I started out today testing some new hydraulic crimper hex lug dies I picked up off of Ebay (technically I started out this morning with about 4 hours of long overdue mowing and yard work!).  The dies I have that came with with my hydraulic crimper have a slight gap at the edges which results in a flat “wing” on each side when I use them.  I noticed the chrome colored dies don’t seem to do that, so I took a chance on these.  And I’m glad I did.

Here I’ve terminated the alternator’s B-lead connector that attaches to the firewall-mounted BlueSea pass-thru (pic 1).  I then hit the (pre-added) red heat shrink with the heat gun to finish up the connector install (pic 2).

I then did a test install on the firewall pass-thru.  Yes, I also pre-added the white protective boot as well, although it’s looking a little rumpled here.

While I still had some daylight in the late afternoon, I took the nose hatch door and the RAM air scoop outside to knock off the old 2-part polyurethane blue boat paint in prep for some lighter (in weight) spray on paint.  Here we have the nose hatch door before (pic 1) and after (pic 2) sanding.  Yep, I have some weird low spots in there, but to be fair, I haven’t hand sanded it yet with a board.

I started losing daylight and my sandpaper was losing its grit, so I only got about half the RAM air scoop sanded.  I plan to get back to it in another few days.

I then got to work on the top cowl aft stiffener, which I marked my previous chicken scratching lines with tape (pic 1), then built the cardboard dam using the tape as a guide (pic 2).

Another shot of the finished cardboard pour foam dam.

I guess I didn’t get a shot of the pour foam in the dam, since I was in kind of hurry to get out of the shop to grab a late dinner with Jess.

But here is the pour foam after I removed the dam.

Tomorrow I’ll shape the foam and layup the reinforcement UNI, Lantor Soric and carbon fiber plies.