I fabricated the 0.020″ spacers for the hinges that attach the bottom of the cowl to the firewall.

Next up, I cut and drilled the hinges to the firewall.  The plans call for the same 1/8″ aluminum hinge stock that is used along the sides and top of the firewall, but this is an area that is subject to high vibration and it’s quite common for eyelets to break off of the aluminum hinges here.  A number of builders have switched to stainless steel hinges and this appears to have cured all of the problems, so that’s what I’m using.

After deburring everything and priming the aluminum spacers, I riveted the hinges to the firewall flange using the hand squeezer.  I was able to reach all but the outer two rivets on each side.  I’m going to have to shoot and buck these, but the access is really tight due to the engine mount.  I’m going to have to find something really thin to use as a bucking bar.

I installed the other half of the hinges using the included hinge pin.  The fit is really tight, so it took a bit of work to get the pin in.  I’ll try lubricating the pin to see if that helps.

The throttle bracket that I mocked up a couple of days ago had an extra bend that was unnecessary and I couldn’t figure out how to bend it using the tools I have.  Instead, I mocked up a simpler bracket.  The slot on the end was only to make it easier to fit while mocking it up.

I unfolded the prototype and transferred it to a piece of 16 gauge steel.

I marked out the bends and bent them using this vise brake that I borrowed from my dad.  This thing had no problems bending 16 gauge steel.

I drilled the mounting and cable holes and temporarily mounted it to the engine.  Unbelievably, I absolutely nailed it on the first try.  The 1/4″ mounting holes perfectly lined up with holes on the sump and the placement and angle of the cable hole was spot on.

Here’s a closeup of the mounting end.  This picture makes it look like it comes pretty close to the exhaust pipe, but there’s quite a lot of clearance.

After some adjustment, here’s the throttle in the full open position.  Notice the slight gap between the nut behind the throttle nob and the friction control.  This ensures that the throttle arm hits the stop on the fuel injection servo which ensures that you can reach full throttle.

Here’s the throttle in the full closed (idle) position.  Again, I’m hitting the stop on the fuel servo which ensures I’ve got the throttle fully closed.

This is a poor picture, but it shows the alignment between the throttle cable and the hole in the firewall.  It’s a perfectly straight shot back to the firewall from the bracket and clears the heat muff inlet by a 1/2″ or so.

Now that the throttle bracket fits correctly, I can clean it up and powder coat it before installing it for good.

The stock throttle bracket that Van’s supplies doesn’t work with the Superior sump since the attach point is in a different location.  I’m going to fabricate a custom bracket out of some 16 gauge steel (the same thickness as Van’s bracket).  I used some really thin (0.004″) aluminum flashing I had on hand to mock up the bracket.  This puts the cable on a direct path to the hole in the firewall and keeps it well clear of the exhaust and sump.

Here’s a shot from slightly lower in case that makes it more clear.

Here’s what the rough bracket looks like.  I unfolded this and traced the pattern onto some 16 gauge stock I picked up from Home Depot.  Cutting it out will be easy, but I’m still not quite sure how I’m going to bend this.

I installed the exhaust stabilizer strap that ties the two pairs of exhaust pipes together.  This significantly stabilizes the exhaust pipes over just having each pair supported by on hanger.

Construction work is slowing down on the plane a bit while I’m working on the electrical system design.  The VP-X is fairly significantly different than the architecture specified in the Aeroelectric Connection.  I’m reworking most of the schematics and still trying to decide how I’m going to handle backup circuits for several devices.

I fabricated the exhaust stabilizer strap tonight out of some aluminum angle that I cut one leg off of.  I primed and painted it and will install it tomorrow.  This ties each pair of pipes together at the back end so that they all move as a unit.