I actually started this clear-coating process yesterday: I hit the air induction tube with 2 coats of clear coat and let it cure overnight.

Today I wet sanded the clear coat with 320 grit sandpaper before then again shooting 2 thicker coats of 1K clear.

A few hours later, after a good initial cure, I mounted the freshly clear-coated Fuel Injection Servo air induction tube.

I then trimmed and mounted the 9.5″ long segment of SCEET tubing between the RAM air can and the air induction tube.

Another couple shots of the installed segment of the SCEET tubing between the RAM air can and the Fuel Injection Servo air induction tube.

I then grabbed a shot to show the alignment between the air induction tube and the RAM air can.

I then installed the lower cowling to check the clearance between the Fuel Injection Servo air induction tube and lower cowling.  Because of the thicker tube wall than expected and fairly thick clear coat my clearance is a bit less than I had reached earlier… just under 1/4″. Obviously not as much as I’d want, but again I’ll take what I can.

I’ll also note that with my dialing in a straight shot between the air induction tube and the RAM air can, the air induction tube sits slightly to the right of center… which means it’s a tad closer to the right side cowling wall.

It’s not untenable, but it is something I’ll be watching… here’s one last shot of the just installed air induction tube.

Tomorrow I’ll be pressing forward with finalizing the air induction system configuration.  I’ll also be pressing forward with other engine components installs.

Today was a huge milestone for my Long-EZ build in that I got the top strake skins floxed on and the strakes closed out.

My first task of the day was just annoying, to be honest.  I found yet another epoxy bead from a tape seam as the light hit the left GIB strake window just at the right angle as I was looking through it. Ugh!  I wet sanded it with 600, 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit before buffing it out with my kit.

Done.  It better be the last time (ok, except for the outside… I know that’s coming!)

Not shown here, but I first taped the GIB windows and fuel site gages back up before sanding down the longerons in prep for layups.  I then vacuumed out the dust (both inside the baggage areas and the fuel tanks) before taping in plastic sheeting to protect the just-painted baggage areas from any epoxy or flox gunk that may ensue from closing out the strakes.

I then took a page out of Dave Berenholtz strake build and covered my open strakes with clear plastic to create a rib/T-hat/LE map for reference later on if I need it.  A 20 minute task that may prove very useful in the future.  Thanks Dave!

I then did a final fitting and prep of the strake top skins.  I also transferred and marked up the T-hat positions actually on the strake skin foam cores themselves.  I wanted to have a quick reference as to where to put the weights once these things were floxed on.

I then removed the strake top skins, vacuumed out the entire fuel tank each side, then removed all the protective tape pieces —fuel vents, drain screens, site gage holes— and then vacuumed again before doing a visual check for any bits of dust or lint.

Unabashedly copying yet another builder, I then took a page from Ary Glantz’s strake build and made up single ply BID tapes that will be laid up on the longerons first, then overlapped onto the inboard underside edge of the strake skins when they’re put into position.  Much easier than the plans method of leaving an inch of glass overhanging down the inboard edge of the strake skin un-wetted-out to then be overlapped upward onto the longeron… as Ary essentially noted on his blog: use gravity as your friend.

I then prepregged these BID tapes.

The smaller ~5″ wide BID tapes in the lower right corner of the pic are the ply of BID that goes from the inboard underside edge of the strake skin and overlaps onto the longeron, only in the very aft where it is sitting on top of the T-hat/flange… so these are separate layups that I used EZ Poxy to layup.  I laid these up on the aft edge of each top strake skin.

I then laid up the forward, longer BID tapes on the longerons using MGS 335 epoxy with a 50/50 mix of fast and slow hardener…. here’s the right longeron with the BID tape in place.

Ahem! I got a little cocky here and should have gone slow hardener all the way because these BID tapes were getting pretty dry by the time I got the actual flox on all the T-hats and strake top skins set in place.  I made it though… just barely.

Here’s the left longeron BID tapes.

I will note that I set the left strake in place first and then moved onto the right side.  At some point I had a bit too much weight in the area above the GIB strake baggage opening. The weight caused this layup to pull back/away a bit as the surface it was attached to moved further down/away.  As I rebalanced the weight on the left strake top a bit later, I wasn’t thinking about that layup.  So once the top skin came back up to its proper position, and with the BID tape well into curing, it simply pulled it upward in its now “elongated” state…. in short, I have a decent bit of bunching right along the longeron bottom/inboard skin seam on the left underside baggage opening.

I clamped the top skin and the longeron to bring the position to the correct height as it fully cured.  I’ll wait to fix this until after I glass the outside tops of the strake so it’s stronger and has support to secure this segment of the top skin edge into place.  Thankfully the right strake is fine.

Since I had just a half of a squeeze bottle left of E-Z Poxy 87B hardener left and a bunch more 84B on hand, I prioritized my hardener usage so that I would ensure the actual perimeter of the fuel tank was secured with E-Z 87B hardener (the best stuff according to Gary Hunter) and then the middle/inside rib tops/T-hats got the E-Z 84B hardener.

Here’s my chicken scratch drawing of my plan:

And here it is in application.  Actually the left strake got pretty much exactly what you see above, while I was able to use the 87B on a few more areas on the right strake since I knew I was in the clear.

Although I do have probably just enough 87B for the initial floxing in of the fuel probes.

I would call the above the “before pic” while this one below is the “after pic”… with the right strake top skin floxed in place and tons of gym weights and other items weighing it down in place . . .

as well as ACS shipping dunnage wood strips taped in place to really get a good compression on the front edge of the foam where it overlaps the leading edge flange.

Here is the front side of the right strake closeout.

The left strake was actually the first side I closed out.  Here’s a shot of that.

You can see I used a lot more standard gym weights on the left side, which is why I had to get more creative on the right side and use other heavy items to weigh it down.

Finally, here’s a shot of the aft side of the left strake top skin closeout.

It was quite late and a VERY long day… time to have a glass of red and celebrate this milestone before jumping back into the fray!

I started off this morning by removing the clamps and the spacers to reveal my flox and glass gatekeeper to keep the fuel vents wrangled in the Turtledeck.  While the glass and flox certainly did the job, it’s interesting to note that the pressure I put on the layup squeezed a good bit of epoxy out of the glass layup and made it fairly dry.

I also grabbed shots of the E-Z Poxy floxed fuel vent lines exiting the aft corners of the fuel tanks via the flange.  I peel plied them since there will be more added to these flox bits when the strake tops get floxed into place.

I then gathered up some 600, 1200 and 1500 grit sandpaper and wet sanded the scratch on the aft end of the left GIB strake window.  If you focus on the electrical cord on the ground you can see how it disappears into a haze… that haze is the wet-sanded scratch.

I then buffed out both the right and the left GIB strake windows… and with the windows pretty much scratch free on the inside, it was time to tape them up for paint.

I also taped up a whole bunch of other things as well in prep for paint.

And covered a bunch of areas with plastic to ensure anything that was not supposed to get paint, didn’t.

I then broke out the primer and hit the pilot right baggage opening.

As well as the GIB right baggage opening…

then the left side in the back.

And finally, the left pilot baggage opening.  I have to say, I really like this gray… too bad it doesn’t cover as well as the gray granite paint.

After a good 30 minutes plus, I then painted the inside of the baggage areas and fuselage with the Rustoleum gray granite paint.

I was a bit concerned with how well it would blend with the previous paint, but thankfully it looked like it came out of the same can!  As I always say: better to be lucky than good. Ha!

And the last couple of shots.  All these pics were taken after I shot the second and final coat of paint.

I’m extremely pleased with how the paint looks.  Moreover, I’m glad I took the time to micro up the various spots of the baggage areas to smooth out the rough stuff.

Tomorrow I’ll shoot a couple rounds of clear coat before moving on to the outboard strake storage compartments and preinstall on the fuel probes.

This morning I started out by popping free the oil heat RAM air scoop cross duct/bridge from the clear packing tape I laid it all up on.  If you remember, I put peel ply down first before laying up the flanges.  I also peel plied both ends for any added plies of glass that will be required.

I then pulled the peel ply and razor trimmed the glass.  Here’s a shot of the outside, which is actually the bottom of the duct/bridge and the sides of course… a shot each end.

I then took a couple of shots of the inside as well.,, again, from each end.

I then got started on the myriad of nitnoy tasks.  First off, I made up the vapor fins that will get attached inside the vapor box, the forward one hanging down from the top of the box, and the aft one attached to the floor.  This will make the air have to do a couple of slalom weaves to get into the air duct… which should significantly help pull the moisture out of the incoming air.

To assist with laying up the back (outboard) wall of the vapor box, I am glassing mini “T-hats” to the outboard edges of the fins to provide some bridge supports for the backside glass.  That’s what all this commotion is in the pic below.

Also, at the very top you can see a spare, previously-glassed piece of 3/8″ PVC foam that I’m using as a pedestal/spacer for the Vapor-box mounting tab Clickbond (see next pic)

. . . the Clickbond to go through this tab which will be attached to the upper aft corner of the Vapor Box with flox & glass.  Note that the tab itself is G10 phenolic.

I then mixed up some epoxy, laid up the T-hat glass on the Vapor Box fins and also floxed the Clickbond to its foam/fiberglass pedestal.

Here’s a shot from the other side.

And here we have the Vapor Box mounting tab floxed and glassed into place with 2 plies of BID.  I peel plied this layup as I did the T-hats above.

Quite a few hours later I significantly decreased the width/depth of the Clickbond base and then micro’d (since I removed the backside glass) it to the BL23 rib… with just a dab of 5-minute glue in the middle to help secure it quickly.

My last task of the evening was actually a REAL build task, as per plans (and CP). I ran the fuel tanks’ vent line tubing from each tank, through/up/over/down the Turtledeck to then pop out the other side.  This is how Chris Randall did his fuel vents and it seemed the easiest of all solutions, so I followed suit.

Here we have the right fuel tank vent lines in place.

And here’s the forward vent line in the left fuel tank in the top pic, and the aft vent in the bottom pic. I’ll note that with all the extra bending and machinations that I went through to get these vent tubes in place, they are not the straightest or prettiest vent lines you’ll see… but they work.  And once the tops are on these strakes hopefully none of us will ever see these ugly things again… ha!

The fuel vent lines coming out from around the GIB headrest reminded me of some sea creature on the ocean floor, tentacles at the ready in search of food… but I digress!

Here’s a shot of the vent lines going through the flange I created to flox the upper strake skin to… note that since I have Mike Melvill’s cowlings that there are shoulder bumps that come forward of the cowling in the corners between the strake and Turtledeck.  Thus, to keep the vent lines out of the cockpit, and put the transition holes out of the tank on the top vs the side of the tank, I ran the fuel vent tubes along the aft longeron to then upwards into the Turtledeck.

Another shot of the fuel vent line tubing, both on the side of the longeron and entering the Turtledeck.  Ok, and the weird stuff coming out of the middle!

It took a fair bit of finagling to get the lines around the top of the GIB headrest and out the other side, but I eventually got them all.  Thank God I gave myself extra length on these tubes, because I tore the ends to hell getting them out of the interior Turtledeck.

After I layup all the extra glass on the Turtledeck for the top cowling mounting flanges and then micro finish it in prep for paint I’ll trim the fuel vent lines flush with the surface of the Turtledeck.  Again, this is how Chris Randall did his and he has a ton of years of trouble free flying with his fuel vent tubes configured this way.

I’m not overly pleased with how these vent lines look inside the Turtedeck and I am honestly pondering how best to hide them.  Regardless, there they are in their current state.

BTW, here’s how those Vapor Box fin T-hats turned out… not bad for a ply of BID each side.

After I did my minor/myriad tasks above, I took a bit of time to make up prepregged 2-ply BID tapes for the duct/bridge when it comes time to glass that in place.  I also prepregged 2 plies of BID for the aft/outboard wall of the Vapor Box to close that out.

And with that… I definitely called it a night!