King's MK4 Coyote Build

[2bking]

A couple of things I needed to do before the Lizard Skin application involved the trunk area and DS front bulkhead. I have the ISIS Power Cell, Mega fuses, and battery in the trunk but I hadn't completed the doors for these compartments. I made these doors (sorry, no pictures) with piano hinges and used the #8 screws and thread inserts to keep them closed. The DS foot box has some unused holes that needed to be plugged as well. I didn't like the flat block-off plates supplied so I made some with a better finished look. I machined some simple mating blocks with the different hole diameters to do this with and used a HF 10 ton press to form the plates. The large one had some stress in the outer edges that produced some potato chip waviness. The cuts relieved the stress and flattened out the edges. Here are the parts before installation:
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I also formed the block off plate for the side slot. I used the factory supplied plate and formed it by hand using strips of scrap aluminum and a small hand press. It was fairly easy to do. Here are pictures of all the plates installed:
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The Lizard Skin was next. The instructions indicate it will stick to bare aluminum but I opted to apply some aluminum primer to ensure a better adhesion. Sanding wasn't necessary before the primer but clean surfaces were needed. I used solvents to clean the parts and remove any silicone left behind around the seams. I masked the surfaces not needing the Skin and lightly primed them. I purchased the Lizard Skin spray gun for the application and a gallon of both sound control and ceramic insulation. The sound control goes on first if you are applying both products. The gun comes with a right angle tip for application on the undersides and I only used it on the PS foot box. The straight tip was used on all other places. Some drying is required between coats so it took two days to complete the job. The sound coat was applied to all panels but I only applied the ceramic insulation to the surfaces around the cockpit and heaver where the hot areas are known to be. It's a latex based product and easy to apply and clean up. At this time it's not completely dry but seem to have a hard durable surface. Of all the post about the product, no one seems to have complaints. Here are some pictures with and without masking:
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I can now start wiring and not have to dissemble the parts again.