Day 80 - Filling slats and attaching hemis

I allowed the Bondo to cure on the slats overnight.  I then detached all of them from the shoulders, trimmed and sanded the excess Bondo off of them, and peeled off the masking tape from the shoulders.

While the other slats were still curing, I worked on the wide center slat.  This was the most difficult slat to position and secure.  In other diaries, I've seen people flatten the front of the shoulder section to get it to fit, but I didn't want to risk damaging that section.  So, instead, I very deliberately sanded and thinned down the underside of the slat with a combination of the belt sander and Dremel.

I ran into trouble, however, when I very nearly sanded off the bottom of the holes I drilled with the forstner bit.  They were paper-thin when I caught what I had done.  Since I was busy Bondo-ing the other slats, I slathered a bit of filler onto the backs of these thin sections to reinforce them.  After that had cured, I finally managed to fit the center slat, and added the rest of the Bondo to fill in the gaps.

The next step was to make the slats a bit more water-resistant, so I mixed up a batch of Titebond wood glue and water and sprayed it onto the front, sides, and backs of the slats, and allowed them to dry outside.

While they were drying, I decided to finally position all of the hemis onto the skirt section.  I hadn't messed with that section since July of last year, so I wanted to make damned sure my drill holes were positioned correctly.  Adhering to the NSD guide, I marked up all the panels.  For the side and back panels (4a, 4b, 5a, 5b, and 6), I needed to compensate by adding a millimeter or two to get everything looking aligned visually.

I shaved off the tags from all of the hemis with my Dremel, and removed all the springs included in my oil seals.  With the springs, I found that the hemis didn't quite fit.

Finally, all 56 were attached.  And now, this thing is starting to look like a freakin' Dalek.  Wow.