I laid up some additional glass near the front of the hinge pin covers where the gaps I pointed out yesterday were located. I’ll trim and sand this back tomorrow after it cures.
I need to get started wrapping up the cabin area, so I got started by cleaning up the roll bar. I haven’t touched this in more than two years, but I left some masking tape along the top edge. Old tape is a real pain in the ass to remove. It took me about an hour to remove all the tape and residue.
I deburred and dimpled the final skin (top of the fuselage behind the cowling) and then reinstalled it on the fuselage to make sure the aft gap on the cowling is perfect all the way around. I reinstalled all of the hinge pins to ensure the cowling is precisely positioned. The upper cowl gap is perfect, but I still have a little sanding to do to get the gap perfect on the lower cowl.
I sealed up the corners of the cabin heat distribution box to keep the heat from going down into the tunnel where the fuel pump is located. I then put a strip of flexible weatherstripping to seal the back edge.
Here’s everything in the cabin installed. Most of these things will be removed at the airport when I install the wings, but this keeps out all the crap and helped clean up my pile of spare parts.
Finally, I wrapped up the alt air control cable installation by adding some adel clamps anchoring the cable to the oil drain lines.
I stopped by the TechShop and painted all of the components that cover the tunnel. Here’s the doghouse that covers the fuel pump. I need to seal the heater box and then all of these components can be installed for good.
I installed some split conduit over the wiring bundle where it runs down the firewall. This will keep it tidier and make it look better.
I also cleaned and primed all of the components to install forward of the spar to cover the center tunnel.
Finally, I formed some stainless steel mesh over the air inlet.
This will be installed here and the SCAT duct will hold it in place. This will keep bugs and debris from getting pulled in through the air vents.
I then installed the SCAT tubing to the NACA duct…
…and to the air vent on the other end.
I clamped some scrap angle with a radius on it to the heater box cover so that I could bend out all of the vents.
This will direct hot air from the engine down into the left and right footwells.
I also needed a notch on the right side to clear the heater box control cable where it passes through one of the firewall stiffeners.
I also cut a notch in the forward cover for the throttle cable. I’ll clean this up and install a grommet to protect the cable.
After thoroughly vacuuming under the aft seat pans, I installed the forward seat pans and threw a few screws in to keep them in place. I figured now was as good a time as any to fit the stick boots so that I could install the velcro around the stick opening.
I reinstalled the center subpanel and Jenn helped me quickly knock out the rivets that tie it to the outer subpanel sections and forward ribs. I then installed the canopy pivot blocks and radio stack. You can also see that I added some blue tape on the canopy decks to protect the paint.
I added a small bracket to the right canopy deck between the panel and subpanel. This will hold a cigarette lighter socket that can be used to charge devices. I picked up a dual USB plug that I’ll likely leave in this most of the time. This was really the only place I could find behind the panel that isn’t blocked by something.
I primed all of the flap cover pieces. On the right is the flap motor wrapped up with paper towels. I primed the head of the bolt that will be visible on the outside of the flap motor support. On the far right is a piece of cardboard with a couple of #6 screws that are used to attach the flap position sensor. I’m painting them as well so they blend in.
I masked off the interior and primed everything that will be painted. I’m only painting the parts that won’t be covered by the Classic Aero Designs interior.
The canopy decks were primed up to the subpanel.
After that dried for a few hours, I painted everything with some paint that I had color matched to the leather used in the upholstery.
You can see here that I also painted the canopy latch torque tube since it’s visible between the seats and when the seat backs are pulled forward.
I put four coats of paint on (as specified by Stewart Systems). This seems like a lot, but the first coat is a translucent tack coat with two more fairly light coats before the final heavier coat. This greatly reduces runs since the early coats are very sticky.
I replaced six of the rivets on the flap motor support with flush head ones. The ones at the top were rubbing on the canopy latch torque tube and I did the ones below just for aesthetics.
I also drilled a hole in the flap motor bearing and safety wired it to the tube. The bearing rocks back and forth as the motor goes up and down, and if this comes loose, it can come completely unscrewed.
