Matt's RV-8 Project



Matt Dralle's RV-8 Project
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Date:  2-23-2010
Number of Hours:  4.00
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Surface Finishing The Pink Cowling Pieces - Part 1

The fiberglass cowling doesn't have any gel coat, so it has a very porous texture and needs to be filled. I mixed up a giant batch of resin with about a 1:1 acetone mixture which makes the resin very nice and thin. I brushed it on with a medium quality brush. The cheap brushes just left too many bristles on the surface. Once the resin cured - with the acetone added it takes about 2 to 3 times longer to cure - I sanded all of the surfaces down - BY HAND. Not because I wanted to do it by hand, mind you. The resin had kind of a sticky top surface which gummed up the orbit sander's paper in about .003 seconds and I had to stop, clean the paper, and start again. It took less time sanding it down by hand than it would have using the power sander with the sand paper gumming. Once I got the resin sanded down, there were still a lot of pits and so I added another coat of resin and repeated the sanding exercise. I also added a thin coat of resin to the inside of the cowling to make cleaning oil drips easier. Finally, when the surface seemed smooth, I added a few thin coats of primer, sanding in between. Over all, I'm very please with the cowling and super smooth finish. Worth all of the work - now that its done!
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Top Cowling From The Factory

Top Cowling From The Factory

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Top Cowling Initial Sanding

Top Cowling Initial Sanding

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Top Cowling First Coat Of Resin

Top Cowling First Coat Of Resin

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