Bolting on the belly
This morning I bolted on the new belly. If you look at the upper edge of one of these photos, you'll see some red stuff. I put in a liberal quantity of Lava Lock high-temp RTV silicone, to try to control air flow (maybe overkill).
Also, I may have used bolts that are too long. Given the vagaries of fit for all of this, having longer bolts is probably better, because then you're more likely to have enough of it exposed to have something to get washers and nut on. I'll use an oscillating tool or angle grinder to cut them off.
One of my friends here has a stick welder and a wire feed. I am hopeful that we can weld the joins inside and out. Stick welder will work fine for the exterior joins, but using the flux-bearing rods inside concerns me because of the potential for outgassing. So we'll probably use the wire feed for interior welding.
This is where it is so far.
