Today I worked on more of the brightwork pieces, and then turned to finishing the cockpit seating hatches. To begin, I trimmed the recently installed taff rail bungs with a small pull saw, chased the raised portion down with a 1/2" finger sander as close as I dared, and then sanded raised portion to fair with the taff rail itself by using a steel block (used to shape aircraft aluminum) and hand work. After the bungs were fair, I continued to sand the taff rail itself with 320-grit paper in preparation for another coat of varnish.

Prior to varnishing the taff rail, I turned my attention to the installation of the aft cockpit trim board - spaning the gap between the coaming boards on the forward face of the molded fiberglass bulkhead aft of the tiller base. I had previously drilled and tapped for four fasteners (#10-24 machine screws). I installed these with finish cup washers. That completed this trim board. I then made my way over to the shop to recover the cockpit seat trim boards as they were in need of varnish coats as well.

I laid out the cockpit seat trim boards in the paint booth, where Biscuit currently resides, and then wiped both the trim boards and the taff rail down with acetone to ready them to receive their next varnish application. In a small cup, I poured a bit of varnish and applied it with a foam brush, as per usual. Before leaving the paint booth and heading back to the shop, I grabbed the cockpit seat hatches and some additional materials.

The cockpit seat hatches both have a roughly 7" x 24" plywood board glued to the underside for rigidity. I wanted to sheath this plywood in a layer of fiberglass prior to painting, which would aide in extending the life of the wood. I played the hatches out on piece of plywood supported by sawhorses, and protecting the paint finish of the hatches with a towel. With a small 1/2" finger sander (access with tight), I rounded over the edges of the sharp angled plywood, as well as exposing fiberglass substrate underneath the paint. I also did a bit of hand sanding in this area to ready the surface to receive fresh epoxy. The plywood itself was painted with epoxy, so I also sanded this surface to prep for a good mechanical bond.

I vacuumed up the sanding detritus and wiped the surfaces down with acetone to fully clean and prepare for further work. I cut a couple sections of fiberglass, measured the application area, and then cut a couple panels to use as the outer skin of the plywood stiffeners. The interface between the plywood and the underside of the hatches were also of the 90-degree sort, so I would need a fillet of thickened epoxy to help the biaxial cloth contour. I mixed a cup of neat epoxy, and applied it to all surfaces to be worked. With the remaining epoxy, I mixed in colloidal silica to thicken it and applied it to this right angle, smoothing it out to form the fillet, or transition from plywood to fiberglass hatch. Next, I laid the fiberglass over the plywood, and with more epoxy wet the surface of the fiberglass until transparent. I used a fin roller to remove air bubbles and excess resin. The outboard edges of the plywood did just not want to accept the stiff 1708 biaxial cloth, and after repeated attempts to form them I decided to allow them to cure as they want and would later come back to trim and apply a small edge band of lighter cloth. The goal is to encapsulate the plywood stiffener, or core, so as to prevent material degradation. That wrapped up the work today.

Total Hrs: 3.5