Brief Description: Left & Right skirt-sides near aft end
Started sanding the outside of the skirt so that the edge wouldn’t be so thick—then it became apparent that I would end up with a strip of micro. That won’t be good—micro is cosmetic, not structural-thus at some point it would crack and fail. Removed the skirt and sanded down the micro from the inside of the skirt until I was back to pink glass. What a chore—didn’t realize I had put that much micro on the skirt. Two steps forward and three back! Decided that I would try some heat on the area—until now I have not been satisfied with heating fiberglass. Well, one more shot, before I shelve the heat gun. I slid the canopy to the rear and put a block between the fuse skin and the skirt. Heated the area and applied force with a 1”x6” board. After removing the heat, I kept pressure on the board and then used the air compressor to cool the area. Whoo-hoo, the left side now fits quite well. Only a couple of spots that have a gap of about .025” (not a .25” gap as before). I can fill this gap with liquid shim (resin/flox)—same procedure as earlier, just beefier filler. Tried the heat on the right skirt—about the same area as on the left side. After 6 or 7 attempts, I was able to close some of the gap, but not enough. This side is going to take a bit more work. I plan to use the liquid shim method on this side, but it may require some glass as well.
Left skirt-getting close
Right skirt-still a sizable gap just as the curve starts up the side
