My rust converter dried, and you can see the texture of the rusted surface. I decided I would smooth it out with some bondo because I could, and eventually spray some of the epoxy primer I use for the plane on it to seal it.
I somewhat rough skim of bondo on the primer drying.
I sanded it smooth with a block, and also feathered the rust converter in a little. For every coat, I moved my masking back slightly.
Next, I used some high build primer to fill a few small imperfections.
Which was then sanded back smooth with a block.
Finally, When I sprayed primer on my other parts, I hit the rocker one more time. If there weren't a bunch of other dents and rust spots on the truck, I would get a color matched paint and some clear to try blending this in, but it's not worth the effort.
In between coats on the truck, I drilled holes for the static ports. I am using the dynon ports that came with their Pitot static kit instead of the vans blind rivets. These require a slightly bigger hole.
I mixed way too much paint for this small batch of parts, and therefore wasted a fair amount, but they are all painted, and I can move on to the next step. I also primed the tie down rings while I was at it.
While waiting for the paint to dry, I started riveting the bulkheads together.
I riveted in my tiedown mounts to the gussets.
I got a little out of order by riveting this bulkhead in before the canopy rail recess. Even with it flay on the bench, it would be pretty challenging to install solid rivets in the lower three holes. I decided to use blind rivets instead.
I finished up by installing the gussets.
