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Center Fuse and Sound Proofing

I little while back, I visited a new friend nearby building a Sling TSi. He is working five days a week, 12 hours a day to complete it in an 8-month timeframe. I think he will.

He gave me a piece of advice that I now realize is very prescient. He said, and I'm paraphrasing, "Jig out the assembly as far as you can in advance and figure out what your build order will be and what other actions you need to take before permanently riveting it together." Well, I applied that advice to the center fuse and figured out the myriad of things I needed to do, know, and have before continuing.


This weekend, I took the side skins and channels back out in order to finish the soundproofing. I finished under the rear seats with the exception of the right seat channels because I need the ELT mounting brackets. My wife helped cut templates, soundproof material, and install.


The view below is from the front of the CF, looking at the void between the bottom skin and the floor skin. The previous builder did not install soundproofing before riveting together, so I've had to devise a process to get some in.


Before installing soundproofing, I clean the surface with a tack-cloth. Here, I pushed the tack-cloth down with a 4' straightedge and pull it out with a shot-line.


My plan: Tie a shot-line to the inserted end of the peel paper, slide the soundproofing in, pull the peel paper back out to expose the adhesive, and use the 4' straightedge like a "tongue depressor" to contact the adhesive. I folded and creased the peel paper back about an inch and added masking tape to re-enforce it (first attempt with re-enforcement failed).


I guided the material into the void and slowing pulled on the shot-line.


The process worked and was far less painful than I thought it would be. However, there are five voids that need soundproofing. Three of them are rectangular and easy enough to insert material into. The two outer ones a triangular with the void opening being 1/3 the width of the opposite side. I'll have to slice and dice the material to get it in.


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