Finishing Kit

I believe I have reached another little milestone today. After about an hour of careful sanding with fine papers, this is finally at a point where I don't think I can improve it any more. Is it perfect? No. I don't think that's achievable. But after checking it over thoroughly one more time, I think I'm going to call it good to go. I decided to pull the orange tape, remove all the masking, and see what the finished product looks like. I wanted to see how the finished line looks all along the bare plexiglass, and make sure it's smooth. Here it is.

The little dark blotchy areas you see are simply the darker material that I had sanded down to underneath. It looks funny, but it's okay. It's smooth and ready to paint.

I lifted the canopy up so I could examine it some more. The orange tape left a very thin 7 mil edge on the fairing. It's perfect. It's hardly enough to catch your fingernail on, it's so thin. So I'm pleased with that.

After being so careful for so long to keep the plexi covered and protected, it's almost a shock to see it exposed.

I climbed inside and lowered the canopy and sat inside for a while. I really like doing that! Everything looks good from the inside.

I'm anxious to get a coat of paint, primer, or something over this work now that it's at this point. I won't feel 100% like I'm finished with it until I do that and make sure it looks good. But I'm not sure what to use. I'll have to look into it. It's funny, I've been concentrating so hard to get it to this point, I haven't even thought about what to paint it with when it's done. Just leave it like this until I paint the airplane? I don't think so. It looks blotchy, and this sandable primer is soft and easily damaged, and I don't want it to get dirty or smudged up. It needs a protective coat.

Next, I need to pull the canopy off the plane and finish up with some details on the inside. Interior paint needs touching up. I also have two more tasks remaining. I need to install those latch lugs at the rear of the canopy frame, and the handle on the inside. I still haven't done that. But it's nice to think that that's ALL that's left and my canopy is finally finished!

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