After much fussing, the silicone did its job on the coin return. Given the tight tolerances involved with the part and the cut out for it to fit in, I think it looks fine. I just need to clean up the dried silicone...at least with silicone, when I make a better set of skins next time around, I can just pry everything out and rub it clean.
The side vents I bonded together with JB Weld Qwik are pretty solid. However now that its hardened, I need to grind/sand the areas smooth that make contact with the skins. As it is now, it will not sit flush.
I found the best tool wasn't any of the grindstones but the wire brush. It really whizzed right through the JB Weld with ease. Its pretty darn dusty work though. Make sure you have long sleeves or you'll feel like you are sandblasting your own arm. Be careful how close to the plate you get, you don't want to cut away the epoxy that's holding everything together!
After much debate, I have apparently sold my soul to silicone.
While the drying time is a few hours, if you can clamp the part into place and hold it solid, silicone will do the rest for you. I had envisioned much more fancy ways to hold things into the skins. However with my skins not being all they should be, I am opting to techniques that allow for easy removal of the detail pieces. When I get another set of skins and have those bonded together better, I can transfer all the detail pieces to the new skins.
With that said, I decided that the cut out Kevin made to the inner skins a few months ago would be perfect for silicone. I clamped the surround plate in place, checked that no light was shining through from any side, then used a popsickle stick and large globs of silicone to literally caulk the piece into place.
I did the sides and bottom part Friday afternoon....
...and Saturday morning, with the silicone dry, I removed the clamps and siliconed the rest of the surround plate.
With all this silicone goop everywhere, you'd think SpiderMan was putting this thing together!
Finally, I debated the best way to mount the coupler. Could I mount it onto the frame so the skins fit smoothly over it? Or, would it just be easier to simply silicone that into place in the surround piece?
Well...I decided to just silicone it to the surround. There is no adhesive between the pieces, I have just literally "caulked" the coupler to the surround plate. I had to shim the bottom of the coupler to be snug against the face plate while the silicone cured.
I think this should hold the part well. Once that is dry, I'll do the sides for more support.
I think this should hold the part well. Once that is dry, I'll do the sides for more support.
And here's how R2 looks at this point. One thing I have already noticed from removing the skins so many times is that my blue paint is taking a beating. The data port and utility arms are both already missing some paint. Ugh! Oh well...he's been through how many wars in the movie? I'll let him look a little worn.
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