Canopy Arms Layup Done

I spent 3.5 hours to complete the layup on the arms of the canopy today. It went pretty well, considering the cutouts didn't come out perfect. The line along the canopy got matched pretty well and the rest will just have to get sanded and trimmed off.
I almost forgot to add the dye when I started but I could fix that little issue before it really became one.
I just added dyed epoxy in the canopy area where it counts.


The front has no dye on it so you can see the "1R" marking. I did better on the left side.


I am not quite sure why we had to remove the upper edge of the foam pieces that I had trimmed and shaped so nicely. Filling the 1/8" gap with flox and epoxy was not easy at all. The stuff just didn't want to stay on that tiny ledge. I used a plastic squeegee like a spatula to press it in the gap and shape it a bit. I think the reason for this was to create a reinforcement that would take the stress in that sharp corner and distribute it. I don't think this worked out well and I might have to redo this from the inside once the canopy comes off.

However, after this initial layup and letting it sit a bit to bond to the underlying coat of resin, I continued to lay up one piece of cloth after another, alternating between the two sides. No time for photos there and I was covered in black sticky stuff. At least I didn't smell as bad as ProSeal.
The end result, covered with Dacron (Peel Ply), looked like this.



I wish I had done the whole layup in one turn but I saw in Sam Jespersen's blog that he did that and it took him over 6 hours to get everything done. I think that would have been too much for me in one run.

UPDATE from the following day:

The Peel Ply came off easily, despite my experiment to add resin onto the placed Dacron strips where they appeared to be dry. The epoxy does no connect with the Dacron and an even pull gets it right off.
The layup feels hard and solid. The surface should have probably received another coat of resin on top of the last layup to better get in touch with the Dacron, You can see the sheen in the photo where the resin had contact with the Peel Ply. This is a nice and even surface. The rest will have to get filled and sanded a lot to get the same result.



Now, I have to prepare the center layup and sand the connecting joints of the outer layup for it to bond better. I hope I can do the prep work during the week.