Getting the Left Side Covered

Today I got on with getting the left side of the AeroCap Covered, as the Pink Extruded Polystyrene Insulation foam is the plan for the finished foam surface.

I also got the rear (Tailgate) strip applied and the overhang trimmed.

The process to glue the additional foam pieces on the sides were to cut the long side peice in half (approximately) so there are two short pices - easier to glue and clamp!

For glue - I decided to use a fresh can of Expando Foam - as in gap sealer foam from Home Depot (Where all the pink foam came from , and a good part of the tools to make the cap.


When Trying to clamp down the first part - I realized - I should make the clamping strips and spacers and attach them to the piece of foam before sticking it down on the foam glue. So I cut and positioned the Plywood strips to fit and pinned them onto the skin with 2" nails through the already drilled holes. (Strips are well used from work, [scrap] after they have been used to back up laminated shims on back drilling operations.)

So then the next step was to glue down the aft skin piece, using the expando foam, and positioning the skin with clamping strips in place, pinning it down with a couple nails just to start, and then snugging up the clamping straps. I used 4 ratcheting tie downs over the wood strips to clamp and secure the skin, and to pull it down to the contours beneath, and to squeeze out excess expando foam!

The Ratcheting Straps are two pieces, the handle and a short strap with a hook, and a 15 foot strap with another hook - the other end was just but cut - to slide into the ratcheing handle slot, and crank up to cinch down the load. I got it tight enough you could play a tune on it (almost)!

I will leave the straps on the aft skin for a couple hours until after the glue sets up good.