I started the day by applying stripper to the horizontal stab. The darn thing is nearly ten feet long and there's a lot of surface area to it considering I need to do both sides. After this there will just be the doors and the bottom half of the cowl to do. I'll be glad when all the stripping is done.

This is the stuff I used. Got it from Aircraft Spruce and Specialty - 55 bucks for a gallon.

While waiting for the stripper to do it's deed I figured I'd brush up on my sheetmetal skills so I built this cleco holder.

I'd also been mulling the idea of fabricating a couple of stands to serve as fuselage and wing rotators. I figure two of these with different adapters for fuselage and wing will do the job. It was about 30 bucks worth of material from the local Ace Hardware store and a whole Sunday afternoon of cutting, drilling and welding. I still need to drill a few more holes for the height adjustment and rotational lockdown but you get the idea. I'll post the dimensions and plans but let's see if it works first!

The most difficult part was getting those angles for the firewall mount. The adapters for the wings and tail will be much simpler.

Here is the firewall mount adapter as it bolts to the motor mounts. I put the rotational centerline at the midpoint between the upper mount and the horizontal line across the lower mounts. Eyeball-wise it looks about right but we'll see when I test it next week. I think that when the gear is removed it will be pretty well balanced but hey, that's just a guess....

Meanwhile, the stripper was doing it's dirty deed

The Napier stripper is meant to be applied by an airless sprayer (which I don't have). Applying it with a brush can result in spotty results due to the unavoidable uneveness of the coat but comming back over and hitting the leftovers will take care of it.

A final wash and it's done - well "half" done. I still need to do the bottom side!