Estes Saturn 1B, #7251 Build, Part 11, Fitting The Larger Middle Wrap

TIP: Tape down the wrap before doing any straight edge trimming. You don't want it to slip under the straightedge and end up with a bad cut.

When cutting the thin vacu-form wraps, it's not necessary to cut all the way through. Score the line about halfway in then flex and crack the plastic down the cut line.

Like the lower wrap, the overlap should be cut wider than needed then trimmed and sanded little by little to fit.

Wrap and mark the overlap with pencil. Don't trim to the pencil line on the first cut, go little by little and do the fine fitting with a sanding block.

Here's a good fit, you can see the joint seam at the top.

Don't spray yet - see the next picture.

Check the edges all the way around and see if there is any plastic flashing folded over, left after sanding. This can be removed with some light passes of 400 grit.

Build time:

Fit Middle Wrap: 40 minutes

Total build time so far: 7 hours, 15 minutes