The day started out with trimming and sanding the hatch lip back to 1/2." I got the "Oh honey it looks flawless" from the wife so I decided to stop sanding after 1 hour :) I then got to start having fun with my new hinge...the HIDDEN HINGE! This thing is freakin awesome. It was made for oil doors but man what a problem solver for the hatch! It is spring loaded and will keep the door open even in strong winds. This is a complete system other than the hardpoint hardware that I made up. Costs like $40 and is well worth it. check it out!
Anyways I decided on SS flush screws and countersunk the hinge side. I then placed the 3 nutplates into the 3 holes in the wooden block and riveted 1 side of each of them. (If I had the spare aluminum, I would have preferred this over wood.) Either way, by the time the flox sets up they won't be going anywhere, and hopefully I will never need to remove the door, but having it screwed in will be nice if I ever have to. I sanded the block to fit the contour of the nose interior and put it all together. I then tested the hinge several times to achieve the perfect geometry and mounting position and floxed it in place. After the 5 minute flox cured, I whipped up "real" flox and filled in the gaps, made a smooth transition edge and layed up 2 layers of BID over the block. I then peel plied as usual and will be really excited to mount the door soon!
