24 Mar 08

Luke called at about 6:58 this morning to tell me he was coming out to help with the hat section lay-up if we were ready to attempt it. I told him to come on. Hunt and I went to get some fittings so that I could cut the white air hose into 2 pieces for use in the hat section lay-up, and then Luke and I were off to the races. We started gluing at about 10:30, finished at 11:00, and had the part in the mold by 12:30. It looked good, and everyone broke for a much needed lunch. Zac was back from his Italy trip, and he and Ben stacked backer boards under the lean-to, moved the body mold down to the hanger at the airport, and helped with the glue-up. Aaron came out to help, and Hunt and Brownie helped, too, naturally. After lunch, Luke went to teach his studio, while Ben and Zac went back to stacking backer boards, and I began looking at an old mold of a part we wanted to remake. Ben, Zac and I took the engine/transaxle assembly off the old lofting table and moved the table into the new building with additional help from Aaron and Hunt. It weighs about 700lbs, so that was quite a task. Zac and I lifted the powertrain onto the table, and Ben began work on an equal-mix glue dispenser. Aaron worked on the 3D model of the front suspension and backed up files for most of the day. After dinner, I came back out to fix a hold-down curtain and ripped some foam block strips for the part we will remake tomorrow. Hunt came up, and my dad showed up from Charleston to help for a couple of days. We pulled the hat section part out of the mold, and it is so gorgeous that sleeping won't be hard tonight. That is a monster part we now have behind us.