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Stabilizer Tip Building Photos

By Scott Laughlin

5/5/03 - The first step in making fiberglass tips for the stabilizer - the blank cut and sanded to fit. My first attempt involved using the end rib blanks, but they were too small. 5/10/03 - the mold form which will be filled in with Body filler, then sanded. 5/10/03 - Body filler added to the mold. Sanding comes next. 5/13/03 - Sand the body filler. Use the side edges of the wood as a guide. Don't sand down to the wood on top because it sands at a different rate than the filler. 5/13/03 - Apply more filler for holes and where I sanded to the exposed wood. Another round of sanding to follow.
5/13/03 - I used the orbital sander again - the perfect tool for this - and now we have a very nice-looking blank (positive).Now I need to somehow seal this. 5/14/03 - One thin coat of resin, let dry, sand, then apply a second coat of resin, very carefully to avoid drips. Let dry, 5/15/03 - Apply mold release (wax), then mix up resin and apply cloth, then matting. You have to work fast since this stuff dries in a hurry. 5/15/03 - After the resin starts to harden, trim the excess fiberglass and attempt to remove the mold. At the time of this posting I don't know how I'm going to get this out. Step 12 - Victory! After MUCH persuasion, the blank is out of the form. Now another 12 steps or so and I should have some usable end tips.
5/17/03 - Sand the mold and fill bad places (bubbles) with body filler, sand again, apply a thin coat of resin, then sand again then cut four identical blocks of wood and attach to four corners. (how many steps was that?) 5/17/03 - What went wrong? Everything. I mixed too much catalyst and the resin started hardening too soon. The release didn't work. I'm lucky I didn't destroy the mold! If at first you don't succeed.... 6/22/03 - I spent half a day sanding and removing the old epoxy, then filling and sanding some more. This coat is applied then sanded off to reveal holes. It has been a month since the previous photo was taken. 6/22/03 - Another few hours of sanding and polishing to a mirror finish. Mold release wax, then spray mold release is applied. Fingers crossed. 6/22/03 - This is the tricky part. I have wasted a lot of resin experimenting with just the right amount of catalyst. The recommended amount makes it harden too fast.
6/22/03 - Two layers of glass applied. Now let's see if it will let go of the mold. 6/22/03 - Success! The part released from the mold with very little damage to the mold and a perfect blank ready for cutting and sanding. 6/22/03 - Here are the three critical parts. The positive, the mold and the blank that will be sanded and cut some more for a perfect fit on the stabilizer. 6/292/03 - Here's a shot of both stab. tips completed and sprayed with primer. The original "positive" is shown as well as the mold that is still in one piece. 6/29/03 - I know this is not necessary, but for peace of mind, I installed (fiberglassed) a 0.016 strip where the tips rivet to the stabilizer skin.
6/29/03 - This is a great fit. The mold was made from an exact replica of the ends. One step not shown here is the aluminum "fit ribs" inside the back part of the tips. 6/29/03 - The stabilizer is back in it's storage location. I really wanted to rivet the tips in place, but something just kept telling me to leave the cleco's in place.

I would like to Thanks Scott for his kind contribution to this site. ~ cdngoose