I left off just before we left for Oshkosh 11...oh what fun that was! I was in the middle of securing the seams of the bulkheads to the fuselage sides using 2" Bidirectional (BID) fiberglass tapes. These reinforce the intersections where the bulkheads mate to the fuselage sides and make the transition look nice. I started out making this much harder than it had to be...but soon found tips from others that worked great.
TIP: I find the best way to BID tape is to use the aluminum foil method mentioned on a number of other builder sites.
- First put down aluminum foil
- mark 2" wide lines with a sharpie and ruler
- wet out both plys of cloth on top of the foil and stipple the air out
- use your electric scissors to cut to shape
- put a little flox in the corners to help the glass round the corner smooth
- brush on a little resin to the joint
- apply the glass and smooth it down with your fingers
- peel ply
The hardest part is trying to get the little spaces and turns around the longerons. It's also a little hard on your back, at least mine, since your leaning over the longerons quite a bit. You want to take your time though as nice workmanship here will help your overall interior look nice and professional.
The fuselage is turned right side up for a bit now. The past couple of weeks I've finished up the BID taping, drilled the alignment holes for the landing gear installation, and installed the last of the 3 landing gear support bulkheads.In the pic you can see the new LG bulkhead installed and a still curing 3 ply reinforcement of glass down the front connecting the top and bottom bulkheads. A similar 6 ply of glass will go on the aft side along with 2 ply BID tapes along the horizontal seam front and back.
I can feel the momentum picking back up...Onward,
cab
