I’ve had several concerns about the lower part of the panel. It is a fairly thin strip of glass and I’ve always intended to make it a lot stronger. I’m not a structural engineer, just an eyeball engineer. <grin>

As usual I did the plies on foil and plastic. Three layers of glass here for a 12 ply layup.

Cut to size makes life a lot easier for these 1″ wide jobs.

After the layups were in place I put a bar of aluminium on the bottom covered in grey release tape and used that to get those plies sitting down tightly via the clamps. It took an hour or two after cure to get that aluminium off despite the tape!

While the crossbar was now feeling very strong I had an issue with the edge. It was sharp and needed a gentle rounding. This meant more glass plies. Lots more.

With the thickening plies added I still needed some flox and micro blend to fill a few gaps. My idea here is that I needed strength, not just filler for this edge. My shoes will be hitting this regularly as I get in and out of the plane. Did I mention its a tight fit for the pilot?

Now I have a great edge, rounded nicely and super strong. This cross brace is about 30 plies or more thick. Its like a steel bar. Just what the doctor ordered.

Another view of my glass ‘bulkhead’ brace.