Inside of canopy skirt sand and fill: 3.5 hours

• More sanding on the inside of the canopy skirt
• Cleaned and filled some small voids that were left from the layup process
• Added on extra layer of cloth to the bulge for the slider track

Reinforced the slider track bulge:

A little bit of filling on the inside:

Still more canopy skirt sanding: 4 hours

More sanding...

Slowly making progress. All the final dimensions of the skirt are dialed in. I also made a lot of progress on sanding the inside of the skirt.

Canopy skirt: 2 hours

More sanding and trimming of the skirt. Front edges are trimmed and canopy can open properly.

Getting there!:

Canopy skirt: 2 hours

• Measured and marked forward ends of canopy skirt per plans for trimming to clear the fuselage when sliding back
• Trimmed canopy skirt with oscillating cutter - worked great
• Edge sanded canopy skirt

Canopy skirt after initial trim and some sanding:

Working on skirt:

Canopy skirt trimming: 3 hours

• Tried a variety of ways of trimming excess fiberglass and epoxy from canopy skirt ... the best way for me was the small belt sander with 80 grit paper.
• Roughed in the canopy skirt with the belt sander.
• Cleaned up canopy area and applied protective tape for further fitting.

Rough trimmed canopy skirt back on fuselage:

Working on canopy skirt with belt sander:

The shop vac attachment worked great to control dust:

Canopy skirt sanding and lift off (of the canopy skirt from the fuselage): 3 hours

• Finished sanding the sides of the canopy skirt then spent a considerable amount of time on the bump out over the slider track.
• Located and drilled three holes per side for the blind rivets that will help hold the skirt to the canopy frame.
• Removed canopy skirt from fuselage starting at the forward end of each side and working back

The initial three rivets per side:

Removed the skirt from the fuselage:

Slider track bump out required a lot of detail sanding:

Canopy skirt sanding: 2.5 hours

More sanding on the skirt!

Getting there.

Canopy skirt sanding: 1 hour

Started sanding the second coat of micro fill.

It's going much faster than the first round.

Canopy skirt: 6.5 hours

• Finished sanding initial fill layer for canopy skirt
• Cleaned and prepped skirt
• Applied 2nd layer of micro fill

I'm making progress with the fiberglass work. I enjoy everything except all the dust. I wear a respirator and use a shop vac with a drywall dust bag.

Second layer of micro fill applied (it went on much easier than the first and I'm getting better at getting the right consistency of the mix):

A lot of different sized sanding blocks and a good mask are crucial:

After sanding down initial fill: