Glass Bottom

I had to re-make my aft end rotisserie mount when it became time to glass the fuselage bottom. As you can see, I've taken advantage of the bolts extending through the firewall to mount the aft mount to. Given that some of the next steps involve glassing over this area, or spots very near to it, this had to be changed.

Here's a shot of the new aft mount. It has a board in the scoop area, a board on the top of the firewall, then a board on the back of the firewall. The board on the back is clamped to the firewall, the board on the top and bottom keep that board from sliding up and down.

To make sure the fuselage was level and had no twist, I put this 2x4 under the aft end in the spar cutout. I then supported it with two saw horses and checked that it was indeed level. It was, I didn't have to shim at all. Note - the level is clamped here just to double check level, I also checked it against the upper half of the cutout.

I made this little stilt to make sure there was no twist in the fuselage before the bottom layup went on. It has an adjustable foot on the bottom (screw type) that allowed me to adjust it up and down until the height was just right.

Here's another shot of the stilt and the level clamped in place to check level and twist (was on and zero, that is.)

All taped, peel plied and ready to go for the fuselage bottom layup. Call this time zero - read on for the interesting time notes.

Here I am in full garb doing the bottom layup. This is the first large (in my opinion) layup I tried by myself. My friend Jeff helped me with the fuselage sides, by the way, the last big layup that I did.

Two hours into the bottom layup, looking good so far but only micro on and not a single layup. Yes, I used slow hardener only for this - couldn't have done it otherwise. Read on, it gets better.

Here's three hours in, one layer on if I remember correctly. Read on...

Here's 4 hours in, and I should be done by now. I'm not, read on...

7 hours in and still going. I stopped and ate dinner for 15 minutes because I was getting very hungry. I think I'm going to set the record for how long it takes to do this layup... read on it gets better...

I made these little jigs to help the bottom layup stay in the joggles for the landing gear cover. Yes, I mad these before I started...

Here's the bottom layup at 8 hours, just about done. To say the least, when you do these layups, do them with a friend or spouse. I was so exhausted by the end of this I'm sure I didn't do as high a quality job as I usually do. It gets a little frustrating, too, because you think you'll never finish the plane at this rate!

Here's a shot of the landing gear cover joggles after removing the little jigs I made. They were pretty simple, CDX plywood with a piece of soft, pink insulating styrofoam to absorb any irregular surfaces and box tape to prevent sticking.

Next step is Contouring the Sides