.M.

Sandy came out to provide hors d'oeuvres and adult beverages to celebrate the completion of the stacks. As Sandy conducted her investigative inquisition to learn all things about all people, we learned that Don and I went to different schools together.

I went to Libertyville High School and Don went to Carmel H.S., just a couple miles down the road. We both graduated in 1968 and had several mutual friends. "Small world" strikes again.

The next day I glued some foam onto the lower cowl and started shaping the outlets.

Back to Work - Cowling & a Big Move

Back home and time to get back to work.

I spent the better part of the morning digging out all the foam in the lower cowl mold. For some reason, the combination of drywall paste, car wax and mold release had a more tenacious grip, so the foam didn't go peacefully.

The first photo shows the cowl/mold just peeled off the engine.

















Finally, I decided to move my project back to my Tee hangar. It was really great to have use of the SIU Aviation Technology facilities, but it's time to move back home. They were kind enough to lend me a student worker for the afternoon, and we got it done in about three hours.

Once back, I took a couple of days to get the hangar properly organized. I learned a lot about organizing workplaces while I was at Dyno Nobel. Some of the main points I try to keep in mind:

• If you don't need it - get rid of it.
• Use visual clues like applying labels.
  
• Keep things you use often close at hand. Things you use only occasionally can be further away.

On vacation

We took a week off to take our granddaughters to Washington D.C. Take a look at Sandy's blog for the rest of the story.

Glassed the lower cowl

The next step is to make all that foam smooth enough to glass. One of the guys in my EAA chapter told me about using drywall compound. It's cheap, easy to get, and water soluble. I put on two coats, sanding in between.

After it's smooth enough for government work, I apply a coat of auto paste wax as a mold release. I also had access to a bit of water soluble mold release, so I gave a final coat of that, just for good measure.

I added two layers of BID then used sheets of dacron as peel ply.

We're going on vacation for a week, so you'll have to wait to see how it turns out.

Stretching the lower cowling

Now comes a part I have not been looking forward to - lengthening the lower cowl to match the upper.

The first thing I had to do was get all the basic engine components in place, the induction system, injectors, and the oil sump. I kind of pieced things together, but wasn't sure how to proceed. I consulted Jeff Sell and Q-2 cowl maker Earnest Martin and they pointed out the grim fact; I would have to flip the plane so I could get a better perspective on it.

Again, the hardest part is often deciding to get on with it.

Carbon Fiber Oil Sump

One of the main tasks is to build a CF oil sump. I wanted to cut down the amount of sump hanging in free air. (As usual, click on the photos for a large version).

I started a few months ago by getting out the Milwaukee Sawzall and start hacking on a chunk of foam. True to form, I just start hacking, then see what comes out of it.

After I got something like it might work, I tried to figure what to do about a mounting flange. I finally decided to make a sandwich with aluminum rings for bread and the CF for the peanut butter.

I kept whittling away on the thing, then finally coated it with drywall paste, car wax, then finally a mold release agent. This is a neat trick. The DW paste is water soluble. Before I coated it with the DW paste I did a water displacement test and it looks like it will hold five quarts. Perfect!

For epoxy, Mike Bergen helped me get some high temp ProSet. This stuff has a 300 minute pot life, but cures nicely in 24 hours. The only issue is that I have to post cure it to 250F or so.

The next trick was figuring how I was going to hole the flange in place while it cured. I figured I could make a little foam collar to support the flange. I would first wrap the entire thing in CF. At the neck, I would leave extra material which would form the flange.

I set the foam collar onto the sump, then placed the lower ring. I then folded the CF outward and placed the top aluminum of top of it. I guess the carbon reacts with aluminum so I first alodined it then I placed a piece of e-glass in between all places where the CF might touch the flanges.

I had predrilled a couple of tiny holes in the flange rings for alignment. I suck in a couple of cotter pins to hold the alignment.

After two days of cure time I spend an hour chipping out the foam. It was pretty easy and most of it came out without a fight. Since both the drywall paste and the mold release are water soluble, it left a nice clean, smooth inner surface.





A quick check looks like it's going to work!

Next comes the drain bung install and the filler neck and dipstick.

Can I make it to Oshkosh?

I have so-o-o-o-o much to get done - I don't know if I can pull it off.

The work is progressing steadily, but not all that fast. I just received the EC3 controller from RWS and have some SIU avionics students starting to help with the wiring harness, but I haven't really finalized the electrical drawings.

The big hitters on the to-do list are:

• Finish CF oil sump.
• Finish installing the new canopy.
• Finish the stretched cowling.
• Paint the cowling, wing and canopy.
• Complete the pressure fuel system installation.
• Install the new Dynon D180 and to all the ship's wiring.

Ugghhh. It's a big list.