Chapter 23/24/25 – 2 more layups

With the help of my buddy Dave Berenholtz, today I started off with knocking out a carbon fiber layup to create the side filler pieces that cover the gap that is created when notching the prop spinner to allow it to be mounted over the prop.  Late last year Dave was very gracious in sharing the dimensions of his side filler pieces to give me a good starting point.

I padded his dimensions a bit just in case, and then today got busy making up one solid carbon fiber layup —using the taped prop spinner as the mold— that I’ll cut in half when it’s time to make up the side filler pieces.

To ensure the plies of carbon fiber were wetted out sufficiently, I prepregged the first 8 plies in plastic in 2-ply layups before wetting them out (I used Pro-Set epoxy here).

After applying a layer of peel ply first on the taped-up spinner, I then laid up the four 2-ply CF patches for a total of 8 plies thick.  You can see the final, top ply is the same hex-pattern CF as the spinner….

Which I laid up next.  With the final 9th ply of CF laid up (pic 1), I then peel plied the layup (pic 2) and left it to cure.

A while back while rooting around in the back seat I measured the lower hole in the GIB seatback with the idea to create a rigid cover for that hole to help keep the seat cushion from sinking into the hole.  I plan on doing the same with the CS spar access hole, which is probably more critical than this lower hole.

Regardless, I had already ID’d at least one of the pieces of carbon fiber that I was going to use for this layup, and simply set it aside for a “rainy day.”  Well, since I had a decent little bit of epoxy left over from the above spinner side piece layup, I decided to knock out this GIB lower seat hole cover layup as well.

It consists of 2 plies of CF, a smaller diameter inner ply of Lantor Soric, and then the final top ply of CF (which will actually face aft).  I’ll note that I grabbed this pic just before I published this post, after I pulled the peel ply off from around the perimeter.

Before it got dark I was also able to get another half hour of sanding in outside on the RAM air scoop.  I’ve knocked off a good bit of paint, but will hit it one more time here soon to get more of the paint off the hell hole cover and flange areas.

Another quick task I completed was grabbing a tie-down strap and bringing in a couple 45-pound weights to attach to the nose tie down point in the taxi light well.  If you look closely there are two large dumbbells peaking out of the top of the nose, which I took out immediately after grabbing this shot.  And yes, the big 45-pound weights are resting on the ground so there is no actual strain on the nose unless it decides to move upward any distance.

Tomorrow I plan on getting back onto some upper cowling tasks and get those knocked out while the engine is still installed.

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