Back in July, I prepared my top cowl for paint by removing the weave and filling the pinholes. Now it was time for the same process on the bottom cowl. I was expecting this to be routine, but it ended up taking 15 hours because of a "learning experience".
The bottom cowl was caked with bugs. So I tried to remove them with soap and water. That didn't help. Then I tried acetone. That worked only if I put a lot of elbow grease into it. So in a stroke of genius, I bought automotive bug and tar remover (the extraordinary intelligence behind that decision will become clear soon). That didn't help either. So, I scraped the bugs off with a razor finally.
After sanding the surface to prepare it for its first layer of epoxy, it turned out that the epoxy would immediately separate. The bug and tar remover is designed to leave behind wax. Epoxy does not like wax. So I removed the little area of epoxy then washed the cowl with soap and water. Again, the epoxy wouldn't stick. Then I washed the cowl with Goop, then soap and water. Epoxy wouldn't stick. I washed it with acetone. Epoxy wouldn't stick. I finally washed it off with 91% isopropyl alcohol. Finally, the epoxy would stick. Or so I thought.
I spent hours sanding that off.
I then washed it with two bottles of alcohol after sanding the pants off of it. And finally got to the point where I could apply two coats of epoxy smoothly.
Final sanding before applying a high build primer.
Primer applied. Finally.
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