Very much like the fact that you proceeded to rework your first attempt, to improve upon it because you weren’t satisfied with the initial outcome. It is the learnings, insights and expertise we develop from ‘doing’ that allows us to produce better results each time around. Bravo 👏
That's true. My neighbor is a fiberglass master and sometimes I feel like I want to take the cowl or some other part to him and say, "here...can you make this for me?" But if I did that, then my skills would never improve. Same with painting-I'm still not very good at it, but the more I do it, the better I'll get!
Great channel - ony just saw this video. Many years ago I was in motorsport when carbon fibre was all new, we used to do mods similar to your cowl blister & try to make it look like we hadn't screwed up and had done a rework.... next time think in reverse & make a mould with the foam - cut out your blister like you did, plus about 5-10mm all around, then work the foam to fit the outside of the cowl. With a marker pen mark the extent of the cut hole onto the foam from inside the cowl. Remove the foam & now sculpt out the blister, like when you peel out a melon with a spoon, on the bench. When you are happy, give it a quick coat of jelcoat or even paint to get rid of the worst of the foam cell roughness. Doesn't need to be absolutely perfect. While this is drying, attack the inside of the cowl by grinding/sanding away from the hole blending out about 30-50mm from almost a knife edge at the hole edge. Once the jelcoat is dry, apply mould release to the mould block then tape the foam block in place onto the cowl. Apply a liberal layer of clear jelcoat into the blister mould (doesn't need to be clear if you are going to paint the final cowl), making sure the jelcoat loads into the edges of the cowl cutout, but don't clearjel the cowl fibreglass that you have ground away - if you do too much, grind the excess off with a dremil. Now lay up a couple of layers of carbon (or glass cloth in your case) out to where you ground back the inside. This gives a strong joint of the blister to the cowl - doing it to the outside tends to give you only a small structural bond area between them. Once all dry, the inside can be given a quick touchup, and the outside just needs a quick sand & polish, and at worst if you are doing it with carbon & clear jelcoat, you might just get one or two little bubbles to fill :-) Looks a million bucks, next to no extra filler if any, and a strong bond. Another trick to check clearances - get some plastercine/modeling dough and roll beads then press lightly to have then stick on one surface - sometimes a tiny bit of hair dryer heat helps it soften if it's a cold day, then fit the component & the indentation should give you the dimension (we used the same trick on pistons to double check valve clearances!) Looking forward to more videos :-)
I’m building a Sport Performance Panther and I think your video is going to help me a lot in making corrections to a very poorly fitting rear tail feather faring. Thanks again for the great video.
Thank you for your videos! Not only are they helpful for specific task guidance, the opportunity to witness the patience and creativity required for homebuilding is a welcome opportunity to calibrate my approach to my own kit project...The journey is the destination.
Nice work Mark. I think you need one on the other side, then you could paint them to look like eyes. When you eventually take those valve covers off to fix the rub mark have them all powder coated a color to match the paint job. Congrats on the 10,000 subs.
As i get closer to launching my build, I'm delving into learning all kinds of ways i can fabricate parts. Learning from Mark, here, Mike Patey for the doors, Rob Caldwell for some of the ideas he has, and so on. Thanks Mark. Appreciate the lessons.
I have done a little fiberglass fabrication and appreciate learning more from your videos! I've had the same experience as you - the second attempt always goes better than the first! To say the second fairing looks like the cowling came that way from the factory would be an insult - yours is very nice!
Excellent video, I’ve only worked with flat fiberglass parts, was looking forward to seeing how you were going to make the blister. I also like how you do a combination of voice over narration as well as the normal live video. Cheers
congratulations on all the subscribers... I had a Kit Plane many years ago with a 584 Rotax, I had a similar issue and I realized with the engine torquing and either left or right turn, the engine would sway a bit and still touch the cowling. anyway, good luck. thanks for the update,
Great job. I do the same as u. When I’m not happy I just redo till I’m happy. Also you could of left foam in and used acetone to melt it away after glass is formed.
Other than the crap of the bubble! You know? Weh! I thought the process could be done as such, its another thing to have somone agree and show thier work! Again, ugh! We make things work
Nice, work. I have a few questions about the materials used. What is the handling time and cure time for the epoxy resin used? Do you recommend epoxy with microballoons as an option to your filler paste choice? Thanks, Kurt
Pretty good! Did you make the cowel from scratch? I need to see the process. I have plans for an ultralight, and am confident I can handle all the other stuff. I'll need to build a cowel from scratch. Thanks!
Yes just look on my channel. I've made a few videos on the way I fiberglassed some parts. I say "the way I.." because there are many different ways to make fairings!
Not bad. I am not sure weather I would still have worked it from inside the cowl. I also think if I was to do it as you did on the outside I would have used the smaller piece of fibre glass and worked out as that might have made the steps less pronounced. Just some thoughts, what do you think?
@@KitplaneEnthusiast I agree if it was a structural part, going onto structural laminations, if it was I would step back the layers in the main piece and then do a step out repair and vacum bagged to remove the excess resin. It depends on the application. Personally I would have made the hole bigger still and gone to the inside, for your application if I wanted a structural bond, as you are bonding on GelCoat, which is non-structural, it makes little difference. Just my view what do you think?
Did you do one on the other side to match? When I needed to do this on my road race motorcycles I would put the patch on the inside. Cut some cardboard to the radius I wanted on the outside apply packing tape and then lay down lightweight fabric that would easily form to the shape wanted. Then lay down extra layers as needed then fill the outside edges with epoxy and micro balloons, there isn't any strength in the epoxy. Sand smooth and prime. :D
Craig, I need to mention this more often, but I used to repeat in my videos that I am only showing you how I did. But keep in mind there are 100 ways to do the same thing. This was my method, and there are many other methods that will also reward you with perfect results.
