PilotjohnS
Well Known Member
Think i am getting the hang of this
I think i am getting the hang of fiberglass stuff.
I have been working on the windscreen fairing.
In the las post, I was final sanding the edges to the proper width using the impression of the electrical tape as a guide. this worked out well. the fiberglass picks up every fine detail of the mold, so two layers of electrical on the plane to define the windscreen edge produces a very clear line to sand/trim to.
I am now following DanH's excellent post right here of VAF for the fiberglass finishing. I covered the outside in epoxy (epoxy straight with no fillers or additions) and covered the outside with peel ply (Dacron fabric). This produced a very nice even finish that has grip for the next layer. The next layer was a covering in epoxy and microballons, like DanH suggested.
I started sanding down the micro mixture. I was doing this on the bench, but there it was hard to hold the windscreen and get a good sanding perch. (first picture below). Today I laid down some vinyl tape on the plane, and set the windscreen on the plane to hold it while I sanded. This worked out much better. It was like the holding fixture (the plane) was custom molded to the fixture (uh it actually was) (sarcasm)
Seems this will work out well. This method doesn't seem so bad, I just need to be very careful with sandpaper next to canopies.
I still have to do the rear skirt. But I learned that neatness counts; the better the mold (in this case the placement of the packing tape) the much less work the finishing becomes.
I think i am getting the hang of fiberglass stuff.
I have been working on the windscreen fairing.
In the las post, I was final sanding the edges to the proper width using the impression of the electrical tape as a guide. this worked out well. the fiberglass picks up every fine detail of the mold, so two layers of electrical on the plane to define the windscreen edge produces a very clear line to sand/trim to.
I am now following DanH's excellent post right here of VAF for the fiberglass finishing. I covered the outside in epoxy (epoxy straight with no fillers or additions) and covered the outside with peel ply (Dacron fabric). This produced a very nice even finish that has grip for the next layer. The next layer was a covering in epoxy and microballons, like DanH suggested.
I started sanding down the micro mixture. I was doing this on the bench, but there it was hard to hold the windscreen and get a good sanding perch. (first picture below). Today I laid down some vinyl tape on the plane, and set the windscreen on the plane to hold it while I sanded. This worked out much better. It was like the holding fixture (the plane) was custom molded to the fixture (uh it actually was) (sarcasm)
Seems this will work out well. This method doesn't seem so bad, I just need to be very careful with sandpaper next to canopies.
I still have to do the rear skirt. But I learned that neatness counts; the better the mold (in this case the placement of the packing tape) the much less work the finishing becomes.
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