Baggage compartment floor

[alexM]

My project came with the largest sewn baggage compartment possible with the series 5 fuselage.

In my pile of parts I found a cardboard template for the baggage compartment, but I did not find anything to make the floor out of. I have read that it is balsa core material and that was about all I know. I assumed it was a sandwich panel.

Well today I needed to run to my hangar to look in my 912 cowl box to aid in selling that complete set of fiberglass parts and I found two things I was absolutely sure I didn't own: The fiberglass glare shield piece for my instrument panel, and a flat box with two pieces of end grain balsa core material. Score!

I can't fathom that the balsa is usable without skinning the top and bottom with fiberglass or maybe even super thin aluminum sheet.

Is the core material normally all that is supplied or should I plan on doing some fiberglass wet layup?

TIA

[Eric Page]

I just bought the baggage compartment kit from Kitfox. The sack is still on backorder, but they shipped the floorboard. It's a sandwich of balsa with fiberglass on both sides. The balsa alone measures ~0.430" thick, and the overall thickness of the layup, with the peel-ply pulled back at the corners, is 0.500".

It appears to have been CNC cut from a larger sheet, so the exposed edges are bare balsa. Presumably what's what the message about varnish, written on the peel-ply, is about.

26517

[N14ND]

Your baggage floor should already be laminated with fiberglass on both sides. I would steer away from doing your own sandwich core layup. It can be done but I would only do it by vacuum bag and infusion so that the epoxy has better adhesion to the balsa and there’s no dry spots in the glass. Balsa tends to wick the epoxy and leave dry areas.

The edges of bare balsa can be covered with structural adhesive.

[JoeRuscito]

My floor delivered with my kit had the fiberglass faces and peel ply. No note about varnish so I removed the peel ply and installed as delivered. Seems to be holding up great and I load the back often. The edges are
Still bare balsa.


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[airlina]

My floor delivered with my kit had the fiberglass faces and peel ply. No note about varnish so I removed the peel ply and installed as delivered. Seems to be holding up great and I load the back often. The edges are
Still bare balsa.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Same as Joe , plus added a thin carpet runner to protect the surface , 18 years later still good, Bruce N199CL