Mating the Halves

This is another 2-day post, covering the weekend.

On the first day I continued trimming the built up gap filler. The flox is making the resin really tough and tough it was to sand it down. To have an idea how much had to be removed, I put the top cowl on and marked the filler with a black Sharpie along the edge of the top cowl.

This gave me a pretty good idea what had to get removed. I also trimmed the inside and outside of the trimmed area a bit to smoothen it out.

At about the center of the filled area, I found a recess that needed to get built up before I could completely trim it down to the marked line. So, I had to let this cure again over night and that ended the short work day 1.

The next day and with a fresh supply of 3X sand paper I was able to quickly remove the excess resin and to confirm that the top cowl had a good fit now.

Then the outside had to get trimmed back. To avoid scratching the original surface on the lower cowl, I applied electric tape underneath the filled area.

Using wet 220 grit sandpaper I was able to accomplish a pretty nice surface for a first sanding. I removed the mylar tape and will leave the surface for now until the fiberglass gets prepped for priming.

The next step was to trim the lower edge of the step that still had some minor interference with the aluminum - on both sides.

And that got me back around to the instructions again. Now it was time install the side hinges on the lower cowl.

Then the hinge pins were installed, trimmed and bent.

Finally I put the top cowl back on. Unfortunately, there seems to be the need for a minor trimming at the rear left side. It appears that that filled area had not been trimmer down quite enough. It just needs a little touch ...