Bonding it all together

The last two nights have been a 'bonding' experience. First I patched the hole in the top of the engine cover that formerly housed the FC carb. and airscoop. This process was an exercise in patience (and as I am sure I have mentioned before this is not my strong suite).

The last of my expoxy resin was used on the first pass at the patch. I laid up two layers of fine cloth on the 'finished' side of the hole holding it all in place with my favorite tool (packing tape). Once this had dried (24 hours! as I was low on hardener). I laid up some Nidacore material in the inside to approximate the thickness of the original panel. It turned out pretty nicely.

Then I bonded the new fairing onto the opening over the fuel system. To ensure a good bond, I applied resin to the mating surface and then used several counter-sunk rivets to firmly clamp the two pieces together. Shown here is the nearly finished product. I am fairly happy with the result given my crude fiberglass skills and the tools at my disposal.

Once I had applied a little more resin mixed with microballs into a paste to the flange areas, I rough sanded the flange areas and the top of the new patch over the carb inlet area. Then I sprayed on a little filler-primer to see how much surface work was left to do. Pictured here is the 'raw' piece. Tomorrow night I will block sand the entire repair area and feather in the flange areas a little better.

Then comes the 'fun' part. Lightweight Bondo will be applied to smooth out the shape a bit and ease the transitions...

With a little luck it will be ready for paint this weekend...

Head on view of the semi-finished product. I still need to make the mounting plates to affix the scoop to the airbox and then lots of wet sanding and spot putty work are in my immediate future...

It is a little hard to see with all of the parts behind it, but I am pretty happy with the way the pieces turned out. There is very little (if any) protrusion into the airstream. I went a little large on the airscoop opening not knowing how much my helmet will interfere with the air flow into the air box, but the beauty of this approach is that I can easily go larger or smaller on the scoop later without redesigning everything else.

Sean