This afternoon I attached the cooling duct to
the lower cowl. First, I sanded the
Bondo I put on the inside of the duct last week. I mixed a new batch and spread it over the
remaining voids. I then got out the fiberglass,
resin, mixing cups and sticks, plastic sheeting, etc. to begin the
attachment. I also drilled the weep
holes, one below the oil cooler and one in the bottom of the duct transition at
the radiator.
I cut strips of fiberglass cloth and mixed a
batch of resin. I brushed resin along
the attachment surfaces on the cooling
duct and the cowl. I mixed some flox
into the resin and put the resin flox mixture into a small plastic bag. I cut of the corner of the bag and put a bead
of the mixture all along the cooling duct attachment flange. I then attached the cooling duct to the lower
cowl with clecoes. At this point I had
resin on my gloved hands and I did not want to touch the camera, so the next
processes were not photographed. I will
photograph the cooling duct attached to the lower cowl in the next couple of
days when I remove the cowl.
I saturated strips of fiberglass cloth and
laid up 2-layers of cloth inside of the cooling duct transition and along to
the top of the oval air intake. I also used
my gloved finger and a mixing stick to make sure the resin flox mixture
completely filled any void between the cooling duct and the lower cowl where
they attached. After the fiberglass was
installed and smoothed I installed the lower and upper cowl halves on the
fuselage.
After the fiberglass has cured I will remove
the clecoes and fill the holes with new flox resin mixture. I also need to smooth out the top of the oval
air inlet where the cooling duct and lower cowl come together.
