Brief Description: Fiberglass Molding Around Oil Door - Part 2
I put the metal oil door back on the cowling in the open position and put the hinge pin back in place and carefully closed the door and latched it. This caused the goop to squeeze out the sides a little and formed a bead along the bottom as well. Using the tongue depressor, I gooped on some more and made sure that the whole thing was nice and flat and level, but with about 1/32" of the mixture covering the edges of the door tapering onto the cowling. On the back side, I squeezed the bead back under the door and made sure that the edge of the door wasn't covered as there wouldn't be a way to sand it away on the bottom because of the step in the cowling and the hinge riveted to the cowling.
I let the whole thing setup overnight and then took it out on the lawn the next day and used some 80 grit in the orbit sander to carefully sand the outer surface down so that the metal of the door just became visible. I left the plastic wrap and tape in place and sanded right though it. Otherwise, I would have risked breaking the new fiberglass along the edge if I tried to remove the tape/plastic by hand.
As you can see from the pictures, the door molding came out AWESOME! I couldn't believe my good fortune. And to think that I only had to do it ONCE - for once... :-) I finished the edges with a rat-tail file and a bastard file and gently broke the edge of the molding with a sponge 120 grit sanding block. When its painted you should barely be able to see the outline of the door now.
Sweet!
Backside Of Oil Door With Filler Cleaned From Edge
