I started out today mixing up some micro, with West 410 added, to do a few small micro touchups/fills.  First off was the top middle underside edge of the left sidewall opening for the canopy latch handle.  When I recently reinstalled the handle it was really tight, so in sanding the perimeter of the opening I sanded a hair to much in the top middle, which was visible when the handle was installed.

Thus the micro to clean that back up.

Also on the right wheel pant I have a depression on the aft side of the seam with the front wheel pant.  So I added a bit of micro there to even the seam up.

And some micro on the aft end of the right winglet intersection fairing… after it cures I’ll sand it and epoxy wipe it (and the other micro’d spots).

Over the last day and into today I really racked my brain in figuring out how I was going to attach the strake hatch doors to the spring loaded hinges.

On the left side I made the decision to go with two 10-32 Clickbonds, that are a bit wider and thicker than my normal Cozy-Girl/Infinity Aerospace Clickbonds.

I placed the Clickbonds into the drilled 3/16″ holes and marked their edges (pic 1) before then removing the top glass and internal foam to reveal the interior glass skin (pic 2).  I also then ground off an edge of the aft Clickbond and drilled flox-grip holes into the Clickbond flanges.

And quickly ensured the Clickbonds fit into the openings I had just made.

After cleaning up the interfacing glass, I then added a couple of plies into the bottom of the holes before slathering the Clickbonds up with flox and inserting them into the holes. I then added 3 more plies of glass over top of the Clickbonds and under the edges of the holes.  I then used up all the flox in my cup by putting it around the perimeter of each hole (pic 1).  After that, I mixed up some micro to fill the remainder of the holes just slightly proud of the hatch door top surface (pic 2).

I then spent another good hour carefully spacing, placing and drilling out the holes for the right strake hatch door’s double button latch.  Here we have it initially in the closed position (pic 1) and the open position (pic 2).

I’ll note that I added a 3rd mounting screw in the center offset a bit higher to better secure the position of the door on the hinge spacer.

And a close up of the right strake hatch door’s double button latch:

I had to wait awhile before I could close the right strake hatch door since I had added 3 stepped plies of BID on the inboard edge of the right strake compartment.  Note the flush latch buttons on the surface of the strake hatch door.

A bit later I pulled the right strake hatch layup’s peel ply and trimmed the glass, at which point I was then able to test the strake hatch door by latching it in the closed position… a couple of shots here:

I also did some edge layups on both the left strake’s door and compartment inboard edges.

And tested the fit of the left strake hatch door after the layups had cured and were cleaned up.

Tomorrow I’ll press forward with these strake hatches and as much on the rest of the bird as possible.