{"id":2932,"date":"2010-09-02T08:49:31","date_gmt":"2010-09-02T14:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/?p=2932"},"modified":"2015-02-15T14:35:16","modified_gmt":"2015-02-15T20:35:16","slug":"14-0-finishing-bottom-of-airplane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/02\/14-0-finishing-bottom-of-airplane\/","title":{"rendered":"14.2.1 Finishing Bottom of Airplane"},"content":{"rendered":"
This entry is part 23 of 38 in the series 14 - Final Assembly \/ FInishing<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Now that the cowling (lower) is done it’s time for the PITA part. Sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding, filling. This is what I did to the top of the strakes and wings last year. Some people don’t flip the plane and do this on their backs. I can’t even imagine the difficultly of doing that.<\/span><\/p>\n

First a quick sanding to remove any real bad areas.
\nLeft winglet (remember, it’s upside down)
\n\"2010-08-17<\/a><\/p>\n

Left wing and strake (looking from rear).
\n\"2010-08-18<\/a><\/span>
\n
\nThen comes finding the low spots. Just like the top, a spline (in this case a 6′ piece on hinge rod is used) to find the obvious low spots. Then they’re marked so we know where to fill.<\/span><\/p>\n

The outlined area with the lines are low spots.<\/p>\n

\"2010-08-18<\/a>\"2010-08-18<\/a>\"2010-08-18<\/a>\"2010-08-18<\/a>\"2010-08-18<\/a>\"2010-08-18<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"2010-08-19<\/a> \"2010-08-19<\/a><\/p>\n

The line I cut on the bottom between the strake and wing didn’t meet with Malcolm’s standards (I was laying on my back when I did it). So it’s going to be redone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Laying a straight-edge as a guide will make for a really straight line.
\n<\/span> \"2010-08-20<\/a><\/p>\n

Malcolm has some aluminum stock he uses to make perfectly straight seams between the strake and wing.
\n<\/span>\"2010-08-20<\/a>\"2010-08-20<\/a><\/p>\n

And the fill goes on.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"2010-08-22<\/a>\"2010-08-22<\/a>\"2010-08-22<\/a>\u00a0 \"2010-08-23<\/a> \"2010-08-23<\/a> \"2010-08-22<\/a><\/p>\n

And then it gets sanded off. Malcolm really likes my Hutchins orbital air file. I think that I may have to fight him for it when we’re done. \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/p>\n

\"2010-08-26<\/a>\"2010-08-23<\/a> \"2010-08-23<\/a> \"2010-08-24<\/a> \"2010-08-24<\/a> \"2010-08-24<\/a><\/p>\n

Then it’s time to find and mark the low spots again.
\n<\/span>\"2010-08-27<\/a>\"2010-08-26<\/a>\"2010-08-26<\/a><\/p>\n

The wing mounting bolt access holes also get cleaned up now
\n<\/span>\"2010-08-27<\/a><\/p>\n

And now it’s time to get ready to prime.
\n<\/span>\"2010-08-30<\/a> \"2010-08-27<\/a> \"2010-08-30<\/a> \"2010-08-30<\/a> \"2010-08-30<\/a><\/p>\n

First coat of gray primer.
\n \"2010-08-31<\/a> \"2010-08-31<\/a> \"2010-08-31<\/a> \"2010-08-31<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

And sand to create “the spotted dog” effect.
\n\"2010-09-03<\/a> \"2010-09-01<\/a> \"2010-09-02<\/a><\/p>\n

Next we’ll fill any remaining low spots and put on another coat of gray primer. Then it’ll be time for the finish white primer. <\/span><\/p>\n

The white primer is supposed to have a very nice semi-glossy finish and Malcom says to fly it with that for a while. But painting airplanes is a pain and it’s soooooo much easier to do now. So I’m still on the fence as to whether to leave it in primer or not.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This entry is part 23 of 38 in the series 14 - Final Assembly \/ FInishing<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Now that the cowling (lower) is done it’s time for the PITA part. Sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding, filling. This is what I did to the top of the strakes and wings last year. Some people don’t flip the plane … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"series":[38],"class_list":["post-2932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7","series-14-final-assembly-finishing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2932"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3220,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2932\/revisions\/3220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2932"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocity-xl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=2932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}