Nose floor pans

I started out by taking some H45 pvc (divinycell) foam from a 2"x24"x48" sheet. Using the same technique that was used for lofting the fuselage side panels, I measured everything up and drew the lines.

Here is a layout of how I cut my pieces out of my H45 sheets... (each square in the grid equals 2")

Notice how I placed nails along the tip of the lines and used a scrap piece of foam to draw the spline.

Both left and right floor pans - notice the orientation to minimize foam scrap.

I then used my cordless reciprocating saw to cut the pans out...

This was a rough cut. I later fine tuned it with my table band saw.

It was now time to dish out the floor pans. The plans say this is to make access room for the NG8 disk screws; however, if that were the case, why not just dish out the area under the NG8 screws? My guess is that by dishing out more of the pan increases its structural stiffness - just like all the dished out pockets of the fuselage floor. Think about it - it's the same reason a shoebox is less prone to twist than a flat piece of cardboard. Any who, I simply eyeballed the dimensions and thought of Georgia O'Keeffe as I drew it.

So I started carving away...

How deep? Well, the plans say to go 1" deep... so I drew a line to guide me and also traced the NG30 bottom lip just to make sure there was enough foam left in between.

After rough carving with a knife, I switched to sanding...

I then placed the floor pans into position and verified the spacing between the dished out pocket and the NG8 screws - looking good!

I then prepped all mating surfaces by sanding them...

I want to point out that I had already bonded the NG8 screws in place. I debated whether or not I should remove them - so I decided to remove the lowest screw since it would get in the way of glassing. I taped an over-sized socket to a 'C' clamp...

...and used it to force the screw out. Sure enough, it popped right out - although it did take quite a bit of torque on the C clamp. Notice the socket was used to allow the screw to be inserted into it as it ws forced out (obviously I had removed the nut and washer on the other side beforehand).

In hindsight, I should have removed ALL screws... but I only did the lowest one.

I then finished sanding everything and applied tape to hardware I didn't want to get resin on...

I also applied a strip of tape about 1.75" aft of F22... this way I could trim the glass to a nice straight edge for a nice transition from the nose floor pans to the fuselage floor.

With everything set, I cut the nose floor pan BID cloth (2 plies and a third ply where the pilot's heels go - all at 45 degree bias). I mixed up some slurry and applied it to the lips.

I positioned the pans in place and taped them so that they would not pop out while I glassed the top surface.

I then slurried the surface...

I spread the slurry around and added a bead fillet of flox to all edges - this will give a nice transition between floor pan and walls. I also used some flox on the F22 lip where the floor pan mates.

And ply number one went in... I had to cut a 2" line where the F22 lip comes up...

Pressed the cloth on and made sure there was a 1" lip onto NG30, F1-3, and onto the fuselage floor.

Ply number two...

And lastly, the third ply where the pilot's heel goes... this one only extends about 6" out...

I then repeated the process on the other side.

Letting it cure overnight...

After cure, I used a knife to trim as much of the lip as possible...

And then my router to get that perfect flush trim...

I then hand sanded the lips I couldn't get to with the router...

And that's how I installed my nose floor pans!