For the record, today was yet another 100° day in the shop… but who’s counting!

I started the day off by engine turning the left side CS spar and shoulder 6061 aluminum overlay.

I then put it in place to see how it looked and grab this pic.

I needed to use some of the clamps and hardware from the right side, so I went ahead and removed all that stuff to reveal the mounted right side CS spar/shoulder aluminum overlay.

Not my best engine turning effort, since I was using a new disc and was having some initial issues with the pressure and it “biting” into the aluminum, but hey, this will be somewhat buried behind the engine and normally under cowl, so I’m calling it good.

As I did on the right side above, on the left I completely covered the Fiberfrax and Thermo-Tec with a thin layer of red RTV.  Since the Thermo-Tec is slightly thinner than the Fiberfrax, I put a few thicker dollops of RTV on that small wedge area.

Then, using a 1/8″ notched trowel I applied the red RTV to the front face of the aluminum overlay . . .

and then pressed it into place onto the Fiberfrax and Thermo-Tec.  I only have 3 Clickbonds on the left side, so I used 2 lengths of angled aluminum held in place with wide washers to press the middle area of the overlay firmly against the Fiberfrax, along with the other perimeter wood pieces clamped into place to also keep the overlay secured.

Of course my payment for the entire task above was being drenched in sweat from head to toe, so I took a quick dip in the pool to cool down.

After changing clothes, I got back to work for a couple hours wet sanding all the areas I had epoxy wiped after either some aggressive sanding, micro-filled holes or pinholes that needed epoxy filling: strake leading edges, upper fuselage/nose sidewalls and the upper side of the nose.

I’ll note that the right sidewall just under the canard is going to need another round of micro, since it’s got a few distinct and offending low spots.  It was getting a little later in the evening, and Jess had made a tasty dinner, so I called it a night.

Tomorrow my plan is to knock out the majority of creating the forward heat shields in both wing roots, which will require making up cardboard templates, importing those into CAD, and testing my templates before plasma cutting/bending them.  Also, I’ll need to layup some tabs for platenuts inside each wing root in order to secure the forward heat shields, so it will take a least 2 days for the forward wing root heat shields task to be completed.