Saturday, February 12, 2011

Finished Painting Outer Ankle Cylinders, Repainted Last Dome Panel, Dome Work Mostly Completed

Today I did some painting and continued work on the dome.

The first item of business was to remove with acetone the paint on the small panel that goes above the picture frame panel.



After adding a little more white primer to what was left, I started the painting process for both this panel and the blue portion of the outer ankle cylinders.

As always, purple first.




Followed by blue.




Followed by two clear coats. The good news: No dust got in the paint this time around.




Next, I got back to work on the dome. I hadn't tightened up the fit of the dome ring against the dome. There was a bit of a gap between the blue ring on the dome ring, and the rest of the dome. A mallet helped resolve that problem nicely.




I cut the plastic sheets that I am using to diffuse the PSI lights to size, and used masking tape to attach them on the inside of the dome.



Next, I used double-sided foam tape to secure the plastic power bus bars.




Then I soldered the wires to the switches that double as dome bumps. The left switch is used for master dome power, the right switch toggles the message that is displayed on the top front logic.



With that, I was able to plug in all my dome electronics, insert the batteries in the dome, and fire 'er up.



I have not yet worked on diffusing the hot spots on the PSIs. I hope to get to this soon.



The wiring inside the dome currently is a massive mess that I need to clean up. I also still need to attach the last dome panel, once the paint is dry. And as I mentioned, I need to take care of the hot spots on the PSIs. Nevertheless, it's getting close.

Finally, I wrapped up the day by unmasking the outer ankle cylinders. They turned out well.

2 comments:

red UFO said...

Very nice work on your dome Victor.

I'm trying to keep up.

Victor Franco said...

Thanks! :)

-Victor