Ch. 6 - Fuselage assembly - Part 16

Taping the floor (10.5 hrs)  

The last step in this chapter is to apply BID tape to the intersection between the floor, and the rest of the fuselage. F-22 is left alone for the time being, and the rear face of the front seat only gets a flox corner (as previously discussed).

With the fuselage bottom permanently attached, I found it useful to “bank” the fuselage 90˚ on the saw horses to gain better access without braking my back. Nearly a third of the time involved was spent sanding, cleaning up peel-ply leftover strands, and in general prepping the surfaces for the layups to come.

Getting the BID tape ready

There was nothing inherently new about this step, so I’ll just fast forward to the pictures.

Taping the "port side" of the cockpit

Forward of instrument panel taped and peel-pied

Taping the back seat

Passenger compartment "port side" taped

Front seat, left sidewall, and rear face of instrument panel taped and peel-plied

Fuselage flipped 180˚

Cockpit "starboard" side with fiberglass tape

Passenger sidewall junction with BID tape

Cockpit taped and peel-plied

Forward of instrument panel with peel-ply over BID tape

Rear compartment finished and curing