My reordered motherboard arrived, so it was time to learn from my mistakes and finally give Gladys her backbone.
This time, I would be prepared. I traced the outline onto a sheet of foamboard to use as a template. I mounted the brackets to the inside of the pack so they would hold their place, then pressed down hard onto the foam, creating and indent of where the brackets rested on the MB. Then, it was only a matter of placing the brackets in their indents, tracing the spot, and marking the holes. To make absolutely sure there were no errors, I used sticky-tac to hold the mounting brackets in place on the template and positioned the pack shell over them. All was perfect, so I marked it out.
But, you can probably guess what happened next…
While ¾ of the brackets were positioned correctly for the shell to slip over them, the one on the gun mount was off by a good half an inch. UGH! And the previously drilled ¼-20 threaded holes on my brackets no longer lined up with the holes in the shell, for some reason…Ugh, again.
So, I had to break out my nemesis, Bondo, to plug the holes in the MB.
And also, on the brackets, because the holes were off, but not far enough for a clean retapping. So, I had to bore them out and fill them.
While the Bondo dried, I went to work applying the decals that I have.
And I went ahead and redid the weathering on the ion end cap so that more black was in the center, like on the production props.
Now, with the Bondo dry, I was able to drill out my brackets through the hole in the shell to make sure they lined up right.
But I knew that there was no way I would feel comfortable with just Bondo supporting the weight. That’s when I thought it would be easier to use a nut to secure the screw, though I had no way to access the back of the bracket to fasten it with the shell on.
Quite the predicament. How to use the nut to secure the shell on if I can’t get to the nut?
The answer: leave the nut in place so the screw threads in and out like the threaded holes I originally had. And how do you keep the nut where it’s supposed to be? JB Weld.
Lots of JB Weld.