Completion

Preparing LWX and LWY area for the electrical channel cover

This is an aft view of LWX and LWY being readied for the electrical channel cover. The channel itself has been filled with one layer of BID but the tapes have not been applied to LWX or LWY.

This picture is a close up of one of the tapes that are applied to LWX and LWY. These are applied before you fill this section with foam and epoxy in the electrical channel cover.

Electrical channel covered being epoxied in place

Here's one side's electrical channel cover, after being made and separated from the form, being test fit and cut to size in its place. You can see LWX and LWY fixed in place but before the fiberglass tapes were applied. I epoxied the electrical channel in place then applied the tapes.

Fuselage sides, electrical channel cover area filled, ready for sanding and 6-layer BID layup

After the channel cover was glued in place, the tapes were applied. Then the area around the channel is filled with foam. I made little triangular cross-section pieces to cover the top corners of the channel cover which are rounded off when you make the molds/layups.

Melamine stuck on the fuselage side after I popped it off of the jig

I was pretty happy with the looks of the fuselage sides after popping them off of their jigs. The double-stick tape peeled off real nice and I was only left with one place where I had foam pulled off or melamine stuck to the foam. This was on one side where I made those little depressions for the fuel sight gauges. If I'd been thinking, I would have put some packing tape on the back side when this assembly was done being epoxied together, then, when I did the layup no epoxy would have bled through. Oh well, it's better than having a bunch of little things to fix. Besides, this sanded off real easy.

Trimming the fuselage sides to length with two squares and a hand saw

After the last layup is done over the section at the aft end of the fuselage side, the sides are trimmed (square to the table) to overall length. I sent some e-mail to the Cozy Builders mailing list and the method shown seems to be how most people handled this. The large square ensures the cut is perpendicular to the length of the side, the small square ensures the cut is perpendicular to the jig table.

Checking the fuselage sides, once trimmed, are square

I did a quick check of the cut after it was done to make sure it was still square. Turned out pretty well.

Chapter 5 - complete as of December 18, 2001. Click here for Chapter 6