Ch 6: Skinning the Interior Fuselage Bottom

Suffice it to say that as much as I like working on the Cozy, I was not looking forward to this layup.  Big layups and I haven't gotten along well.  I didn't even attempt. attempt to do everything the plans have you do in one session.  The plans have you...

Glassed fuse bottom (white stips are
overlapped  pieces of peel ply

1.  Put in dry micro to round the corners
2.  Micro all the foam
3.  Layup 2 layers of glass which takes 6 separate pieces
4.  Add a separate reinforcement layer on the rear section
...wait 3-4 hrs...
5.  Flox the bottom onto the fuselage
6.  Tape the interior intersections to the bottom (while the fuselage is upside down with you head up inside)

I just can't work fast enough to get all that done in one session and I know my back would never hold out.  I broke the job up as recommended in the Cozy FAQs.  Steps 1-4 in one session, 5 in one session, and 6 in another session when you could turn the fuselage on it's side to do the taping to make it easier.

Just putting the glass on and peel plying the whole thing took me a grueling 12 hrs.  (Peel Ply not required on the entire thing but I think it looks better for finishing the interior than seeing the glass weave)  I don't know how long it took others but I know I didn't think it would take but half that.  I could have saved some time, maybe 3 hours, by wetting out 2 ply's of glass at a time but I was worried about doing that with such large pieces of glass.  If the underneath ply got moved out of position, I'd have a hard time correcting it.

In any case, the. tough part, at least for me, is now done.  Time to install the sucker.

Onward, cab

Ch 6: Heat Duct Air Flow Mod

As I finished installing the heat duct, one thing I noticed was the rather large opening of the heat duct ending in the two small holes in the bottom of the IP for the heated air to flow through.  It seemed to me that the air should be encouraged to flow through easily vice hitting obstructions formed by the IP and being forced through those small holes.  Maybe I'll figure out later that this was designed like that on purpose, or I may not care if the heat duct doesn't put out enough heat anyway and I switch to an oil heater, but in the meantime, I did two things that I thought would help.  

1) I installed a small splitter in the airflow to split the air into the exit holes.  I guess I could have just eliminated the center structure blocking the flow but I thought it may need to be there for strength.  

2) I opened up the exit holes all the way to the edge of the heat duct providing a smooth transition outlet for the air.  Now there is a nice unobstructed flow to warm the tootsies.

Now on to skin the interior fuselage bottom...cab