I had a few final things left to do before bonding the door halves.
First up was preparing the stiffeners for the door struts.
I chose to alodine these for corrosion resistance. This gave me a raw metal surface to bond to the door. I roughed up the interior surface for a mechanical bond with the epoxy.
I will be bonding the door halves with the center latch in place. I prepared the PlaneAround reinforcement blocks for bonding and created a drip cover to protect the gear box from any epoxy that might run down from the parabeam that will be bonded above.
I also taped over the seams in the gearbox to further protect against epoxy getting into the gear box. I’ll also cover the back of the gear box prior to bonding the door halves.
I then mixed up some flox with cabosil and epoxied all of the components into place.
As noted in my prior post, I also created a solid stop for the gear rack against the door pocket. I didn’t find that I needed to taper the rack, as the teeth have plenty of engagement when in the closed position.
Once this cures, I should be ready to bond the door halves.