December 2, 2008 ...  Today, I concentrated my efforts on molding a landing light lense. After four tries I found the perfect combination of time, oven rack height,  and oven temperature that formed the Lexan. It may vary from oven to oven. But the winning combination for me was about 35 minutes, at 310 degrees, with the oven rack one position up from the bottom. The trick is to achieve a a nice steady heating of the plastic, and gently forming the plastic as pliability allows without forcing the shaping process. If you try and heat it too hot, too fast the Lexan will develop an orange peel look and tend to warp.. The photo to the left shows the finished product prior to drilling.

December 4, 2008 ...  My clay for for the NAV/strobe fairing is dry. So I baked that solid according to the instructions which came with the clay. After the clay cooled down, I was able to sand it smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. After checking it against the template, I found that I got a little too carried away with the sanding. So that will have to be built up with some Bondo.  That's not all bad because the Bondo will allow me to sand it out even smoother.

December 6, 2008 ...  I squeezed in a few hour in the shop today, and they were productive I applied a couple coats of Bondo to my NAV/strobe fairing (clay) form. In between drying and sanding the Bondo fills, I cutout the landing light lens back plates that will hold the nutplates for fastening the Lexan landing light lens. I then laid out the holes in the leading edge where the mounting screws are going to go, and (match) pre-drilled the leading edge and back plates.

December 8 & 9, 2008 ...  'Not much "wing time" these last couple days, so I worked on the final shaping of the NAV/strobe form. It took a little more Bondo work, then flling with some glazing/fill putty and a final sand with 220 grit, then with 600 grit.  I also built the box that will hold my Plaster of Paris mold..

December 22, 2008 ...  I installed a hoist to assist with lifting and turning my wing over. If you are interested, you can find more information about that by going to "Project Prep", Page 03.