RED BAR : THURSDAY MAY 8th 2008
Bob Deans and I were in the barn sitting in our lawn chairs with cool aid in hand taking a pre work break when Larry Lyons came in the door. At this point, the fuselage looked great and we were ready to proceed with the last coat of Poly Fiber. However, we had noticed previously that in the process of gluing the fabric to the bottom longerons some months ago, we got a little over enthusiastic in some spots and the fabric went too far around the longeron. Result? A small pucker at the top of the longeron. It is one of those things you ponder and must decide whether to accept or try and fix and risk making it worse. It was now or never because it was time for the last coat of Poly Fiber. These small mistakes are the Ying and Yang of group projects. I just didn’t catch it when we glued the fabric that night last winter.
It had been gnawing on Larry for several weeks too. He came through the door with a solution………..him!
Larry suggested we try to fix it and he had an idea. Being as he was the smallest and spryest of those present that night, he volunteered to go back into the rear of the fuselage and push/pop the fabric away from the longeron. We discussed the process and I added that brushing a little MEK along the top of the longeron would help the the fabric release where we pushed on it. We fetched some short 2X6’s and laid a “bed” in the back of the fuselage for Larry to lie on. Larry stiffened his back, Bob and I picked him up and shoved him through the right door head first…….kinda like loading a torpedo tube if you can picture it!! Well..... kinda, you get the picture.
After he was successfully “loaded”, Bob passed him a can with a small amount of MEK in it, and a brush with the advice to “be careful”. Larry brushed a small spot with MEK way back at the rear of the fuselage and poooooffff……..the fabric came loose just as we planned. It was perfect! We tried another spot…….it turned out perfect. And then another......and another!! We (Larry) progressed to several more spots and they all came out perfect. After an hour or so we had all the spots done.
Have you ever tried to unload a torpedo tube? Neither have I. Well, we did it very carefully so we would not ruin what we had created.
Thanks Larry for insisting on “doing it right” and for volunteering for a suicide mission.