Hi Bob and Ed,
Bob, your are correct in your assumption that I'm using 'old school boat building methods' and that is because the subject fuselage we are discussing has been produced using 'old school boat building methods' and until a company develops a temperature sensitive, highly unstable, flexible epoxy resin to match the characteristics of polyester resins, there will always be a performance mismatch between the two resin systems. I whole heartedly agree that almost any epoxy adhesives will out perform the polyester/cotton flock/fumed silica method I suggested, but the reason that I made that suggestion is because I know that the polyester adhesive will exhibit exactly the same characteristics of the polyester laminate. I'm sure you are well aware of the low temperature sensitivity(T of G) of polyester, normally around 110 degrees. As the temperature increases past this point, the polyester softens and weakens considerably and becomes unstable. Now lets say that the formers have been bonded into the polyester fuselage using a normal off the shelf 30 minute epoxy and a reinforcing laminate using finishing resin, both with a 160 degree T of G which is pretty normal. Because this is a warbird, we are of course, going to paint it in dark, flat camouflage colors and when finished we will take it to a warbird fly in where it will sit in the sun with surface temperatures reaching 140 degrees. At that temperature, the polyester is going to become highly unstable and flexible, yet the epoxy adhesive will remain unaffected which will result in surface distortions around where we have used epoxy to bond and reinforce areas. This is the reason I gave the advice I did, because I didn't want to see Keith spend countless hours building a show stopping warbird, only to discover that it has a 'starved horse' appearance after it's first outing.
Ed, As I stated before, I'm no fan of polyester and hate using it and there are far better alternatives with epoxies. When the model manufacturers quit using polyester to build models, then we can quit using polyester to repair them and I'm fine with that. I never questioned your ability and obviously you are skilled evidenced by the work in your photos. My background is that I'm a composite fabricator/fitter with 16 years of experience in racing, aircraft, marine, musical, military, medical and space exploration fields as well as this composite field. I'm just trying to pass on my hard learned experiences and I'm happy to help out anyone who wants it.
Hope you both have a great weekend,
Ian