Removal of the vast majority of the damage to the forward portion of the S-II is complete. This entailed cutting around the S-II aft skirt wrap, which is the most complicated of the cylindrical (as opposed to conical) wraps, and probably the most complicated of all the wraps. The S-II aft skirt wrap has a large number of LH2 Feed Line fairings, LH2 Recirculation fairings, the LH2 fail and drain fairing, etc., all of which protrude forward of what would otherwise be the forward edge of the wrap. The plan is to avoid replacing that wrap: it’s complicated and difficult to glue the wrap to the body tube, and the masking and painting is also difficult. (In retrospect, it might have been faster to just cut lower and replace it, but that seems also somehow less, well, elegant.)

One of the unexpected challenges was cutting through the forward thrust ring, a very small piece of tubing that lines the inside of the S-II tube and abuts against the forward side of the motor mount centering ring. I did an awfully good job gluing that thing in, and the yellow glue is resilient stuff! That’s done, though, and the remnants of that thrust ring that were on the inner sides of the fairings are also removed. I believe that it’s now time to begin real repairs and reassembly.