Ch. 4 - Firewall - Part 2

Glassing the rear side of the firewall  (1.0 hrs)

With the lower longeron curing, I decided to start taking care of some old business.

The firewall still needs some work. One ply of BID needs to go on its back side, screws need to be floxed in from the front, then the front needs to be glassed as well.

I’ll take care of the back side first. As you’ll see, it’s pretty standard stuff at this point.

Roughing up the surface with sand paper

Cutting BID at 45˚

Using plastic to smooth BID and eliminate bubbles

After trimming the overhanging BID

Peel-ply sheet over BID

Those pesky epoxy bubbles appeared once again under the peel-ply, right after I left the shop. I decided not to mess with them anymore, and leave them alone. I'll just sand them after removing the peel-ply.

Annoying epoxy bubbles appearing under the peel-ply

One thing that I have kept forgetting to take pictures of until tonight, is the type of knife blades I've been using to perform the "knife trimming" operation.

"Knife trimming" the still gummy fiberglass

I bought these at LOWES. They are designed to trim roofing material, but boy, do they work like magic on fiberglass! 


When the glass is still at the semi-hard stage, these blades go through it like butter, and the hook thing prevents the blade from slipping, and cutting where you didn't intend to. 


Just get them, you won't regret it.


So, here's a last photo for tonight, after knife trimming.

Peel-ply covering the curing fiberglass