Front skins fixed panels in place

bonding front skins



front skins ready for primer

Bonding the skins and fixed panels

final jb weld of rear skins



cleaning up rear skins

Sander and Dremel

Tools used (plus sandpaper)

Finally the possibilty of a T&J frame run.

At last some of the guys on the R2 list are talking about starting another run of T&J aluminum body frames. I hope this happens fast. I really need one soon or I'll basically be stuck with no way to proceed with construction. Also, Ward Jones has announced he will soon begin a run of aluminum booster covers. Woo hoo! After that all I'm lacking in the way of major structural parts is a center foot. I might actually be able to pull it all together in time for C3 after all!

Panel painting continues...

Painting more of the body panels. These have 4 coats of Wimbledon White. After this they will get 4 or 5 coats of clear coat.

Clamps off - time to start sanding

Front skins are dry. I removed all of the clamps and now it's time to clean up all of the JB Weld and sand everything to get ready for priming and paint.

Front skins clamped and drying

Got the front skins JB Welded together and clamped.

Sanding the skins before joining

Tonight I'm rough sanding the surfaces of the inner and outer front skins so I can JB Weld them together. After this I'll clean them with Prep All and go over them with a tack cloth. Then I'll JB Weld and clamp them together.

Unsanded outer front skin half:


Rough sanded inner front skin half:


Rough sanded outer front skin half:

Linear actuator

Here's the 11" throw linear actuator that I'll use for the 2-3-2 mechanism:

Assembling the body panels and doors

I have cut, cleaned, and began painting the body panels and doors.

Raw panels:


Panels cleaned up:


Sanded:


JB Welded and clamped:


Residue from sanding:


Prep-All gets the residue off the aluminum for a clean surface to prime and paint:

Painting more dome panels

Again with the Krider Blue method:

Painting the body door panels

Here is what the first few coats of Wimbledon White looks like on one of the tall body door panels:

Dome cuts done.

Except for the main radar eye cut, all dome cuts are done, filed, and sanded smooth.

Test fitting the blue pie panels

I think the Krider paint method turned out great. I put 5 coats of clear coat gloss on them. They really shine.

Painting the dome panels

Raw aluminum sanded and prepped:


2 coats of sandable primer:


And finally the Kelly Krider Holo Blue paint method applied:


Primer used:

Cutting circular holes in the inner dome

I cut holes in the inner dome for the 3 holoprojectrs and 2 PSIs. I used a circle cutting tool with my drill motor to score a deep cut, then jig-sawed out from the center and snapped off the wedges.

Leg-to-body hubs arrived

These things are HEAVY. Kinda look like a race car part. Heh.

R&J Dome is finally here!

And I am very happy about it. Thanks Ron! Excellent work! It was worth the wait and the money.

Some pics before I start working on cutting out the panels and sanding/filing:


The dome ring (shown with my Rockler bearing):


And the inner dome panel cut-outs marked for reference:

Outer legs and ankles

Pics of the JAG outer legs and ankles

More stuff...

Shoulder motor mounting plates, aluminum outer legs, and the linear actuator for the 2-3-2 mechanism arrived in the past two weeks. Been busy with other projects, haven't spent much time on R2, but will get back on it after this weekend's project is done. Ron, where is my DOME? :)
Shoulder motor mount plates installed shown here: