Fuselage wall - right side inside glassing

Here is the right side (inside face) of the fuselage. I started out by cutting the UND fibeglass cloth per plans at 30 degree angle.


Test fitting the cloth onto the fuselage foam.


I made sure to label the orientation! This will help orient the cloth when I actually have to glass it. Notice the side-stick recess.


I rolled all the pieces up and labeled them so that I knew which order I had to use them.


Mixed up some slurry to prep the foam.

Here is the right side fuselage with slurry applied.


 My gf Elle helping me out... check out her hazmat suit! Notice the squeegeed area in the aft fuselage... the fwd section fuselage about to be resin'd.


Here is the first layer all wetted out. I was surprised how easy the side stick recess turned out to be. I poured epoxy in and worked it in by hand. I then applied pressure all around the rim to remove any air bubbles and smoothed everything out.



Here's a close-up. Never mind the sharpie marks. This was just a reference on the fiberglass cloth so I knew where to roughly position it when laying the cloth out onto the foam.


Here is a close-up of the seam in the middle of the fuselage (BEFORE wetting out). The plans specifically say to NOT overlap the seams nor to trim the selvage. So I butted the selvage up against one another and later used peel-ply over the seam. This worked great! Once dry, you can't even tell the seam was ever there!(note: I took this picture before wetting the cloth out; the resin from the slurry is seeping up into the cloth.)


Here is the second layup (before applying resin and wetting out).


After the second layup was complete, it was time to install the top longeron. Here I am mixing up some wet flox.


Applying the wet flox onto the top longeron. Then the stiffener.


Here is a pic of the top longeron and stiffener installed.

(UPDATED NOTE: while working on Chapter 21 - the strakes, I noticed I installed a 0.5" thick stiffener. The plans show a 0.4" thick stiffener. At the time, I thought nothing of it and installed the 0.5" thick strip. Problem with that is 0.1" will have to be milled later in order to make the cutouts for the baggage compartment cutouts - see plans pg 21-2. Not a big deal, but if I were redoing it, I would have purchased a 3/8" thick strip instead of 0.5").


I used a paint roller with a foam tip to apply pressure on the entire surface. This helped get rid of some tiny air bubbles and made the entire surface perfectly smooth.


The next day, after a full cure, I installed the lower longeron. I started out by dry-fitting the longeron into place. First, position the lower longeron such that the middle flat section (the fuselage stations where the height is 20.5") is level. Also, I made sure the tip ends were flush at the fwd section.


I temporarily held the longeron in place with clamps, and nudged them until it was perfectly at the 20.5" mark.

 

Once satisfied, I match-drilled the span of the 20.5" and held the longeron in place with nails and clamps.


I then worked my way up towards the fwd section, measuring the height and bending the longeron to the values stated in the plans (corresponding to the correct fuselage station).


After the fwd section was match drilled, I proceeded with the aft section and repeated the same steps.



 Here, I am making sure the aft is exactly 16" so that it will match with the firewall cutouts.






After everything was aligned and match drilled, I removed all the clamps, nails and lower longeron to get ready to actually wet flox it in place. (Don't pay any attention to the sharpie lines; these were only used as a reference when I had to lay the fiberglass cloth onto the foam.)

 

I mixed up some wet flox and applied it to the lower longeron.


I then placed it onto the fuselage, starting with the middle flat section (the 20.5" height section). I then inserted the nails and clamps.


Just like dry fitting, I worked my way up towards the fwd section...


And finally towards the aft section. Here I am pushing the longeron into place. I then inserted the nails, which fell perfectly where I had match-drilled them during the dry fitting stage.


After everything was positioned and clamped, I wet floxed the LWX and LWY pieces into place. Notice the outlines showing the center section cutout. I used these to align the LWX and LWY parts. 


I then used a heavy box to weigh the LWX and LWY parts in place. My OCD made me remove the box and re-measure the distance of the LWX and LWY pieces 3 times! (I kept worrying that the box would move the pieces!!!)


The next day, after a full cure, I used the vibrating multi tool to trim all the sides. I only cut it to within 1/8". I will later use my router to trim everything perfectly flush.


I then used my router to apply a 1/4" radius on the lower lip of the top longeron. This is to give a smoother transition and will let the fiberglass reinforcement strips a nice bend to conform to.

 

Notice how the radius transitions from the longeron to the stiffener.



 And there you have it... the right side inside fuselage glassing complete!