Painting Wing Stays

The small amount of time I had this Sunday was spent drilling and preparing the wing stays for painting.

First used a 6mmØ drillbit to get the holes for support bolts. I had marked the spots when the stays were on the car, so it was an easy job.

After that I was going to use some sandpaper on the stays but then went the lazy route and used a steel scrub on the dremmel and cleaned the surface rust and other stuff on the stays.

Gave them a first coat of black spray, taking care not to spray on the area that will be glued to the underside of the wings; if the glue holds to paint, it will not stay long. Will be spraying further layers during the week.

Nothing worth taking pictures of.

Second Wing Stay Done!

My task for today was to bend and trim the second wing stay and prepare both to be painted. Doing a task for the second time seems a lot easier than on the first attempt. So, got the second stay bent, trimmed and adjusted in half the time it took me for the first one. I was amazed at how fast it went and how similar (although it doesn't seem so in the picture) between stays the bents came out.

Didn't drill the holes in them nor sanded the metal preparing for the paint. Will try to do that during the week, o a night. It would be nice if I could assemble the stays on the car next weekend and spend my time doing something else, like wiring the dashboard...

Cycle Wing Test Fit

Took with me the cycle wings to test fit. The plan was to test fit the right one, get it done and then bend the left stay. As usual, things took a lot longer than expected.

To trial fit the wing, I had to cut the excess metal strip from the stay. Around 5cm had to go. This meant using the dremmel with a cutting disk. It was one of those few times where I regret being to tight to buy an angle grinder... Almost one hour later, had both arms of that stay trimmed and could test fit the cycle wing. The front arm was spot on. The rear arm had the first bent too tight. After unbending it a bit and adjusting the 2nd bend accordingly, had a satisfactory result.

Time to clean, pack and go home. The other stay will have to wait for next week...