While waiting for some deliveries for the canopy work, I took on some smaller tasks. One of them is the installation of the (optional) aluminum fairings.
These give the plane a better finish. In the kit version, the cable plastic guides just stick out of the fuselage. These optional fairings make a nice cover up for them.
They come as 2 preformed shapes and have to be trimmed down. First task is to determine the positioning of the holes for the 6 rivets.
I did this without too much thinking about it. Just took some nice spacing from the notch and drilled away.
On yours, you better think this over and use a bit more spacing away from the notch. The upper row is within the area of the J-stringer in the fuselage and I ended up having to modify my pop dimpler tool in order to be able to set the dimpled.
Fortunatly it worked or otherwise I would have had no way to set the dimple and would have ended up with an ugly pop rivet sticking out. But I managed to get it to work in the end.
Drilled the holes #40 and copied them on the other fairing.
Found the best looking location, made a centerline. Positioned and drilled it to the back of the fuselage. The plastic guide ends at the end of the fairing.
Enlarged the holes #40 for the countersun pop rivets and marked the rough cut line to lighten the part and make the shape look better.
Used the 3M wheel to take away the excess material and sanded it smooth.
Finished result looking pretty nice.
