I started the day with an attempt to fix the sag in the leading edge fairing. Last night and this morning I baked the paint so that I could sand out the run. When I started to sand it was obvious that the paint was still rubbery. I ended up stripping the whole fairing using enamel reducer and a stiff brush. The reducer lifted the paint just like paint stripper and did not even touch the Stits Epoxy primer. It only took 10 minutes to strip the part clean and ready for repaint.
I decided to put the painting on hold because a line of storms had already moved through before 11 am. Between storms I went out and completed the aileron control system. I installed the new painted bushings and rigged and safety wired the aileron turnbuckles. This completes the three primary flight controls.
The weather should be better tomorrow, so for the afternoon I worked on getting the cowl ready for paint. There were still some minor dents in the top cowl so I ran that through the planishing hammer. Then I wet sanded both the top and bottom sections. Next came the chemicals, a through scrubbing with Stits 310 cleaner and then a phosphoric acid wash with Twin Etch. I will let these dry overnight and weather permitting I will get these primed tomorrow.
It will be interesting to see how the nose bowl and all the repairs look with paint.
After 2 hours of being wet, I was done for the day.
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