Tips on how to make a Sevtec skirt.
I've made four Sev skirts so far and found a couple things that make life easier.Cutting panels
When cutting out the corner joints it makes things a lot easier if you make a master pattern. You can simply use the first joint you make as the master and draw around it to make the others. Take great care making the master - any mistakes will get duplicated! I've found it better the make the master on one end of a side skirt panel - that way you get a long straight edge which helps line up other panels for copying.
I also leave an extra 1" wide section along the inner hull panel edges (attached to the underside of the craft). This is folded over to double the material thickness under the attachment points. This should make the inner skirt edge stronger than the outer. It's very difficult or impossible to re-attach the skirt to the inner points as they are unreachable on a larger craft. I'd rather the skirt rips at the outer points where I can make a repair!
Corner Joint Assembly
By far the easiest way of doing this is the flap-over method:
1. Place the panels on top of each other with the lower panel edge exposed by 1". The OUTSIDE faces should be against each other (you should be looking at the inside surface of the top panel with the outside surface of the lower panel showing at the edge.
Line up the two panels both at the edges and to the 1" glue line on the lower panel (see above pic). The 1" glue line on the lower panel should be clearly visible along the entire edge (it needs to be exposed or the fold over won't work properly)
2. Carefully fold back the top panel and check that the ground contact and outboard lines are lined up properly. Do the same check at the other end of the panel. If you used a master template to make the corners they should all be identical!
Once the panels are lined up accurately place a couple of weights on them to stop the top one sliding around.
3. You can then glue a 2" wide area along the edge - it will glue 1" of the lower panel and 1" on the upper panel.
4. Once the glue is ready - carefully fold the lower panel up and onto the top of the upper panel. I find it easier to glue the straight sections first and the tabs second.
5. Within a few minutes carefully turn the corner joint right side out and check it lines up properly on the other side. You can pull apart the joint and re-stick it within about 5-10 minutes or so of gluing. Once the glue has set I usually go over each joint and check for gaps before using the skirt.
The method above makes it very quick and easy to glue joints. I usually work on two joints at the same time - while waiting for the glue to go off on one I'm sticking the other. I've also "stacked" joints together on an overlapping offset heap - you can then do 2 or three joints at the same time - it makes applying glue a simple and non-messy operation.
... 
