Wings, Stainless steps

Hi

Back home again although a bit late as the transport helicopter broke down and we had to wait an extra day on board, nice to be home.

I managed to get a couple of things made when away and these where the end covers for the seats, I had these made of stainless but shall be painting them satin black, they just need the holes drilling for fitting.

I had these made by the ships welder as I have no access to the equipment and he made a great job of them.

The main jobs I hope to get done this time home are the stainless step covers and with the weather forecast due to get worse that's maybe all I'll get done. 

Last time home I cut the drivers side and that was ready for bending and thought I would get this bent and test fitted before getting on with the passenger side and am very pleased I did as the template was a little out and I had a 10mm gap where the cover rises up the rear wing.

So into the scrap bin with this one and luckily the sheet metal shop where I had the bends done had a sheet of used 1mm which just needs polishing up, so start again.

I measured the gap and added 15mm to the template this is 5mm over but I thought it best to err on the side of caution.

Once in position I scribed the excess and cut it off and it needs a little work to square of the rear top edge, I still don't have my wing piping as I changed my supplier to Woolies when my other didn't arrive. So I shall do the final cuts when that arrives.

The excess tab that was shown in my last post has been folded under the step and shall be bolted in position.

I have been trying to figure out how to attach the stainless cover to the step and the wing, I don't know how much flex is in the car when driven and I don't want any scratching of the new paintwork if the covers move back and forth. To hopefully prevent this I have bought a roll of 1.5mm neoprene to glue on the underside of the stainless and cut to shape around it.

This is a 1x1.4m sheet for £18.50p, £7.50p of this was postage as it is quite heavy.

So the plan is to bolt the cover to the step both by the treads and to the underside then use sikoflex to seal the parts of the cover that run along the wings hopefully any flexing will be absorbed by the silicon and any movement will be neoprene to paint and not stainless.

To secure to the underside I cut 3 brackets 

The brackets were welded on and cut then drilled to size.

I was going to have the steps powder coated but have decided that a couple of coats of primer then top coat will do as I shall cover the top and sides in waxoil and the underside in schutz underseal with any gap areas well sealed with sikoflex.

Once I was happy with the drivers side and the mistakes fixed I was able to draw up the template for the passenger side.

The steel was cut and tested for fit before yet another trip to the benders.

It was a bit of a worry when fitting in case I had it wrong again but it worked out to be a pretty good fit.

The piping should arrive tomorrow which will give me a distance to work from and finish the steps, I have also ordered an 8" polishing mop set to convert my grinder to polish the stainless. So lots to do.

see ya Paul