Nastiest part of building an aircraft

[colospace]

I'm sure RV folks would say ProSealing their tanks is the nastiest thing about building an aircraft. But for us Kitfoxers, I nominate cutting and sanding the plexiglass. I thought the bubble doors was a mess, but I just spent the afternoon cutting and sanding on the windscreen, and still not done. That fine powder gets everywhere! I need an assistant to keep a vacuum going right at the work point.

[jmodguy]

crappy cowl...

[dcsfoto]

second that

[jrevens]

crappy cowl...

I agree... this goes along with Eddie's (EFWD Build) recent posts about his cowl also. A little more quality and care in manufacturing these parts would mean a lot, IMHO.

[rosslr]

I'm with you John. I was rather surprised at the poor quality of the cowlings when they arrived - I am no expert but I think in this day and age it would be possible form the cowls to be a lot more accurate fit than they are. Why they can't be close to a perfect fit I dont get.

cheers

r

[David47]

Trimming the doors and the bucket seats has been the crappiest work for me so far. My workshop looked like I was into making cocaine with white powder everywhere....

[efwd]

I believe the FAA 51% rule has part in how finished things are. As it turned out, I found the process of doing my cowl was pretty rewarding. Scary at first but members here have aided that quite well.
Eddie

[colospace]

I agree with you Eddie on the "scary" part of doing the cowling. I really benefited from looking at Tom Waid's build photos to help conceptualize the details of how it should look in the end. (And I can deal with the fiberglass dust much better than the plexi fine grit.)

[Cherrybark]

Both jobs are down the road a bit for me. I'm trying to keep my head down and plod along without stewing about them too much. My firewall forward kit arrived a couple of weeks ago. The quality of the cowls was disappointing at first glance. All part of the shared experience.

Eddie's thread has turned into a "How To" seminar with problems coming up and being resolved a few months before I come to the task.

[jrevens]

I got off on a tangent a little, Gary, but I agree that cutting the Plexiglas can be a messy job... I got that crap in my hair, eyes, ears & every other nook & cranny in the vicinity. I think part of my problem was using the Dremel tool with the cut-off wheel. It seems as though I've had a cleaner time of it on previous acrylic cutting projects, using a larger (3 or 4") cut-off wheel chucked in a regular corded drill motor. The slower speed didn't seem to throw so much dust everywhere.

[PapuaPilot]

I did the same as John, using a die grinder with a 3" wheel to do the initial cuts. Then I finished the plexiglass windows using a mini belt sander. Other than the little pieces getting everywhere I didn't find the job too bad.

[HighWing]

Reading the posts about the windows and cowl reminds me of the old days when I was assembling my first Model IV in a shared hangar at the Livermore airport. Driving to the hangar each day, I would see several hangars with large white patches on the tarmac outside their main doors. You could always tell who was building a Vari Eze or a Glassair.

[efwd]

So Far the nastiest part was putting the wings on and setting the sweep and twist for the initial install. Very stressed out at that time for fear of getting that wrong.
Eddie

[jmodguy]

Just to clarify... The fitting of the cowl was not a problem. The quality of the glass work was poor at best. Some of the most fragile areas (around the inlets) were nothing but a thick area of gelcoat that cracked away at the first flex. The gelcoat around the windshield lip was not cured properly and had pulled up to look like "brain". (Does anyone check this before it goes out?) The windshield trim line on the upper cowl was not even. The separating edge (left and right) thickness was neither straight nor consistent in thickness and the inner layer of the cowl was extremely rough and had to be ground down with 40 grit on a DA sander.
I plan to use the cowl as a starting point. Add some foam here and there to reshape, air inlets for throttle body adn oil cooler, etc etc. Make a plug and then a mold, then a part.

[Brandon Petersen]

Good evening! I hope nobody has heartburn over me chiming in on this topic of the glass parts. For those not aware, we have brought ALL fiberglass in house and is being managed and mostly laid up by yours truly. There are challenges with the age of the tooling and how many thousands of parts that have been pulled from these moulds. We are working to update and repair the moulds as we can. Having said that, anyone who has experienced the focus on finish and quality I/ we have put on the wing shop items specifically can rest assured that the same attention to detail is a primary focus in the glass shop.

I can't guarantee that the parts will be plug and play. I've never seen any fiberglass that didn't require fitting and finishing. Hahaha😂😂

Take care,
Brandon

[efwd]

Brandon, I for one appreciate your chiming in. It should be understood that these parts are unfinished products for us to finish. My wing tips were great. I only had to knock off some gel coat and fill in some bubbles. The lengths were spot on and I didn't have to do anything on the trailing edge. My Engine cowls were pretty good all things considered. Unfortunately, at first glance, a builder is not really clear on what is expected of us and when we see how gnarly the inlet holes are with all the excess material and the jaggedness of the margins, we freak out a little. Some of my edges, at the windshield for example, are straight and leave me little to modify. My fiberglass experience so far has been pretty fun. I bought some fiberglass the other day and put my tear drop bubbles in yesterday.
Hope you get the resources for the new molds so that the parts come out without the holes in the gel coat that you guys are having to use bondo to fill before delivery. Sure glad your providing a decent product that I can work with, i will say that.
Thanks
Eddie

[jmodguy]

Brandon
Glad to hear you are taking this on! You sound like a "get it right" guy. More good news from Kitfox!