Day: September 25, 2011

I got several fiddly things done today so when I get over to Ken’s next time I should be able to make some good progress. The main thing was that I did the stitching on the cover and it turned out pretty well. It means that I can now get rid of two rather unsightly plastic patches – two, because although the stitching had only gone on one side, I put a patch on the other side too to match them up 🙂

Then I turned my attention to the second tank which I want to fit while the fuselage cover is off because it makes access so easy. The first thing was to sort out some large bore connecting tube but by the time I’d finished the work on the cover, our local car spares shop had closed. After trying Halfords without luck, I remembered one that was ‘open 7 days a week’ when I was much younger and used to mess about with cars. I drove there and sure enough, it was open and I was able to buy what I’m hoping will be the perfect plastic tube for the job. When I attached it to the second tank it was ‘just right’ which is always a good sign. It occurred to me that I should also have bought a ‘T’ piece of the same diameter while I was at it because if I can get that to fit nicely to the main tank’s outlet, then I’ll have a job that’s probably as good as it could possibly be without doing work to modify the tanks. Anyway, I’ll have to see about that tomorrow.

I then turned my attention back to the fuselage cover to finish off the afternoon. I’ve always had to put plastic patches on the outside under the fuel inlet where people in the past have allowed the fuel to overflow and it has damaged the Mylar surface. With the cover off and clean(ish!) I was able to replace some nasty black tape on the inside that someone in the past had applied as backing and with that done, I was able to re-do the lower patch on the outside. I bought some extra red exterior vinyl from the people who did my pod graphics and I’m hoping that this will stay on and last longer than the more light-weight stuff I’ve used up to now. Only time will tell though… 😐

So that was that. I’m now ready to fit the second tank (more or less) and re-fit the fuselage cover. The next stage after that will be re-fitting the wings and that really will be a day to celebrate when it happens, hopefully one evening this coming week 😉