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Fuselage Build Question

ColoradoSolar

Well Known Member
I have a couple of questions. The first one is not specifically 10 related but here it goes. Once I am finished my plane is not going to be painted for a while. Do I need to prime the fiberglas parts?

The second question. I am about to start on the fuselage, however my landing gear mounts are on backorder. Section 25 page 25-3 step 1 it has you use the landing gear mounts to mark Fwd Center Section Bulkhead Assembly for a "notch" you have to remove. I am wondering what is the latest step I will still have access to that area to make the "notch" or do I really need to wait for the landing gear mounts?
 
I have a couple of questions. The first one is not specifically 10 related but here it goes. Once I am finished my plane is not going to be painted for a while. Do I need to prime the fiberglas parts?

The second question. I am about to start on the fuselage, however my landing gear mounts are on backorder. Section 25 page 25-3 step 1 it has you use the landing gear mounts to mark Fwd Center Section Bulkhead Assembly for a "notch" you have to remove. I am wondering what is the latest step I will still have access to that area to make the "notch" or do I really need to wait for the landing gear mounts?

On my fuselage kit (shipped 2018) the cuts in Step 1 were already made-- Step 3 was easy, but needed a fair bit of material removal.

Priming is primarily an anticorrosion thing. I don't think you need to prime fiberglass at all. You may wish to paint those parts with a UV protectant paint if you intend to leave them unpainted for very long. The fiberglass parts are fairly rough and you'll probably want to finish them nicely before final assembly.


EDIT: I would add that before you think about removing material from the center section (STEP 1), check to make sure it is already at the final dimensions specified. If you were to blindly remove material from that area, you would eliminate the metal in which the rudder cable guide bushings are installed and likely have a serious problem. (edit again--I confused Step 1 and Step 3, but the warning stands.) For the gear clearance cuts, you really can't do that once the bottom skins are in place easily without interference from the skins.

Edited again to prevent confusion. I was originally confused about which material removal step the OP was talking about. sorry!
 
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On my fuselage kit (shipped 2018) those cuts were already made--I didn't have to remove any material from the areas noted in that step. (actually, the center section was shipped with my wing kit in 2016)

Priming is primarily an anticorrosion thing. I don't think you need to prime fiberglass at all. You may wish to paint those parts with a UV protectant paint if you intend to leave them unpainted for very long. The fiberglass parts are fairly rough and you'll probably want to finish them nicely before final assembly.

On my late 2019/early 2020 wing kit I had to remove a lot of material to clear the new style 2021 weldments. Over 1/8” in places. I wouldn’t want to try and fit them later. The new center spars have the revised mounting holes but I’d ask if the flanges have been updated. Ymmv.
 
On my late 2019/early 2020 wing kit I had to remove a lot of material to clear the new style 2021 weldments. Over 1/8” in places. I wouldn’t want to try and fit them later. The new center spars have the revised mounting holes but I’d ask if the flanges have been updated. Ymmv.

Sorry, I mistook which step the OP was asking about. I hope my clarification above is enough to avoid confusion.
 
I checked my center section and the cutouts are already there but without the landing gear mounts I have no idea if the cutouts are correct. It seems like I can build on up to the point the bottom skin goes on in that area.
 
Priming is primarily an anticorrosion thing. I don't think you need to prime fiberglass at all. You may wish to paint those parts with a UV protectant paint if you intend to leave them unpainted for very long. The fiberglass parts are fairly rough and you'll probably want to finish them nicely before final assembly.

I was thinking about UV protection. I don’t really want to apply any paint that the painters will have to remove later. Any other options for UV protection?
 
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