After doing the first layup of the cover, I realized I needed sharper scissors, so I decided to build a little scissor sharpening jig to use with my Lansky sharpening kit. I finished it up yesterday, so I sharpened up several pair of shop scissors.

I removed the aluminum pieces from the cover...

...and trimmed the edges of the splice.

I checked the fit on the center arm rest. Looks good!

There is still a nice-sized gap at the aft end.

So, I needed to permanently splice this together. I recall from aircraft structures training with the Navy (some 30 years ago) that you're supposed to taper edges of the composite over a couple inches. So I did just that on each side of the splice. I also dished out a couple spots where there had been a bubble, so the sidewall wasn't flat.

This time around, I remembered a recommendation Greg gave me...to wet down the surface with some epoxy before applying the patch.

Here's the patch just about to squeegee for pre-pregging.

Once the carbon patch was saturated, I cut it out, peeled off the visqueen, and pressed it into place with a brush. Time to let this cure.