Beginning week four!

Addressing the last of the little pin holes and little gaps in the fiberglass parts with two part filler and a razor blade.  We are finally down to the nit picky.

Jeff brought home the last of the fittings needed for the new air dryer/filter.  We finished putting up and taping in place the visqueen walls of the spray booth.

By evening we had hung the ailerons and flaps, gave them their last tack cloth wipe and shot them with a two part catalyzed white base coat.  Waited fifteen minutes for them to tack and gave them a second coat of white.  They ended up flat "bone white .  Perfect!

Time to shoot the gloss coat....

Two layers of clear gloss and they look "WET"!!  Unfortunately a bit too wet in some places because there are some runs we will have to deal with later but, Whoot!  Whoot!  NO ORANGE PEEL!

Orange peel was my biggest fear and it looks like we have a good handle on that.

I'm taking today off.  My wife has a day off from care taking her mom!  We are going to meet at some friends in Olympia and spend the evening/night!  A much needed break for both of us!!

Stay tuned. 

The end of the beginning

Time to shoot the metal etching primer on the fuselage, starting underneath.

Then on around the rest of the plane in sections.

And then one coat of sandable primer.

What do you mean you didn't want it gray??

:-)

Just kidding.

Twenty one days into this project and we are finally, almost, ready to start shooting color and clear!!!

Be still my heart!

We went. We saw!

And now......,

The morning after.  Back to reality!!

Grand Paw was getting grumpy.

Too many hours, too many fumes, too much dust.  Shaved off the beard to help make the face mask fit better but just getting way to grumpy.

Hours of sitting and sanding, sitting and sanding.  It's never gonna end!

And then.....,  there's my grandson needing some help putting his plane togther.  So..., Well, why not!  Take a break.  Kick back.  Do something fun!!

Later my son called from work to say the weather forecast is good, let's rent a plane and fly to Hoquiam for a hamburger!!!   Whoot Whoot!

The view leaving the Tacoma Narrows airport.  The old and new Tacoma Narrows bridges.

On final for Hoquiam airport.

Return flight past the never finished nuke plant, Satsop, with Mt. Rainier in the distance.

All in all, a very nice break.

Today, Saturday, my other son is taking me to the Puyallup "Good Guys" Annual Auto Show.

Nice!!!!

But, Monday is coming.

Progress report

We have almost all the smaller parts and pieces filled and faired and primed for the final event, base coat/clear coat.  All that remains to be caught up to that level of finish are the wings and the fuselage.  Last evening we built supports that hold the wing where we want it for painting.  We are planning on shooting the metal etching primer and sandable primer on this wing tonight.  The other wing Friday evening and the fuselage this weekend.

We removed all the masking so we could see what the cowl to canopy fairing turned out like.  We are very pleased.  It took seven progressively wider layers of fiberglass cloth and a lot of filler to smooth and fair but now?  Perfect!

And here is the Targa.  What a nail bitter.  It is just a two and a half wide strip of four layers of fiberglass cloth bridging the gap between canopy and rear window but.... It could have been a disaster.

Slowly the RV grin is starting to appear.

Nerve Wracking

One of the last major fiberglassing jobs was laying up the "Targa" . The clear plexiglass canopy comes from Vans in one piece and Jeff had to cut it in half; the forward half over the pilot/copilot and back half becoming the rear window. The "Targa" is a four layer glass "lay-up" that gets bonded to the plexiglass canopy but not to the rear window. We waxed the rear window and put playdoh in any cracks where the resin might migrate via capillary action. Then I did the lay-up.

Neither Jeff or I slept very well that night worrying about our possibly gluing the canopy shut permanently!! In the morning we went out there and discovered there was no way to get any movement between the canopy and the rear window! I sharpened a wood mixing stick to an sharp blade edge and worked it under the fiberglass and the rear window and managed to get a little bit to "un-mold"; I could see a slight color difference where it became unstuck from the rear plexiglass. So I worked my little stick all the way up and over the rear window working the fiberglass lay-up loose. That done it still wouldn't open. Then we took a wood block and held it up against the bottom of the canopy lifting handle and rapped it a couple of sharp blows with a plastic hammer; both sides. Still nothing. Solid as a rock!! I'm figuring some resin must have got down in the joint between the canopy and the fuselage, but where. It was then that Jeff noticed the canopy hatch was locked! Jeff released the lock and it swung up and open just like it is s'posed to!! E-gad!! 

Ahh!  Perfect!!

Squirting Primer

We are starting to run out of things to fiberglass and fill.  We are starting to actually spray sandable primer on parts for final sanding to "make smooth" before finish paint.  But just the fiberglass parts.  The rest of the aluminum will get sprayed with "metal etching" primer.

Maybe by this weekend we can start thinking about spraying on some color!

Between times I have been swimming laps while my grandkids have their swimming lessons.  That only happens on Mondays and Wednesdays at six in the evening but still, it is nice to get in a pool now and then.

We also had some nice weather and went to the park at Lake Tapps and swam in the lake.   It was a bit refreshing when first getting in but warm enough to stay in once there.  Nice!