Today I finished Dremeling the dead micro & foam off of the Left wing root surfaces that will get glass-to-glass layups when I glass the wing root rib.

I set the Left wing nose down propped up on a wood step situated so that the wing was leaning along the work bench.

I double checked & made some minor finishing touches to all the wing root surfaces that were going to get glassed, then I vacuumed the entire wing root area.

I located the glass that Gina had cut for me last year for this wing root layup & inventoried it all.

With all the glass on hand I started the Left wing root rib layup.  My first order of business was putting a flox fillet around the 3 exposed sides of the 1/4″ aluminum extrusion (LWA6) in order for the glass to have a smooth transition around this hunk of metal protruding into the wing root.  I then used micro paste for the foam corners, any divots and missing chunks, and for the edge of the foam transition to the glass where some of it chipped away here & there.

I then microslurried the rest of the blue foam field & pre-pregged a 2-ply BID layup.  The entire wing root layup calls for 3 plies of BID, but since it was a fairly complicated layup with so many angles involved that I just wanted to get a good glass base in there, and then follow it up with a 1-ply layup to “feel” if there were any issues with the layup.

This layup (#7) was fairly tough simply because of the complex curves & angles involved. Plus, there was a lot of extra glass because of the multiple boxlike 90° sides & the narrowing of the wing profile, and it all had to go somewhere!  But I eventually got all the glass in there, including the 3rd ply of BID, working out the wrinkles and removing any minor overlaps.

I used the Dritz scissors to trim the glass down to within a 1/4″ of the existing glass edges.

I then glassed the stepped 2-1/2″ 3-ply UNI strips layup that started 1″ below LWA6 and was stepped above LWA6 (layup #8).  Once the UNI strips were glassed in place, I installed the very last of all my aluminum extrusions that I had made last year, LWA7, and clamped it in place with a spring clamp.

I peel plied around LWA7 & around the aileron control tube hole (towards the top of the wing root rib in the pics below).  Both of these areas will get more flox & glass later on.  I then let this layup cure after a number of “final” checks.

As the Left wing root rib layup was curing, I pulled the Right wing out of the my Environmentally controlled storage facility (via the window again) & placed it on the work bench (shown in the above pics too).

I started knife cutting the foam on the Right wing root to shape the foam.

I had started to use the Dremel tool for a bit when my cutoff disk decided it was done with this endeavor and went flying across the garage.  Yet another time when I was happy that I always where eye protection, even though it didn’t even touch me.  I had gotten a fair amount done, but with that being my last cutoff wheel, I had to switch bits and the going was significantly slower.

I kept at it for about 45 minutes & then flipped the wing over and began working on that upper inside of the Right wing root.

If you remember back when I was prepping the Right wing just prior to glassing the skin, I cracked the top of the wing root shell and repaired it just prior to skinning the wing.  You can see the micro repair lines in the pic above, and remnants of that repair (a toothpick to hold the foam pieces in place) in the pic below.

I finished prepping the top wing root border edge by hand using a razor knife, PermaGrit tools & sandpaper.

Of course there are always ‘casualties of build,’ and not surprisingly it’s quite often the hands! (or gloves in this case)

I went back to the Left side wing root rib layup and knife trimmed the edges of the glass. The layup wasn’t fully cured so I reclamped the LWA7 extrusion & put a light & a heater on it to help “motivate” it to final cure overnight.