Matt's RV-8 Project



Matt Dralle's RV-8 Project
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Date:  2-18-2010
Number of Hours:  1.00
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Silicone Winscreen Internal Fillet - Part 1

Since the external fiberglass fairing around the windscreen is complete, it was time to take a look at the inside. There were a couple of places on the inside where the epoxy filler had oozed pretty far onto the dash. I had initially added the filler to fill the gap in a couple of places between the bottom of the Plexiglass windscreen and the top of the dash. I got a little over zealous in a couple places and pushed too much inside. Once it hardened, however, it was impossible to trim down short of making a huge mess inside the cabin area.

I decided to just embrace the large fillet area and made a nice, large, black silicone filler on the inside. I taped it up with electrical tape first and then added some extra, wide-masking tape protection areas. I wish I had taken a couple of pictures of the area masked off. Oh well...

I got inside the cabin and squeezed a bunch of the black silicone into the area. I used a tongue depressor to form the fillet. The silicone I'm using starts to cure very quickly and forms a "crust" on the surface and at that point you're pretty much done "fiddling" around with the shape. Despite this - and a whole lot of cussing - I was able to form a pretty nice, even fillet all the way around the windscreen/dash intersection. I have a surged piece of carpet that will go over the dash area so most of the fillet won't even be seen. But, like so many things on this project, I've endeavored to make what is *not seen* look as good as what can be seen.
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Black Silicone Winscreen Fillet

Black Silicone Winscreen Fillet

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Black Silicone Winscreen Fillet

Black Silicone Winscreen Fillet

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Black Silicone Winscreen Fillet

Black Silicone Winscreen Fillet

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