I continued to work on Section 32 of the build. Yesterday I installed the brake fluid reservoir and attached the brake lines. This evening I followed the instructions to go back to Section 12 and install the tail cone fairing. I began by cutting apart and deburring the edges of the fairing tabs with the Scotch Brite wheel. There are 8-tabs in total. After prepping the tabs I laid out the masking tape template for the tail cone. I put the tape on the edge of the work table. It has a Formica top so it was easy to attach and remove. I laid out the dimensions with a Sharpie and then cut the tape apart with a razor knife and a straight edge. I then put the tape on the tail cone as instructed.
The fairings are in 2- sections, an upper and a lower fairing. I set up a small work table on the driveway and proceeded to cut out the fiberglass fairings. I marked the fairing scribe lines with a Sharpie so I could see them better. First the upper section. I drilled the #30 holes at the inside corners as called out on the drawings. I used the Unibit to drill the ¾" holes on top at at the rear of the fairing. I used my Dremel tool with a cut-off wheel to cut the fiberglass. It worked like cutting through butter. I put on my lab coat and wore a breathing mask for the dust.
It didn't take long to cut along all of the lines. I cut close to the lines and will now use a sanding block to remove the material next to the lines. So far things are coming along very well.
Next I drilled and cut out the lower fairing section. Again, I cut close to the scribe lines. I will have to remove the material to the scribe lines with a sanding block. Using tape I put the upper and lower fairings together and then attached the whole thing to the tail cone. It all seems to fit really well. I will need to clean up the edges of the fairings with sand paper and then I can proceed to install the tabs and hook the halves together on a more permanent basis.
