My hiatus from the hangar and the build has gone far too long. Yesterday was the 5th Annual Mid-Atlantic Gathering of RVs which means this build has gone on for 5 years and I’m probably only half way. I’ve basically lost almost the entire last year.

Today I had two goals. First, and foremost clean up the shop and figure out where I’m at. Second, do some work on the project. Any work. As it is, I got the first one soundly done, and I was able to accomplish a few tasks as well.

After the obligatory cleaning was complete, I set about filling the corners of the instrument panel top cover in. I taped the area to prevent any leaking epoxy going into places I didn’t want it.

Next I made some foam backing to build the fiberglass against.

I used fiberglass to cover each corner and then when that set, I made some basic fillets using micro balloons and epoxy.

I also made some flox to hold the front canopy opening attachment in place. I scuffed the part first to create a good adhesion surface.

Finally I used some carbon fiber on the center rib. Dan Horton made this recommendation as the modulus of carbon fiber is better suited for this area than fiber glass. He has seen some deformation on hot days due to the strength of the gas strut and recommended this as a good solution. We’ll see how it turns out.

Here it is installed!

Now that many of my house projects are under some semblance of control, I hope to really start getting back to the hangar.