i'm a stripper.... (and now that i have your attention)

A couple of more hours in the shop today.  Work continues on the 701 wing rebuild.

Stripped off the last of the paint where the wing and nose skins will be replaced.  A wipe down with acetone and it comes out real shiny!  Next step will be to scuff the aluminium and paint it with primer in preparation for mating the new skins.

While I was letting the stripper soak in for the above step, I finally got up the nerve to clean and trim the nose skin where the damaged piece was cut away.  Working from the outside, I wanted to make sure to cut not only straight but well away from the underlying nose rib.  To make the task easier, I laid on a piece of painters tape outlining where I was going to cut:

The black marker notation indicates where the trim needs to happen.

The curve of the nose skin makes this difficult to use hand shears or metal snips.  Bring on the power tools!  Ron suggested using the air powered saw:

When it's running, the blade on the air saw moves faster than the eye can see.  It's fine tooth blade made short and clean work of the skin.  The last inch or so I did with metal snips to prevent accidentally cutting into the wing spar (that would be a unmitigated disaster!):

Almost done.... took a small break to check my progress before getting too close to the spar.

A productive couple of hours.

I've sent off a quote request to Zenair for a complete tail kit of my own, minus the rudder pieces I already have.