Well the freezing weather and wind kept the working speed slow but the plastics are close to ready to undercoat.
The previous entry showed the upper fairing half missing the indicator mounts and a thin section which thanks to Tupperware, has now been replaced. Why Tupperware? Well I was looking for something that would be fairly solid but flexible at the same time. I spied an old container that the boss used for feeding the birds sitting on the BBQ – it didn’t take me too long to see that the rolled edge was oh so close to what was needed, all it required was a tiny bit of modifying as you can see from the photos.
With that sorted it was down to replacing the missing indicator mounts, a job achieved quite easily with the help of some home made playdoh. Yes – home made playdoh, it was a damn sight easier than just trying to eyeball the sizes required plus it was cheaper than buying modelling clay or the real Playdoh ;-).
In short it was a simple matter of sprinkling the left hand side indicator mounts with flour to stop the playdoh sticking to to them, then wrapping the mounts in the playdoh, then pouring in some bog (or body filler or whatever it is you wanna call it) in to both moulds and standing them up to dry. After they’d dried, came the annoying bit, removing excess bog and doing the final edging that the playdoh couldn’t do – I used my bench grinder for this bit, talk about messy but hey it worked. Once I was satisfied with their shape I drilled a pilot hole in each one and mounted the indicator to them added more bog to the fairing where the mounts sit and pressed them in – took the screws out and removed the indicator then set the whole thing aside to dry completely.
With the indicator mounts in, it was time to start fibreglassing so I laid three layers of glass mat over each required repair 1) indicator mounts and tupperware replacement 2) left side cover 3) right lower fairing half – and wandered off to feed me face while it dry enough for me to bog the outside bits. The pictures below show the bogged up fairing and sidecover with it’s corner replaced which reminds me, where the corner needed replacing there is supposed to be a hole for a screw so before I repaired that with a flat piece from the tupperware container (added rigidity) three layers of fibreglass and bog, I pencilled two marks (visible in the larger picture) that when it’s sanded ready for under coating will show me where to drill so I get the hole in the right spot.
Well, that was all for today – geez it is Sunday after all. I plan on having the lot – tank included, undercoated and spray puttied tommorow and leaving it all to dry for the better part of the day, I’ll wet sand it all all before calling it a day so if the weather is kind we’ll see the colour on.
