Chapter 4

Santa making a list and checking it twice.

Seat back cut to size and ready for trimming the angles.

This is how I cut the 45 degree angle on the bottom of the seat back. I clamped a straight edge to the bottom and top of the sheet in the correct positions then used a hacksaw blade to trim off the edge. Worked great! Notice my trusty Stanly utility knife with the extendable blade. It works great for cutting the foam just take several shallow passes.

In my original planning I decided to go the cheep route and not purchase a sticky stuff pump and to just measure everything by hand. Many people have done this and my hat is off to them. I however did not have such good luck. Somehow my mixture got way off and I ended up ruining my first few batches on the seat back. It took several days to cure and never really did get completely hard. I ended up scraping the part and ordering new foam from Wicks "along with a brand new epoxy pump". I have had much better luck since. The moral of the story, I wont discourage anyone from trying to do it by hand. It has been done and very successfully I might add. But I really don't recommend it, "just my 2 cents worth".

For Christmas this year I received a Fein Multi Master, hands down the best tool ever built. It was designed to be a small detail sander but the head instead of just vibrating actually moves back and forth very slightly. If you have ever had a broken arm it is very similar to the tool the Dr used to remove the cast. The tool comes with a small half round blade that works perfect for trimming the fiberglass lay-ups. It will cut through the 22 bid hard point lay-ups like butter. Before I got this tool I burned up 2 brand new band saw blades just trimming the edges. If you buy no other tools to do this project make sure to get this one. I will post a picture of this marvelous machine when I get a chance.

I have read in the archives many times of the problems other builders have experienced with the screws in the firewall that are floxed in to hold the rudder pulleys in later chapters. No mater how hard you work to flox them in place it seems they work loose causing problems when trying to tighten the nuts later when you can no longer get at the screw heads. There has been several other ideas that work fairly well but I decided to try something completely different. I stumbled on to an item called an elevator bolt at Lowe's and figured it would be perfect. They were originally designed to hold the ends of a conveyor belt together and be flush on top to not snag. They have a large round flat head with no screw slot, the shank is squared off at the base like a carriage bolt so that it holds itself in place when it is forced into the wood. The bolt itself is 1/4 inch so is bigger then the plans requested screw but I don't think will cause any problem.

I first used a 1 inch speed bit to counter sink a spot on the back of the firewall to recess the flat head.

I then used a scrap of hard point lay-up and a nut and washer to pull the bolt into the firewall, after first buttering the recess on the back side with some dry micro to fix the bolt in place. This idea may come back to bite me but I guarantee these bolts will not turn loose.

I am almost done now with chapter 4 with only the front side of the firewall left to glass. I will post the customary picture of all the bulk heads lined up when I get a chance. Can't wait to start Chapter 5 and start making some BIG parts.