Both top skins need to be fitted to the ribs and strakes. I started on the left side.

Yes slits with a razor blade down to the glass, 1/4″ apart.

Well that didn’t work so I made more slits in two more directions. I certainly had a nice floppy piece of foam by then.

I soon saw that my floppy top piece was not going to sit happily and I worked on reshaping BL23 yet again as well as the baffles in-between. After quite a LOT of work it sort of sat OK. I could at least see that it was possible. The small cuts made the top flexible as I wanted but it tended to droop in some places as well.

Eventually I had the top sitting close to what it should and a good result seems possible. Those hundreds of cuts took many hours. I may have to slightly fill in a couple of places to get the smooth airfoil that is required. It has been a significant challenge to blend these two distant airfoil shapes so far.

Here’s the view from underneath and it looks like I am going to win, even though its been the hard way.

With the right side I just did cuts in one direction 0.5″ apart. I took a tracing of the rib and baffle changes on the left side and transferred them to this right hand side strake. Wow, it was quick and easy to do. I must have learned something in doing the left side! Much to my surprise the right side skin sat happily with a few weight on the ribs and baffles. Less cuts worked a LOT better than more cuts. If I had had spare foam I would have redone the left side like this, BUT I don’t. So the left skin will need some careful treatment (micro in the cuts later) so it is strong. It was some relief to have one side a touch easier.

The left side will be like herding cats when it comes time to set it in position for the hat tops. I can’t wait! (sarcasm here)

Meanwhile as I mention cats, there was some work to do on the mouse holes. These allow the fuel to flow between the ‘obstructions’. The ones on the top are less important than the bottom. Having the top ones should allow fuel to equalise more quickly when I’m getting near full tanks.

Here I’ve make more holes in the plans .8″ radius. You might be able to see I’ve also grounded out the centers so I can get a glass to glass micro fill to seal these guys up.

There were 14 new mouse holes to fill with micro here before I can get on with the hat tops. Slow progress but progress all the same.