R2: Skirt, Skins and Shims

First up is the skirt. I pulled out my belt sander to work on some shims, and figured while I had it out, I would sand the flash off the back of the skirt. I did a TINY bit of sanding on the surface, and then hit it with a coat of primer. This is a good example of a situation I am going to handle differently on this R2. On my first one, I spent A LOT of time cleaning up all the little problems with the skirt, all the while lamenting the fact that note of that hard work was going to be seen. And it's true, none of it was seen. So this time around, I'm just going to do a little bit of clean up, you know, like the major dings or holes, and then be done with it.



I also did some more work in securing the skins evenly. Ultimately, they are not perfect, but nobody will know. I had to go back and re-glue a few parts, and also drilled a few more holes for screws. Here you can see a new technique I am using to apply pressure to glued parts, so that they will go together more snugly. I'm using little blocks of MDF and masking tape. That way, I get a good amount of downward pressure in areas where magnets would not work. Pretty clever!



Not really exciting, but here you can see where I've glued in five panels on the back door. Only a couple more to go, and the back door will be complete.



And here you can see a shim I am gluing in place, in where the shoulder will go. The idea here is that the frame didn't go together perfectly, and in some parts, the frame is not supporting the skins. I guess in retrospect, I could have just shaved a thin piece of wood and stuck it down the crack, but instead I just glued in a thick piece of MDF that takes up the necessary space. No big deal, but it works.