Today was a twofer.  Two strakes for the price of one!  Yep, I’d buy that for a dollar (Robocop!)

I finalized the right strake top contour by sanding down the added West 410 fill in the inboard aft corner.  As with many things on this build (and assume many other builds… ahem…), it’s not perfect, but it’s pretty darn close.  Unless someone reads this writeup or they have an insanely keen eye, they’ll never know that area contains about a 0.0217″ dip.
Shhhh, I won’t tell if you don’t!

I then got to work on the left strake, repeating virtually the same process as the right strake.  I used my aluminum “yardstick” to mark the low points, sand just those marked areas, rinse and repeat… and I do mean repeat: about 15 times.

Once I got the top contour of both strakes dialed in and the final sandings under my belt, with both a visual and multiple, multiple feel tests (I do at least a half dozen with my eyes closed to focus on the surface), I then exposed all the covered air pockets just as I did on the right wing.  For some reason these guys seemed to be quite a bit bigger on the strakes.  I’m wondering if that has anything to do with these being hollow as compared to the wings… hmmm, I don’t know.  But expose them I did.

There’s a restaurant in the area that has locals’ night every Wednesday that Jess and I have been trying to make it to for over a month now.  Well, I wanted to fill the gaping divots I just exposed in the strakes, so I whipped up some West 410 using the 205 fast hardener in the mix.  I then filled all the air pocket holes and divots before running out for a nice early dinner with Jess.

Upon my return to the shop, I sanded down my pothole fills, then vacuumed and used high pressure air to clean off both strake surfaces before taping up the perimeter in prep for epoxy wipes…

Which I did next.  All 5+ hours worth.

That being said, I’m really pleased with how these strake epoxy wipes came out.

My last task in yet another very late night/wee hours was to remove the protective border tape, to ensure it didn’t get affixed permanently to the bird!

Again, I’m super pleased with how the strakes turned out and the epoxy wipes seem to have good coverage, at least in my initial take.  For now, it’s super late and I’m hitting the rack!