Today was all about refining the aft bottom fuselage and Hell Hole cover plan, and then filling in the parts of the remaining opening between the two Hell Hole side fills that covered the bottom surfaces of the main gear.

The goal here is to fill in a good majority of the Hell Hole cover, or floor, in small sections that can be somewhat easily and manageably glassed.  The first strip was along the aft edge of the lower fuselage where the Hole Hell arguably officially starts.

I made up a duct-taped-covered cardboard dam/form/mold and secured it in place.  The clamps on each side are pressing against wood strips that keep each end of the flat mold piece pressed tightly against the existing Hell Hole floor.

I then whipped up a batch of pour foam and poured it into the form.

Here’s another shot of the quick-curing pour foam.

I had assistance today from my beautiful helper, Jessica —in her shop debut— as she very adeptly cut, cheese-grated and leveled the freshly inlaid pour foam to match the existing sides.

Here’s the final result from Jess’s handiwork… very nice.

I then walked Jess through her first fiberglass layup as we got the front edge of the inside Hell Hole to aft fuselage edge glassed.

Jess then helped me make up the form on the aft side of the Hell Hole opening, on the front side of the firewall, with a strip about 2.5″ wide.  She whipped up her first batch of pour foam and did an excellent job filling in yet another section of the Hell Hole cover/ floor.

Although I didn’t get any pics, a bit later I then removed the excess foam off this last pour and shaped/leveled it to match the foam on each side.  I then glassed the inside surface with a ply of BID overlapping onto each side and of course also onto the firewall.  All the layups were peel plied on the Hell Hole floor surface (foam) as much as possible.

Tomorrow I’ll press forward with filling strips of the remaining Hell Hole opening in and then glassing them on the inside.