Up-Skirt Shot!
Here is the first piece of the skirting. It is made of 1/8" aluminum. Some 1/4 turn Dzus fasteners will be used to hold the skirting in place and allow quick access to things.
Here's all the skirting completed. Or so I thought... Once it was all put together it just didn't look right. It was too smooth.
Solution... RIVETS! More $%# rivets!! These rivets were actually easier to install than on the tender. It is thicker material (1/8") and working with smaller flat sheets made the job easier. The work was in drilling all the holes. Here's one skirt drilled out and ready for rivets.
A few minutes later, and this piece was done. 3/32" copper rivets were used (same as on the tender).
Steel templates were made for the rivet patterns. They were then clamped in place and the holes drilled out.
Now that looks better...
Much Better!
When the skirting was being made, a way to hold it on the sides without taking a lot of time to take it off/on was needed. Race cars use 1/4 turn fasteners and decided to use them on the skirting. SouthCo-Dzus 1/4 turn studs were used. Below are the studs (one head painted Daylight Orange), retainers and the receptacles. The tools were made or could have been bought from the supplier.
Here, the receptacles are being installed in the bracket a few thousands below the surface to make room for the retainers.
This is a close-up of what the finished product looks like.
