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Dave's RV-7A Builder's Log
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Date:  6-24-2017
Number of Hours:  6.00
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Cowl & right wingtip

Today was a divided session devoted to fiberglass work, specifically focusing on the cowling and right wingtip. I’m not entirely sure of the type of material that is used in the current Van’s cowlings, but I can attest to the fact that they are very light, exceptionally strong, and are filled with thousands of voids in the honeycomb structure that makes up the majority of the surface. The cowlings are obviously layups that are vacuum formed over some type of mold, but beyond that the composition is a bit of a mystery—certainly not your typical fiberglass fabric as the rest of the pieces are. Due to the way the cowlings are made, and the “fishnet” appearance in the weave, it is literally impossible to see the voids by simply looking, so you just have to start filling and sanding until you get most of them, and then figure out a method to fill the rest. Previously, I had applied two coats of epoxy on the insides, and one on the outside, so today I set about applying the second coat to the outside surfaces in preparation for sanding.

After rolling a coat of epoxy and using a squeegee to force it into the voids, I left it to begin curing and finished working on the left nav light cover. This required a number of trips to the Scotchbrite wheel for removing small amounts of material, but I eventually got the fit pretty good all around and then re-drilled all of the holes. After applying another coat of epoxy to the cowlings I started working on the right wingtip using the same methods as described when installing the left. As is usually the case, the second time around is faster, so by the end of the day I had all of the nutplates installed and was ready to begin working on the nav light. By the end of the day I had three coats of epoxy on the cowlings and was ready to sand once it had fully cured.
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Epoxy station with coat #2 applied

Epoxy station with coat #2 applied

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Initial fitting of right wingtip

Initial fitting of right wingtip

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