Firewall Forward

Slowly but surely, progress is being made. Today felt -really- slow, though.
Time : 5.5 hours

I needed to mount the oil/fuel pressure sensor manifold block to the firewall, but before I could do that I needed to rivet the forward upper fuselage ribs to the firewall. I had to use an Avery pop-rivet dimple die to get the dimples made, but that worked like a charm and avoided having to completely disassemble the structure to get the dimples I forgot to make made. I riveted, then installed the manifold. Done deal.

I'm taking a break to check on weather (it stinks), and am going to continue RV-work if flying isn't an option (and it isn't, not yet at least).

Fast Forward ---- and, no, the weather -never- got good enough to fly up to Asheville. So be it. The upside is that it gave me more time to work on the RV.

So, I installed more fittings as were called out in the instructions. I didn't have my engine hoist here, so skipped the part where you install the engine on the firewall (though I _may_ call on a friend for some help and bring the hoist home tomorrow). I looked at the install of the prop governor .. and ended up with questions. I shelved that and then decided to install the alternator. That went fairly well, though I think my belt is a tad short. I'll call PlanePower on Monday to inquire. All in all, a good bit of work got done though. I'm pleased.

NOTE: I came back later with a different idea on how to get it all put together, and figured out how to get the alternator on -without- having to "walk" the belt over the big pully. Once I thought it through, it was easy.
Time : 5.0 hours

I've been getting better, and today I actually felt like I might have a bit of energy. So out into the shop I went!

I installed the prop governor, after installing the needed studs. I also removed the oil line hose running from the governor to the front of the engine, as I want to replace that with a hard stainless line.

I also started on the baffles (after having fiddled with them a bit, unpacking and doing some test fitting earlier). I separated the pre-punched parts made up of AL angle, and cleaned up the edges. I cleaned up and mounted the rear baffle support as well (and realized I needed to order a handful of star washers for the engine case, as I can't re-use the old star washers once I take them off to mount some new doo-dad or another).

Time for a break now, before the cough comes back. :)
Time : 2.5 hours

After lunch I continued on the baffles. I fit the #4 cylinder side baffle, which took a bit of filing to get just right. I riveted on the screw reinforcements for the baffle, and was able to fit-and-file-and-fit until the screws would go in without binding. I also riveted on the diagonal brace, and preped the edges of the baffle that fits behind the #4 cylinder. I also started fitting the baffle for the #3 cylinder. I got as far as riveting the two screw reinforcement plates in place before calling it quits for the night. I _am_ still recovering from a cold.
Time : 6.25 hours

I then moved on to fitting the baffle that attaches to the #3 cylinder head. That took a good bit of filing to fit as well. However, I was able to avoid cutting the flange and replacing it with a piece of AL angle after all. The fit wasn't perfect, but a piece of .063 AL used as a shim took care of the mis-fit easily.

I also started work on the back baffle behind the #4 cylinder, including finishing fabricating the spacer which goes between it and the side baffle on the #4 cylinder. The ... I had to go help friends move some furniture! :)
Time : 3.0 hours

UPDATE: Well, I'm giving up on the 3/8" stainless for now. While I was worried that it might be hard to flair, that turned out to be a needless worry. With the Parker flair tool I have it was a piece of cake putting a pretty flair on the end. What wasn't easy was making the bends in the tight confines needed to have the line follow the sump. Particularly the set of bends to snake around the lower right engine mount point. Maybe I now understand better why Superior supplied a hose by default.
Time : 2.25 hours

I also spent some time measuring for where I want my cable eyeballs to go, and have decided to simply use the locations called out by Van's. I double-checked where the throttle/mixture arms were on the API throttle body, and it all looks good to me. Using the one existing eyeball I have on hand (need to order a few more) I created a drill template from some scrap aluminum. That'll make it easier to position and drill the holes for the eyeballs.

I also decided where I want to put my fuel supply and purge valve return fittings. I cut/drilled a doubler, and need to match drill it to the firewall. I ran out of time .. which is just as well because I'm out of primer. I'll get some tomorrow, and will continue marching forward with the firewall. I'd really like to get all this last round of work on the firewall done before next weekend. We'll see how that goes.
Time : 4.5 hours

One thing that may delay my engine hanging (and those of you who know me are saying "oh no! not again!") is that I've about decided to put the oil cooler on the firewall. It'll completely avoid the baffle cracking problems some folks have had with the baffle-mounted cooler, and will be easier to retrofit if I discover that the default cooler isn't adequate and need to go to a bigger/better oil cooler. This has happened to enough people that I want that flexibility. If I can determine ... with no ambiguity ... where I want to mount the cooler then I might want to do that -first- before hanging the engine. But we'll see.
Time : 2.0 hours

Time to head off for a family-lunch (dim sum!) .... with some hope of getting more work done on the RV this afternoon. We'll see how that goes. :)
Time : 1.25 hours

I also spent some time today drilling another eyeball hole in the firewall. I *hate* drilling stainless. :) With that done I wanted to tackle some odds-and-ends and get them out of the way. One was installing the CHT probes in the wells in the heads on the engine. I also spent some time putting a bazillion tools away, and getting prepared to pull the canopy off and put it on the canopy work stand. We have some nice weather coming up in the next few days, and I think I'll tackle the canopy painting I need to do. That'll get most of the final cosmetic work completed on the canopy.
Time : 3.75 hours

Should be easy. In theory. :)

I pulled out all the hardware needed to attach both the engine on the firewall, and the gear on the engine mount. (Thats right, it goes on its gear today too.) I size-checked all the holes and had to ream out the gear leg holes on the mount to remove excess powder coating. Now all I need to do is wait for my help to arrive after lunch, and we'll be good to go.

(Time passes .. lunch happens ... )

After lunch Joe Sumakeris came over to lend a hand with the whole crazy exercise. My son Chris was here too, and helped with the engine hanging as well. Thank goodness I had them both around as the extra hands were very much needed.

The hanging of the engine itself was a piece of cake. Since I had match drilled the firewall with the engine mount, the theory was that it would all go right back in place and line right up. (I'll confess to being a bit worried that the theory would not be realized in practice.) We took the weight of the engine on the hoist (using a pair of bottle jacks to lift the engine stand just a tiny bit to allow the hoist legs to clear) and unbolted it from the stand. At that point the stand became history.

When then gently lowered the engine against the firewall, making sure everything stayed clear of the items -on- the firewall. The top two bolts slid (partially) into place first, then we lowered the engine to allow it to swing down into position on the lower bolts. Everything lined right up, and most of the bolts slid right into place .. with the other few needing a small bit of a nudge with our hands. The nuts got snugged up, and then we started the exercise of putting the gear on. That was harder. :)

The gear legs are a tight fit into the mount (appropriately) so getting them in place took a little work. We had the lift the engine up quite high to get enough ground clearance because the legs had to go in quite straight. I also had to cut the clearance notches for the gear legs while the engine hung from the hoist, as well. Tedious, that was.

With some wiggling (and grease, which the bare steel needed anyway for protection) we got the gear installed and the bolts in place. THEY needed some persuasion, so I now know there will be no fretting of those bolts under load. They are _snug_.

Then we lowered the hoist, and put the plane on its gear for the first time. Wow. Amazing. It looks more like a plane than ever. This was a very very exciting milestone. I'll have pictures when I have time to get them uploaded. Tomorrow I have fixtures (engine stand, fuselage cradle) to disassemble. Just like the wing jigs, they are about to vanish into history.
Time : 4.75 hours

I started to put the cotter pins on the bolts for the firewall. I needed to add some washers on a few bolts so the cotter pin would end up well inside the groves of the castle nuts. I didn't get this finished today because I needed an extra hand ... and never quite worked out getting some assistance. I'll finish that tomorrow though.

I also final torqued the nuts on the exhaust flanges. I had removed the exhaust a time or two along the way, which meant that the original star washers needed to be tossed out. I finally got some replacements from ACS so did the final install/torque exercise today.
Time : 3.0 hours

One task was to finish up getting the cotter pins in place. With Marie's help (holding the wrench on the bolt heads in the cockpit) I was able to torque them, and get the cotter pins installed. I did have a little trial and error needing to put in -616L washers to get the cotter pins to line up while at the same time having the right torque.

Another task was to install the spark plugs on the bottom of each cylinder so I could determine how to route the EGT probes. I want to make sure I don't interfere with the plug installation, so stuck the plugs in place (remembering to apply anti-seize, even).

Finally, I started bending the tubing to go in the cockpit from the fuel pump to the firewall. Why have I not done this yet? Beats the hell out of me. :) But I'm doing it now. I got stopped by other family tasks that cropped up, but will finish it later this week.
Time : 3.5 hours

Some of these hoses required "other stuff" be done before I could install them. In the case of the oil pressure line I realized there were two firewall rivets that needed to be driven ... that I somehow missed catching earlier. Dang! With Theresa's generous help we got 'er done. Installing the hose from the fuel flow sensor to the purge valve also entailed re-installing the inter-cylinder baffle. What a pain those are, but I got that done too. Installing the prop oil return line entailed installing a handful of Adel clamps. With wisdom sent to me by Tom Malechuk the whole nightmare of Adel clamp installation has been vanquished. Using the safety-wire trick he told me about getting these installed really was a snap.

Most of the hoses fit beautifully. The hose from the fuel controller to the fuel flow sensor (the one created by splitting the hose that originally ran from the fuel controller to the purge value) is a tad too long. I'm going to leave it alone for now, because while you can always make a hose shorter, it is really -tough- to make it longer. But I'm thinking I'll shorten it eventually, and use a 45-degree fitting instead of the 90-degree that is on there now.

All in all this was an extremely productive day. I believe ALL the hoses are in place except for the oil supply hoses, and they don't go on until I final-mount the oil cooler. And that doesn't happen until I finish trimming the rear baffles. But ... soon.

Oh ... and aside from airplane-work I put a new stereo out in the garage. I've been making do with a little iPod compatible clock radio gadget which was good enough, but whose FM reception left a lot to be desired. I finally got tired of it, and sprung for a little reciever. MUCH better, and it put some old (but nice) speakers we had around the house to good use too. So today entailed a "tunes upgrade" too. Not shabby!
Time : 4.0 hours

Tonight I still feel like something the dog brought home, but Ernest needed to cut some AL on my bandsaw so I puttered a bit. I had a few nuts in the engine compartment that I needed to switch to all-metal lock nuts, and could do that now that my order of lock-nuts had come in the other day. So I did that. I also pulled out the prop bulkhead parts and looked over the instructions. I need to prep the rear bulkhead before I can install the prop ... and hope to find time this week to get that done.

All in all ... a good solid 30 minutes of work were acomplished tonight. *shesh* Not much. Oh well. Gotta get better _soon_.
Time : 0.5 hours

I cleaned up the tooling marks on the reinforcement plate, match drilled the rivet holes, and drew in the cut line where I need to carve out the spinner bulkhead to match the inside of the reinforcement plate. What fun! :)
Time : 1.0 hours

It took about 2 hours of pain-staking filing, but I got it done. And it seems to have come out -perfectly-. I'm quite pleased. Once the cutting was done I cleaned the parts up, primed them, and then riveted the reinforcement to the spinner bulkhead. It is bolted in place, but may be loosened again if I have to slide in another washer for spacing. My hope is that once we get it bolted onto the engine we can (don't laugh now) turn the blades by hand and make sure that there is enough space between the blades and the spinner backplate. I'd use some blade paddles but the Hartzell manual says :

Avoid the use of blade paddles. If blade paddles must be used, use at least two paddles. Do not put the blade paddle in the area of the de-ice or anti-icing boot when applying torque to a blade assembly. Put the blade paddle in the thickest area of the blade, just outside of the de-ice or anti-icing boot. Use one blade paddle per blade.

.. and also says ..

CAUTION: DO NOT USE BLADE PADDLES TO TURN THE BLADES.

(c) Manually (by hand) attempt to turn the blades (change pitch).

The implication is that (a) we should not use blade paddles unless there is absolutely no alternative and (b) that a normal person should be able to turn the blades by hand. Time will tell.

Since I had more time to spend on the plane, and I could not find prop-mounting-helpers in a timely manner tonight, I started getting ready for the top cowl. I marked the line 2 inches back from the edge of the skin, and drove out to the airport to bring the two cowl pieces (and the hinges) home.
Time : 4.5 hours

With them holding it in place and us all (after the first threads were solidly started) turning the studs by hand, we slowly worked all the studs in place. With that done, pictures were taken and Ernest and Jason headed back out again. I then slowly got all the studs torqued, and also did the final-install of the nuts which hold on the rear spinner bulkhead.

We were able to turn the blades by hand (avoiding the need to use blade paddles (see above)) and confirm we had a good quarter inch of clearance between the blades and the rear spinner bulkhead. Very cool. With that all done, I'm calling it a day. I'm bushed!
Time : 1.5 hours

Anyway, today I started on installing control cables. This is one of the last things I really want/need to do before I rivet on that top forward skin. The prop was the one I worried about the most, so it was the one I installed first. I _almost_ needed to re-clock the governor a bit more, but was able to make it work out. Up against the forward stop I have the control head not quite bottomed out, and pulling back I can hit the rear stop. Perfect. It was tedious to get done (and I made life a little easier by pulling out the battery box), but it is a done deal now.

The cold (what is left of it) is getting the better of me now so I'm calling it a night.
Time : 2.5 hours

While I was in the shop I decided to mark the forward throttle/mixture/prop cable support and install the platenuts used for the Adel clamps there. It was an easy no-stress activity I could do since I was blocked on getting the throttle cable installed.

Time to order new cables, ehh? :)
Time : 1.5 hours

I did get the cable support fabricated and riveted to the bottom edge of the sub-panel. I also pulled out the Airflow cable brackets and started to decide how I might want to use them in my installation. All in all, very little really got done today.

To finish up my cable install I'll need to wait until I can swap my existing cables out. So maybe it is time to start working on my top cowl.
Time : 3.25 hours

I dug out the hinges so I could fit/drill the hinge for the top cowl first. After figuring out which hinge was the correct one for the top edge of the firewall, I cut it to length and clamped it in place with side-grip clecos. A quick round of drilling (and inserting clecos from the -underside- so they would int intefere too much with the cowl fitting) had that task done.

I then placed the cowl and checked the fit against the spinner backplate. I -may- need to fiddle/sand/reshape the front a bit, but am unsure at this point. I'll make a final decision as I get the fit closer to correct, but I do know lots of folks have had to make adjustments there. I did an initial cut just to get the back edge of the cowl inside my 2" reference line.

Next I fit the other half of the hinge, cutting it to length and then doing the job of filing the eyelets where the hinge curves. The fit seems quite good now, and I'm ready for the next steps. Maybe I'll get more done this week (and I know Saturday is already booked, so no work will happen then).
Time : 4.5 hours

I also did another trim of the rear edge of the cowl .. intentionally not cutting to the line. Yes, I know everyone says you can do this in just one cut, but I feel cautious. The shim I used has the fit perfect, but I still need to take a little off the back edge of the cowl. I'll likely do that with the long sanding block I have.
Time : 3.25 hours

After lunch I finished fitting the new piece of angle (painted a nice black to maintain the Black-and-Gold color scheme favored by the folks at Airflow) to the existing bracket support that came with the fuel injection system. With a few iterations on getting the cable adjusted so I have full travel of the throttle, it was done. Tomorrow I'm going to install the mixture control.
Time : 5.0 hours

I spent this morning getting the throttle cable installation finalized. At this point I'm ready to say I hate those traditional eyeball firewall passthroughs. Oh, they work great, but are a pain in the posterior to install. The fiddly little screws with the fiddly little lockwashers and the messing with holes in stainless steel are not (for me) fun. But I'm getting it done.

SO ... after all my griping about how the original mixture cable would not work, as it turns out (once I get in there, cut the firewally passthrough hole, and see the geometry of everything) it is the right length after all. Go figure.

One thing frustrating about this installation is that the mixture arm is a bit further back toward the firewall than the throttle arm was. This causes things to be much tighter with respect to distance from the firewall and from the engine mount.

I think I'm close to getting it worked out, but have hit a hard-stop time tonight and will have to wrap it up later.
Time : 5.0 hours

Today after taking care of some significant family-related activities I jumped into working on the spinner. I wanted to make sure it was in place before finishing up the cowling.

I very slowly worked up to the size opening I needed, and got the hole right with the blades in the low pitch setting. Then Joe came over and helped me turn the blades to open it up for the high pitch setting. All in all I'm pleased with the results. I probably need to open it up a bit more to get adequate clearance, but for now it is good.

Earlier I had laid out the drill holes for the spinner, and had transfered the locations to the backplate. We drilled the backplate with #40 holes for starters, and will open it up to #19 when the time comes. I'll drill for the nutplate rivets first, and will open the holes up to #19 just before I rivet on the nutplates. Another evening of work should see that work all finished.

We then did the classic sharpie-clamped-to-the-stepladder trick to get the tracking right. We got the spinner centered nicely and clamped it in place. Drilling (using a light to see the hole positions) was quick and easy.

Next I install nutplates, and then have to do the front spinner bulkhead. Maybe just another couple of evenings of work will see that all finished.
Time : 5.0 hours

As for me, I went home and worked on the plane a bit. :) I got all the rivet holes drilled for the platenuts, drilled the screw holes to final size, deburred everything, and riveted the platenuts to the rear bulkhead. It was a slow tedious job (what isn't??) but somehow plesant in a quiet zen-like way. The dog kept me company, and we had a dandy time.
Time : 2.0 hours

The plans call for 6 screws evenly spaced around the bulkhead. That means a screw every 60 degrees. I thought about drawing a circle the diameter of the bulkhead on paper with a compass, and using a protractor to lay out the 60 degree increments around the circle. At each of the 60 degree points I would place a tickmark. Then I would center the bulkhead on the paper and and at each tickmark make a sharpie mark on the bulkhead to note the screw location.

But I didn't have a compass, nor a protractor, and realized I had an easier way to make the template.

Word to the wise ... drill ONLY the screw holes first. I made the mistake of drilling both the screw holes -and- the rivet holes for the platenuts. This caused me to .. in one case .. think that a rivet hole was the right place to drill the spinner. A little epoxy and cotton flox fixed that up, but it could have been avoided completely with a slightly different build process.

Except for the one hole I am letting cure overnight, all the holes are drilled full-size and counter sunk. Platenuts are in all the bulkhead locations, and the countersunk screws are -almost- completely flush. I'm going to cut the countersinks a tad deeper in time, but for now I wanted to make a point of not going too far until I was 100% certain everything was as I wanted it. Plenty of time later to dress them down a bit.
Time : 3.75 hours

The rest of the day will be dedicated to family activities, but I did get a start on fabricating the new bracket. That is some -hard- AL, so it took a bit of work to get the blank cut down to size. I have more shaping to do yet, but it'll have to wait.

Airplane work has taken a hit lately, as you can tell. My day job is part of the problem, but I've also taken on a handful of side projects and it is a daily exercise in trying to figure out what gets attention and what gets neglected. The poor plane has been at the back of the bus more often than not over the month of June. I'll try to do better. :)
Time : 1.0 hours

I got the geometry figured out, drilled the piece through which the cable itself passes to the large bracket, and then painted them with hi-temp black paint. My primer is fast to dry, but the paint is slow. So while I waited I worked on another non-RV-related project in the shop. When the paint (multiple coats, dang me) finally dried I riveted the parts together and called it a night.
Time : 5.25 hours

That was a small challenge as these gap fillers are .063 AL sheet and don't really want to bend. I made a form block a bit tighter radius than the final desired radius (to help account for springback) and used clamps to bend the gap fillers. It took some fiddling, but they are done and are now drilled to the rear bulkhead. I need to do some final fitting (Theresa! I need your help again!!) and that'll happen tomorrow. After that, the spinner comes back off and it is time to get back to fitting the top cowl. Maybe tomorrow?
Time : 3.5 hours

After lunch I finished up the prop gap fillers. I thought I was close to done to begin with ... but I was fooling myself. Adding the "tabs" used to reinforce the gap filler took a lot longer than I thought it might. Part of the problem is that the way the geometry of my fillers worked out (due to how I trimmed my spinner) I had to add a tab on both sides of the fillers. It took forever fabricating these little fiddly tabs, drilling it to the fillers, drilling for the nutplates, cleaning it all up, priming, riveting, and installing. *whew* But it is all done now.
Time : 5.25 hours

As a note, the humidity which had been uncharcteristically missing from the air here in NC (given what time of year it happens to be) is now back with a vengence. I've discovered that sweat and fiberglass dust mix to make a particularly nasty form of high-tech mud. Time for a shower.
Time : 1.75 hours

After lunch I smeared some epoxy where the hinge would go on the top cowl, and then riveted the cowl in place. Of course I buggered up one rivet location .. and had to fill it with glass/flox to be redrilled and reriveted later. I also started on the lower cowl, mainly first trimming for the gear legs. That is a slow tedious operation which demands putting the cowl in place .. seeing where more cowl needs to be trimmed .. trimming ... lather, rinse, repeat ... over and over and over and over and over again. You get the idea. I'm beat. Sadly I'm not close to done either. Oh well! :)
Time : 5.5 hours

To aid in fitting I did something I should have done ages ago ... I pulled both halves of the cowl off the plane, carefully fitted them together, and then drilled for the screw holes just behind the spinner that hold the top/bottom forward sections together. That will help me confirm alignment when everything is moving around up on the plane.

Time to get ready to go to party now .... I don't think they'd appreciate me showing up in the shape I'm in right now (f'glass dust, wood dust from the top-cowl support I made, sweat, dirt, bits of spider webs, and a general unkemptness that would be appalling in bum on the street). Such is the nature of airplane construction, in the south, in the summer.
Time : 3.0 hours

More after lunch ..... (except lunch ran late, then we had a party to go to, so no more work got done on Saturday).
Time : 2.0 hours

I also trimmed the sides of the bottom cowl, but have not done a re-fit to see if they need any more trimming. I got on a roll of things seeming to not "click" (I set one rivet three times, and -still- am not happy with it ... and I _know_ how to set rivets by this point!) so decided to call it a day.

Sometimes you just have to know when to walk away. :)
Time : 2.75 hours

I need to sand on the back edge a bit, but want to go VERY slowly since I overdid it a bit on the top cowl (and will need to build it back up in a few spots). But all in all, I'm quite happy with the fit. I have a busy morning planned for tomorrow, but it is my hope to spend the afternoon working on the cowl.

Hey .. at least I _touched_ the project today!!
Time : 0.25 hours

I also fabricated some shims for my lower cowling attach plates. The lower cowl wasn't flush with the bottom of the fuselage with just the attach plates in place without shims .. so the shims will give me a better fit.
Time : 4.0 hours

I did a first round of fitting the hidden hinge .. just to discover I had not really thought through the geometry. Oh well, a little micro to fill the holes is no big difficulty. To get the hinge back where it needed to be, however, took hogging out a little of the foam above the oil door. After I did that I wanted to re-seal it so got out the epoxy and first put a thin epoxy-only coat on the foam, then mixed in some micro to fill the drill holes, and then with that done mixed in some more micro to help level the area where the hinge will be mounted on the cowl once this is all cured.

With that done I wasn't ready to quit for the day so I did some sanding on the bottom cowl at some areas where I had marked a need for tweaking. I then finished up the bottom cowl lower attach plates, primed them, and got them ready to rivet.
Time : 5.75 hours

I also took some time to rivet in place the bottom cowl lower attach plates. I don't have the platenuts on yet, but am leaving just #30 holes so I can cleco the cowl while I finish the trimming.

After lunch I got back out in the shop and worked on getting the side firewall hinges cut to length, drilled, and countersunk. I also trimmed the steel hinge pins for these side hinges (the AL hinge pins that come with the AL hinges are _way_ too soft for the job). With Marie's help I also lifted the lower cowl back into place so I'm prepared to do a final round of trimming before I drill the cowl for the hinges.
Time : 5.0 hours

Tomorrow I hope to rivet the hinge to the cowl, and start trimming for the split hinge that runs between the top/bottom cowl halves. Progress!
Time : 3.0 hours

I also sanded all the places where I had slathered filler and that all came out -very- nicely. In fact, I think my oil door fit is now a bit too tight.

I know this because I drilled the hinge to the door and cowling, and there is was a bit of interference as I tried to open it. A little touch with some sand-paper turned that into a slight interference fit, which I'll finish taking care of once I rivet the door in place (and lock in its position).
Time : 3.5 hours

I did realize that where the screw holes fell on the inlet (the spot where the top/bottom cowl tie together near the prop) was not ideal. The rear screw hole one one side was -exactly- in line with the starter gear ring. I don't like the idea of a nutplate and screw being so close, so I'm going to fill those holes and re-drill them such that they fall better. The one problem with this is that on one side the cowl doesn't go back beyond the ring gear hardly at -all- ... so I just did a quick layup to extend the cowl there, and will trim it to fit tomorrow after it has cured.

Time to call it a day and go spend some time with the wife. With the kids all away this weekend we have a rare bit of time to ourselves. Gotta take advantage of that when you can! (Though, I know that all too soon this is how it will be _most_ of the time .. and at that point I'll be missing the noise and activity in the house. I'll betcha.)
Time : 3.5 hours

I also added a bit of flox and another layer of glass on the layup I did yesterday. This should finish adding material so I can get the screw holes just where I want 'em (which is with more clearance from the starter gear ring, frankly).
Time : 3.0 hours

Truth be told, I didn't want to try and get the fit perfect before I had hinges to tie it all together anyway. My luck with duct-tape-jigging has not been as good as I would like. So I spent a LOT of time marking where I needed to sand, taking the hinges off so they were out of the way, sanding, and putting it all back together again. Lather, rinse, repeat. Joe came over and helped me cleco hinges on-and-off-and-on-and-off so that was a huge help.

In the end, we got it all to fit. In fact, once I got to the point where I could get all the pins by hand (even if they are still a tad tight) I just wanted to stand there and look at it for a while. I couldn't bring myself to take it all right back apart, wanting to savor it a bit.

So I went flying. :)
Time : 4.25 hours

I then riveted the hinges on the top cowl, and did a trial fitting. It all goes together .. but the side-pins are tighter than they were before I set the rivets. I thought that might happen as clecos are more "generous" than rivets with respect to giving some wiggle-room. I'm glad I didn't finish the _final_ sanding of the split line as now I still have some room to move. I'm going to leave that for later, being a bit tired of the whole cowling insanity right now.

So .. new insanity. I started on the FAB. :)

The FAB is tedious (but then again, what isn't??). Today I went through the exercise of laying out the rivet pattern, and then fluting the FAB base plate to get it flat. With that done I clamped it in place and started trimming the base plate until I could get the bottom cowl on and off with plenty of clearance. I also made sure the extended centerline of the base plate was in line with the center of the cowl inlet. I will have to bend the base plate upward (as they say you'll need to do) to get it aligned with the top of the cowl inlet. But after being out in the shop for so many hours today it is time to call it quits for now.
Time : 7.0 hours

Then I started making the filter retaining clips, and ended up not happy with the results. I tossed out some of the clips and re-fabricated them. The only problem is the material I'm using isn't exactly the same as came with the FAB kit ... and in the end I think I'm going to toss them and order more material from Van's. Kinda frustrating ... or as I said above, FAB-strating. :)

I also spent a lot of tedious time figuring out where I want/need to put my EGT probes. I want to thank Larry Vetterman for spending time with me on the phone and outlining positioning issues _in_ _great_ _detail_. That is what I call good customer service.

I ran out of time so didn't drill the holes, and really wanted to check clearances with the bottom cowl on before I drilled anyway. That may be tomorrow night's activity.
Time : 4.0 hours

I also spent a little time on the task of continuing to "tweak" the fit of the cowl. I'm trying to get the gap between the top and the bottom as small as I can while still -having- at least a little gap. I've made the decision that just doing a little at a time right now while I work on other areas will keep me patient enough to not overdo it. Time will tell if that is a good strategy or not.
Time : 1.5 hours

I then drilled all the rivet holes (except for those on the snout, in case I needed to do some glass-work on the FAB to upturn the entry a bit to match the cowl inlet), and then remounted it on the engine to check the alignment. Much to my surprise, I didn't need to do any glass-work on the FAB after all. How this happened is a mystery because I _always_ have to do anything that is marked "optional". This time I got let off the hook. (I worry this means something is wrong .. but I looked at it a half-dozen times and it is perfect.) I finished match-drilling the holes to the glass bowl, and then using a die grinder with a sanding drum trimmed down all the excess flange. What a -mess- that makes.

I also started work on the alternate air door, with everything ready to assemble at this point. I primed the top plate and the outside of the bowl (not priming/painting the inside 'cause I don't want flakes of paint to ever start getting loose in the inlet air stream). I need to let the primer dry, need to do a round of sanding on the bowl to clean it up a bit more, do another round of priming, and then shoot with white high-temp paint. I'd keep working tonight but as it turns out the white paint I have is NOT high-temp, so I need to do a run to the auto parts store.

A darned good day of work. I'm well pleased. :)
Time : 5.25 hours

I am cheating a bit. Early on I fabricated a support for the forward portion of the top cowl to place it correctly for initial trimming. It was an exercise in faith that I could get it supported correctly and well. But .. it worked out fine. I'm now using that support to get the initial round of baffle trimming done since it (a) positions the top cowl about right and (b) allows me to reach up from under easily so as to mark the baffles for trimming.

Today didn't allow me much time in the shop today. I had some family activities to attend to and met another builder this afternoon so he can take my engine stand off my hands. Given I overbuilt the darned thing ... transporting it was a bit of a challenge.

My final bit of afternoon work involved deciding I did want to fill the weave in the FAB, so I sanded off the paint/primer and mixed up some thinned epoxy to paint on the surface. I'll sand that back down after it is cured and hope the bulk of the holes are filled. If not the next step is either some micro or some Superfil.

Why put this sort of effort into the FAB? 'Cause I can, I guess. :)
Time : 2.5 hours

I also spent some time fitting the forward side baffles to the cylinder heads. It is a slow operation when you want to be -sure- you aren't going to take off too much, but I am happy with how they are turning out. I should get them finished up tomorrow. Then it is on to more .... baffling. Of course. :)
Time : 1.5 hours

I also used my dab of Proseal on the FAB to seal the alternate air ring. It is just clecoed in place for now, and I'll rivet it later (again, when the Proseal isn't so aggressive).

And ... dang it ... my compressor died. I came back from lunch with the family only to find the breaker tripped. Resetting the breaker started the compressor motor, which stalled, which tripped the breaker again. Clearly something is frozen. How can I build a metal plane without a compressor?? Ok .. ok .. I could, but I don't wanna. I'll be trying to get it fixed (or replaced if it can't be fixed for a reasonable prices) this week. How annoying.
Time : 2.0 hours

Then three of us loaded the compressor into the RAV/4. It really wasn't as hard to load as I thought it might be. Tomorrow morning I'm taking it to be (hopefully) repaired. What a pain in the rear this is.
Time : 0.75 hours

Today I riveted the FAB together, finished the alternate air door, oiled the K&N filter, and installed it on the mounting plate on the fuel controller. I even put the K&N stickers on the FAB.

I also spent some time doing more work on the baffles. I had to tweak the #1 cylinder forward ramp baffle so it would fit. As it was the front edge of the ramp behind the alternator pully was rubbing. Even now I'll need to give myself a little more clearance.

Time now to go take care of some family errands, but I'll be back at it tomorrow and hope to get in a longer day of work.
Time : 3.0 hours

I then did the bend, and continued the incremental trimming. I ran out of time so didn't get it finished, but it is getting close. I still need to bind-and-trim a bit more to get it perfect, then on to the right ramp.
Time : 2.75 hours

It is very close, and I am very tired. Therefore, I'm going to stop tonight and call it done for now. I'll come back at it during the week when I can hit it fresh. I hate making mistakes simply because I am tired and get careless.
Time : 4.25 hours

I did spend some time getting the lower right baffle ramp support (the little flat piece of AL with some angle riveted to it which bolts to the case, and is under the inboard portion of the right ramp, as you face the engine from the front). I got it trimmed to length, the angle notched for the bolt/washer, and the two match-drilled together. I still need to drill three rivet holes on the top of the angle but am out of time for today. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
Time : 1.75 hours

I finished fabricating the left baffle ramp support ... after having to re-fabricate the piece that bolts to the engine. It seems that I was a bit premature in match-drilling it to the angle, and adjusting the ramp on that side caused the correct positioning of the angle to have changed. But I simply dug out some .063 AL, used the old one as a pattern, and made a new one. Easily done.

I'm also going to NOT use the cylinder baffles for #1 and #2 cylinders as they come in the kit. They rivet in place, and all too often folks need to tweak/change/adjust them to get cooling right. Today I made a pair of matching ones, but with a flange at the bottom so that I can put nutplates on the baffles and simply screw them in rather than rivet them on. This way I can remove them later and tweak/adjust as much as I wish (including fabricating completely new ones) without having to take my baffles off the engine.

Of course, this means they'll be perfect from the begining, but even if that is the case then the work I did will have been a good investment of time. :)
Time : 4.75 hours

I've started on the left side also, but now need to go carve a big beautiful turkey. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Time : 3.75 hours

It was a great Thanksgiving, though. We had a significant slice of family here which required me to cobble together a setup that would allow us to double the size of our usual dining room table real estate. It worked out great and allowed for very comfortable seating for 10 people.

Time for some more pecan pie now. Yummm.
Time : 2.0 hours

It doesn't sound like much, but it sure did take all day. :)
Time : 5.0 hours

Today (so far) I finished drilling all the clips to the forward baffles and the ramps. It is lunchtime now (one of the plans which are in the middle of RV-building today) and the left side is riveted. I actually am leaving out a few rivets from the left side angle until after the top baffles are cut down to see if .. once they are cut down .. I can get at those with a rivet squeezer.

After lunch (and some other errands) I finished riveting the right side forward baffles and launched into trimming the baffles down to the right height. On the recommendation of another builder who had his baffles bent (slightly) by contact with the top cowl as the engine moved, I'm intending to trim them the maximum of 1/2 inch. Using a combination of the "paperclip technique" and the "sharpie in a 1-inch diameter disc technique" I'm working the baffles down. It is a slow but satisfying exercise. I'm done for tonight, but if I can carve out time tomorrow, which I intend to do, I should have them fully trimmed in the next few hours of fiddling. I am _really_ looking forward to that particular milestone!
Time : 5.25 hours

However, I did lay hands on the plane a bit, and made some good headway on trimming the baffles. I can get my arm into very little of the areas needed under the cowl now ... so I'm using the paperclip trick almost exclusively. I now know it takes just shy of 200 jumbo paperclips to cover the entire top edge of the baffles. Just saying.

My available time is consumed for tonight, but I hope to spend a LITTLE time tomorrow. Since it is New Year's Eve there will be other plans afoot, but I'm sure I can carve out some RV-construction time on the last day of 2009. :)
Time : 2.0 hours

I spent another couple of hours trimming baffles, and am VERY close to being done. Right now it is taking about one hour per iteration, so as you can guess I got in two iterations today. My baffles are still too high on both back corners, and once they allow the top cowl to go ALL the way on ... we'll do the final trim.

That, however, will now have to wait a week. We'll be back from Florida late on the 9th, so it is my hope to get out and do more bafflet trimming on the 10th. We'll see how that goes. :)
Time : 2.0 hours

Today I worked on those nagging back corners of the baffles. On the left side they are very hard to mark, so today I took off the bottom cowl and used a forward support/jig that I had used earlier for some of the initial cowl work. It doesn't position the front of the cowl at the _perfect_ height, but it is damned close. That allowed me to reach up from under the cowl and mark those otherwise hard-to-reach corners. They are now trimmed, and I think it is time to install the top ramps in the cowl so I can trim the forward-most sections of baffle. I also was able to final position the baffle piece which serves as a "filler" above the oil cooler thus keeping the baffle seal from having to jog rear-ward. As it turns out I could have installed this sooner, but I wanted to wait until all the initial trimming was done to be sure of the positioning. With that in place I can also now posiiton the oil cooler doubler, and have drilled it to the back baffle.

I called it quits as I got tired this afternoon ... not wanting to provoke a relapse of this damned infection. I need to do a little more drilling, some trimming of that last baffle piece, and then cutting out the hole for the oil cooler.

Once that is all done there will still be a number of details left to address. Installing the spark plug wire seals, routing the purge valve control cable, priming the baffles, painting the baffles, with the last step being installing the baffle seal. I'm getting close.
Time : 3.25 hours

* Lunch happens .... *

I end up needing to take care of some other chores this afternoon, but get back to the airplane after all that is done. I once again get all the baffles back in place, put paperclips ALL around trying to shoot for one last trim iteration, and put it all together. After taking the top cowl off I mark down from the top of the pushed-down paperclips with my marking tool, and every single baffle needs SOME sort of trim. In some cases it is just a hair, in others .. more. I think one more iteration will do it, and then all that will be left is the trimming for the top cowl inlet ramps after I bond them into the top of the cowl.

I am getting close. I may _not_ have to trim baffles for the rest of my natural life after all. *whew* I was getting worried.
Time : 5.5 hours

I could salvage the parts, but I'm not at all crazy about that. This is a high-crack-probability area in the first place, so I think I'm going to replace the mis-drilled parts. Of coure it would be the case that all these parts come together in a corner so that I have to order more parts than I would otherwise. Fortunately, now that I know exactly how much to trim replacing these parts should be the work of an evening once I have them in hand. (FedEx-ing them to me first thing tomorrow, too!)

But damn ... screwing up is annoying. The -real- saving grace is that there was one thing I didn't like about something in this area to begin with and now I can fix -that- as well.

After spending a little time confirming what I needed to re-order (and salvaging the CB-1004C from the #4 cylinder baffle) I fabricated the CB-1003D (if I remember right) clips and riveted them to the baffles. This is the little clip that overlaps the joggle between the forward and rear side cylinder baffles.
Time : 3.5 hours

However, that does not match "right" versus "left" (as viewed from inside the cockpit looking forward) nor do they seem to FIT the cowling in those positions. So ... rather than just push ahead like a bull in a china shop, I'm going to wait and give Van's a call tomorrow.

I did rivet the baffles at the right-rear (passenger side) corner tonight. I have two holes left to fill because my pneumatic squeezer couldn't fit in there with the baffles mounted ... and I didn't want to pull them off tonight. With the other rivets in that should lock in the geometry with respect to being mounted on the engine and I'll fill those other two holes the next time I have the baffles off (and .. they WILL be off again, you can count on it).

Not a lot of work, but better than not touching the project at all!
Time : 1.0 hours

I also talked to Van's yesterday to make sure I was viewing the f'glass ramps for the top cowl correctly ... and they confirmed that, really, the can only go on one way. Build on!
Time : 2.25 hours

Today I launched back into baffle work, and at this point (breaking for lunch) I'm now further along than I was when I noticed my mistake. So we are back into "forward progress" mode again. Always nice.

All the #4 cylinder baffle are drilled. The hole for the oil cooler is cut and filed. The oil cooler reinforcement plate is drilled. All the -3 rivet holes are either dimpled or countersunk. I want to do a last round of paper-clipping on the new baffle parts just to make sure they are trimmed all they need to be, but then it'll be time to rivet the whole shebang together.

After lunch I continued working, and by the time I knocked off for the day I had made a lot of progress. All the #4 cylinder baffle pieces were riveted, including the oil cooler reinforcement and all four platenuts. I also cut openings for the plug wire pass-through and installed platenuts for the pass-through since that would be a very inconvenient place to have to install normal/regular nuts.

The only thing not riveted yet is the baffle inboard of the #4 cylinder rear baffle, and that is only because I ran out of time.
Time : 7.0 hours

I also fiddled with the oil cooler fit a bit. I won't install it for the final time until the baffles are truly finished (i.e. final trim completed for the forward top inlet ramps, painted, and baffle seal installed), but did want to check out the fit and whether I needed to relieve the flanges any to avoid impacting the mount. I did have to grind a little away from the flanges, but not as much as I had thought I might. I also installed the oil inlet/outlet hoses on the engine to confirm the routing. I think I want a 45-degree fitting on the top but the 90-degree on the bottom will be fine. I also wanted to figure out where the purge valve control cable and the purge valve return line should penetrate the baffles. I think I have it scoped out, but will rest on it tonight before I commit to a location.

The real tedious thing was opening up the forward right cowl for the oil return line from the prop. I am using a hose, with a big fat stainless band on the firesleeve, and I'm having to open the hole in the baffle a LOT to allow everything to fit. I think I'm going to tweak the hose alignment so that the "lump" on the band points in a somewhat more convenient direction than it does now ... but I'm out of time for today.
Time : 5.5 hours

Yesterday I tried to open up the hole in the baffles for the prop oil line to pass through. I am using a hose with firesleeve, the style with a stainless steel band on the end. That band with the firesleeve makes for a "fat end", and creating enough room isn't going to happen.

I burned a lot of time messing with this, and then messing with trying to find alternatives. In the end, I'm just not going to be satisfied with anything short of a stainless steel hard line. *sigh* I already screwed up one pretty piece of stainless, though that time I tried to route it very tight to the engine and the bends were "ambitious". If I fabricate one which follows the more generous routing of the hose I think I can fab it without trouble.

That being said, I pinged my favorite engine guru down at Airflow Performance (Don Rivera) and he came back with some good suggestions. Don is always there for us home-builders ... I can't being to say how many times his advice and insight has helped me out.

After deciding to put the oil line on hold, I put the cowl on (now with newly-installed top cowl inlet ramps) and carefully marked the trim line for the outer baffles. I did some rough trimming with shears, but it was tight enough that in the end I had to finsh the removal of material with a nibbler to get the bulk of the AL out of the way, and then a file to finish off the curved trim line. They look pretty darned good.

I was about to call it a day, but decided to fiddle with the exhaust hangers. Talking to another local A&P who does a lot of work on many of the experimentals in the area ... he said that even the newest of hanger solutions from Vetterman have failed in operation. He suggested another way to skin the cat, and has tried it on an RV6 with good success.

His solution? Use a piece of automobile tire sidewall (i.e. heavy rubber) suspending the exhaust from an Adel clamp attached to one of the engine mount down-tubes. Eventually the rubber will deteriorate, but at that time another slice of old tire sidewall can easily replace the old. It makes sense to me, and has proven to work in at least one case. I'm gonna give it a try.
Time : 7.0 hours

I did have to trim the tubes used to tie the two pipes together in relationship to each other (then again the instructions said to trim to fit, so I think that is fine). All in all I'm pleased with out it turned out.

I also did a little glass-work on the top cowl, smoothing in the inlet ramps. It is just the first round of work on those, and a few more iterations will be needed before I'm happy with the results.
Time : 3.5 hours

I thought I was going to live with the hose until the baffle situation cropped up, then I decided I'd try fabricating a stainless line again. If I routed it basically the same way I did the hose the bends would be less ambitious. When I called Don Rivera down at Airflow Performance to see if he would send more stainless my way ... he suggested that he come up and just give me a hand. It was an excuse to fly, said Don.

This weekend the timing and weather worked out, and Don (along with one of his people, Mark) flew up. I met them at TTA around 11:00 and we headed back to the house. After a bit of figuring and fiddling and fussing the line was done. Beautiful.

While they were here I asked them both to both give a good hard look at the work so far .. and I got a big thumbs up from Don. They did find one of my bends on one of my first pieces of tubing to not be ideal, so that will be replaced.

I can't say enough about Don, his team, and the support that I've had from Airflow Performance. I feel like I've not just found a good vendor, but have found a friend. Airplane people are the best.
Time : 1.5 hours

Today I'm working on finishing the trimming of the forward center baffles (now that the top cowl inlet ramps are on for good). Once they are trimmed and the rivet-holes are drilled I'll paint them, install them for (theoretically) the last time, and then install the baffle seal. And .. then .. then ....... then I'm done with the baffles. Maybe this weekend? We'll see how it goes given I have other tasks to see to this weekend as well. (Lunch and errands now ... )

Lunch and errands took more time than expected, so I was only able to sneak in another half-hour of work afterward. That being said, I am _extremely_ pleased with how the paint is looking on the baffles. The matte black is sharp. If it holds up to the abuse under the cowl, it will be particularly nice. (And if not, I can pull them off and paint them again with something tougher ... but my hope is that using engine enamel will prove to be tough enough.)
Time : 3.0 hours

I also went and tracked down some stainless socket-cap screws to attach the baffles with. I've been using some steel socket-cap screws, and have liked how easy they were to install/remove, and how they looked. But they have been used so much all the black oxide coating is rubbed off and they are already starting to rust. I could use the phillips head screws that came with the kit, but thought the stainless would look better with the black. I don't know if I'll keep them or not, but for now I'm pleased with how they look.

That all sounds nice and simple, but took forever. This is tedous stuff. I still need to install the bolt and spacer on the lower portion of the cylinder #4 baffle, then it is time to install the baffle seals. After that, all the stuff that routes _through_ the baffle (purge valve return line, spark plug wires, purge valve control cable). I'm getting there.
Time : 5.5 hours

I wanted to finish up a bit of baffle odds and ends. This included getting the AN4-15A and spacer installed on the baffle behind the #4 cylinder, installing the spark plug wire pass-through grommets, and installing the purge valve return line and baffle pass-through grommet. I also started fabricating the wires that tie the cylinder baffles together on the bottom.

I did hit a few speed bumps. For one .. I could not find the AN4-15A bolt and spacer I fabricated a million years ago. I still had some AL tube to make a spacer out of, but no AN4-15A bolt. As it turns out Marilyn had one and I drove to Durham to get it (which beat waiting for ACS to ship me one). I also discovered that the holes I opened up for the plug wires in the baffle were not large enough to pass the spark plug caps, and I had to dig out a Unibit and my 90-degree drill chuck and open them up a little more. I was able to do that without taking off the baffles (and without drilling into any engine parts either ... thank-you-very-much). FINALLY, to make the lower rods I needed to be able to cut a 6-32 thread into the rods, and I didn't have a 6-32 die. This resulted in another trip out to resolve that shortcoming.

Still ... progress was made. I'm happy. The baffles are getting close to being _totally_ done.
Time : 3.5 hours

I also installed the purge valve control cable, the angled purge valve control arm, and the 45-degree fitting on one of the flow divider outlets so that the angled arm would clear the distribution line. Finally, I safety-wired the oil filler tube which has needed to be done for a while now.

During the installation of the 45-degree fitting on the flow divider I .. if course .. dropped a part down into the inter-cylinder baffle. That had to be taken loose so I could get the part, and futzing with the ICBs is one of my least favorite activities. Getting the baffle back on with the inter-cylinder spring is a pain in the arse. But I got it done.
Time : 4.25 hours

I also decided I was confident enough that the baffles were basically done that it was time to start installing seal material. I only had a little time to work before the kids got here, but have already gotten a bit of seal material installed. My technique of using some thin washers on the back-side of the material to spread the load from the pop rivet looks like it is going to work quite well. Time (and vibration) will tell the tale.

Maybe more once easter dinner is done .. then again, if I fall asleep afterward, maybe not. We'll see. :)
Time : 1.25 hours

On that note .... I'm probably done until we get back from SnF!
Time : 0.5 hours

I decided to install a different cable, and got a button-lock 10-32 end (for a rod-end-bearing) cable from Aircraft Spruce. They didn't have it in stock at SnF, so they ordered it and ate the shipping charges. The cable made it home before _we_ did.

Today I go to install it, and since this is different I've had to mess with making some changes. I'm not quite there on the install, but am getting close. I need a way to anchor it at the back baffle, and am in the process of creating a bracket for an adel clamp. (The bowden could use a nice pass-through cable clamp, but that doesn't work for the more fancy cable.) I should finish that up tomorrow.
Time : 4.5 hours

While the paint was drying I wanted to start work on replacing the one oil hose that was too short. Step one ... take the old one apart. The fireshield came off easy (of course), and one fitting came apart with no trouble. The second one gave me grief trying to get the rear part of the fitting (the "nut") off of the hose. Basically, the little brass insert was wedged in so tightly it would not come apart.

Eventually I made a tapered mandril out of a wooden dowel, cut the stub-end of the hose very short near the fitting, pulled the teflon core out with pointy-nose vise-grips, and mashed the remaining stainless braid into the fitting. I then used the fabricated mandril to drive the brassh insert out. What a pain in the ass. I bet Don (from Airflow, who brought me replacement hose parts down to Sun-N-Fun) never has these kinds of problems! He being a pro, ya know. But I got it out, and am now ready to fit up a new hose.

After lunch I came back and started working on building the new hose. I first put the 45-degree end on, then put it on the engine. With that in place I figured out how long it should be (it really is only going to be barely 2 inches longer than the original ... kinda frustrating). The 45-degree end went on without fanfare. The other end was a bit tougher. For some reason the braid on the cut end wanted to flair out even with the duct-tape on it. (Maybe I didn't use enough??) But I had to use the mash-it-in-with-the-flat-of-a-blade-screwdriver technique to get it to allow me to put the back-half of the fitting on. After that it went together fine. Firesleeve in place, with red RTV closing off the ends, I set it aside to cure/dry. It will go on after work tomorrow night.

It doesn't sound like much, but for me building that hose consumed the better part of 2 hours. Again, I bet Don could do it faster. :)
Time : 4.0 hours

The right-hand back piece does not fit as well as I might like. After all my attempts to make SURE there was EXACTLY the right amount of space between the top of the baffle and the cowl ... it seems tight. I figure that I will just work with it. Mind you, it looks like it will be ok, just not as perfect as one (who is a tad particular) might want it to be.
Time : 3.25 hours

So I now have to finish up the two forward-most seals, and the one long seal on the left-rear baffle. I may have to tweak the one on the right-rear baffle too, as I tried using a single strip but am not at all sure it is optimal. Time will tell.

As I was wrapping up I also took a little filler and started working on some of the 'divots' in the top cowl (i.e. significant small voids in the fiberglass). That will cure over night so the next time I go out there I can sand down the excess.
Time : 2.5 hours

I also did some sanding both from the filler I applied in the previous session as well as some of the other existing glassed areas on the inlet ramps. Messy work, sanding glass! But there'll be more of -that- tomorrow.
Time : 1.75 hours

I'm also trying a new resin mixing solution. The hiker in the family has these nice squishy silicone cups and bowls that she hikes with. One of the smaller ones ... the cup ... is never used. It is perfect for mixing small batches of resin and I _think_ the epoxy won not stick to the material. (If it does, I just trashed a nice little silicone cup.) If right, then once the epoxy is hard I can just squoosh (technical term) the cup and pop the old hardened resin out. We will know soon enough.

I also finally pulled the forward top skin off for the first time in -ages-. I need to go back into the cabin and do some odds-and-ends work (finishing some fuel lines, changing out some brake lines, etc.) and now that FWF is about completed I am heading back into the cabin. Progress happens!

Right now while the glassing cures I am headed to the airport to swap my winter-time propane space heaters for a large floor fan. It is a changing of the guard, seasonally speaking. It is getting hot out there!

So I then went to work on finishing up my brakes. See the section in Fuselage to read about what was done there.
Time : 2.0 hours

The fillers are now cut and shaped and ready to bond in. I wanted to do a bit more sanding on the micro/flox that currently exists on the ramps so that I am building additional layers upon a good well-shaped surface.

However ... time ran out, and I have to now shower so we can head out to dinner. But ... 0.5 of work is better than 0.0, so I am well pleased!
Time : 0.5 hours

I then mixed up a little more micro for the few spots that needed some touchup, and then added one layer of glass. I'll let this set up, sand it smooth, then will probably add on one more layer of glass for good measure.

Now ... time for a shower. North Carolina heat and humidity combined with fiberglass dust make for a nasty mix. :)
Time : 1.5 hours

I also did the final glassing on the right-hand side inlet ramp. I decided to do just one to see how it came out, and then modify how I did it on the other side if need be. We'll see how it looks tomorrow. But basically I glassed in one more layer of fine-mesh cloth in one large single piece.
Time : 1.0 hours

First, I realized I had made a mistake earlier. We won't talk about the mistake, as it was totally idiotic and totally fixable. So some time went into fixing the mistake. :) I then riveted on the hinge and did some last-minute tweaking of the fit.

Realizing that the leading edge of the door was riding a tad higher than the cowl I pulled out the SuperFil and blobbed on a bunch to build up that area. (I used plastic wrap to mask off the areas I do not want to end up with SuperFil on them, too.) Once dried I will sand it down to fit, and it will be done. I will wrap that up tomorrow morning.
Time : 2.0 hours

I fabricated a longer purge valve return line hose, which went together with no problem. I then modified the hose that goes between the fuel controller and the fuel flow sensor. It had a 90-degree fitting coming off of the fuel controller, and I wanted a 45-degree to make the routing nicer. Don supplied me with a replacement 45-degree fitting and the swap was made in just a few minutes. The routing is MUCH nicer.

Along with making that change, I had to change how the fuel flow sensor was mounted to the engine mount. It had to move up and forward a bit to avoid having the hose from the sensor to the purge valve chafe on some stand-offs we installed for the oil line to the prop governor. I had to fabricate a new (simpler, frankly) bracket to hold the sensor and it came out very nicely.

Now all I have to do is open up the hole in my baffle (again) to get the new purge valve return line hose through. I do hate the big lumps on the end of the hoses created by the stainless band clamps. Oh well.

More after lunch ......

During lunch I decided I needed to open up the hole in the baffle so much that the grommet I had would no longer fit. So I fabricated some AL plates (one with a joggle) that would cover the hole, and which had a hole in it exactly the right size for the grommet. They were fabricated as two overlapping plates (I guess I need a picture).

With that done I re-installed the baffle, installed the hose, installed the plates, and then anchored the hose to the engine mount about mid-way on the length of the hose. The 45-degree fitting I elected to use on the firewall end was perfect to get the hose headed in the right direction.

This was a great day of work, and I am thrilled to be back making some progress on the RV.
Time : 5.5 hours

I also installed the screw retainer clip on the TruTrak pitch servo which I have had in hand for a while. I now need to just install the clip on the roll servo in the wing.

I also reinstalled the rear top cowl attach hinge so I could put the cowl on. I need to drill the front screw holes and install the platenuts for the forward screws (which go behind the spinner). I was all set to do that when (a) I had to get some lunch and (b) had to launch into the next round of hot-tub repair. My promise was to do airplane stuff in the morning, and hot-tub stuff in the afternoon. Then tonight it is a celebratory dinner for my son before he heads off to Georgia for a few months.
Time : 2.0 hours

I have started to fabricate new lower cowl attach plates. These are made out of .063, and we will just see if they are robust enough. They are now cut to size and still need to be drilled, countersunk, and then bent. I did take a test piece of .063 and confirmed I could get the 10-degree bend in it that I want .. so I think I am good to go with a little more fabricating.

I also drilled for the platenuts which will hold the screws between the two cowl halves (right behind the spinner). I am only doing 2 screws on each side because no matter what I did a 3rd screw would come way too close to the ring gear for my comfort. I have seen others go with two, so I am ok with that. I am debating adding a small piece of AL to back up the platenuts so they are not _just_ riveted into fiberglass. At this point .. with all the holes for the screws and rivets drilled .. a small rectangle of AL should be easy to fit up. We will just see.

In the middle of this work session I helped a visitor with a small riveting problem. Jean-Pierre (a local new RV-12 builder) had drilled out an AN4 rivet and made the hole too large .. but only by a tiny amount. I helped him "pre-squeeze" a slightly-long AN4 rivet to start off with the hole filled, and with enough material to make a good shop head. We then put it in the hole and very slowly squeezed it with the pneumatic squeezer. The hole was filled, and the shop head was the right size. Problem resolved.
Time : 2.0 hours

I also spent a little time starting to fabricate some reinforcement plates for the platenuts that will be riveted on the center of the lower cowl (behind the spinner). I was concerned that just riveting the platenuts into fiberglass alone would not be adequately secure (and have read of some people having problems in that area) so my intent is to also include some AL plates for reinforcement. I now just need to finish cutting them to size, drilling them, and then bonding them into place.
Time : 1.0 hours

I also fabricated the replacement fuel pressure sensor hose and got that installed. Then took a break for lunch.

After lunch I finished installing the platenuts on the lower rear cowl attach points .. and applied some RTV (the white stuff, high tack, as recommended by my A&P) to the two rear corners of the baffles to see if I could get them to "train" a bit. I am also leaving the cowl on while I am in San Jose, CA for a week (leaving VERY early tomorrow, in fact).
Time : 3.5 hours

Today I tackled one of those things that always strikes me as very very tedious. I had to shape a foam block to fit in the back-side of the lower cowl snout so I could extend the snout back to the FAB. In theory this is not a big deal. In practice it means getting the foam block to actually fit in place, secure it so it won't wiggle loose, carve out the innards to match between the FAB and the snout, then glass it in.

Glassing is messy. Carving foam is messy. Messy things are annoying so I put them off as long as I can. That said, this went pretty darn well. I shaped the block to fit into the snout and then did a rough cut on the depth. I then put the lower cowl on (and off and on and off) and shaved down the back of the foam block until I got a snug fit. I first drilled a 1-inch hole through the block right in the middle of the opening, and then used a bit of hot glue on the corners to nail the block into the cowl.

I attacked it with implements of destruction (files, a knife, a saw blade, more files, and finally sandpaper) to get it shaped to the cowl snout and FAB. I then tediously laid in one layer of glass, and walked away. :)

Along the way I opened up the screw holes on the lower-rear of the cowl because the "floppiness" of the cowl means that getting them to align _perfectly_ every time wasn't going to happen ... and I was using tinnerman washers anyway so that should pull the cowl nicely into place. That made a world of difference and now the screws go in with no problem at all.
Time : 3.0 hours

This is going to be a bit of an odds-and-ends entry rather than breaking the various activities up over multiple sections like I should. So sue me.

I did some measuring earlier today, and the snout had too large a gap down one side. So more glassing was done. We'll see tomorrow what more might be needed after the current round of layups is cured.

I also spent some time thinking about how I want/need to route wires to the back of the plane. Right now there are only two wires and one multi-wire cable going back to the tail. The two wires for the tail-light, and the multi-wire cable (ordered from Stein) for the trim servo. That is all so light-weight that I decided to NOT run conduit after all. I'm doing the thing that people say "don't do it!" about. I'm using zip-tie sticky pad anchors. Why? Well, they are carying NO weight, and they are on the floor of the fuselage so they are not even having to carry their own weight against gravity. They are just so the wires won't flop around and chafe. I decided it would be good enough.

The goal is to get the various wires routed and so that I can close out the rear fuselage. Theresa has agreed to help me rivet that skin on over the Thanksgiving holiday. I'm anxious to do it, so want to get things to a point where I'm really ready.

In the spirit of getting the back-end of the plane ready, I also mounted the shoulder belt attach cables. I needed another pair of hands (awfully handy that George showed up at that point) to get it done. But its done.
Time : 3.5 hours

They are VERY hard to find in the Aircraft Spruce catalog. So for posterity I am recording the ACS and Slick part numbers here.

• 08-04393 SLICK M2755 TWO WIRE CLAMP ASY ..... $7.50
• 08-04392 SLICK M2754 SINGLE WIRE CLAMP ...... $2.90

Of course, when I need some again I'll never remember where I recorded it in my builders log, but at least now I can grep for SLICK and eventually I'll find them. Right??
Time : 0.75 hours

However, I did want to get a bit done on the RV. I started to install the final baffle seal and realized that I had to trim a bit of baffle to clear one of the seal pop rivets. This meant I had to then shoot a little paint. That meant ... letting the paint dry. Drats. I'll work on that tomorrow night after the paint is dry.

So I moved on to something I could do that would remove an item from my punch-list. I safety-wired the prop bolts. I used a technique that _two_ different A&Ps I respect told me to use. To get the safety wire on the obnoxiously-oriented bolts you make a witness mark with a sharpie, un-torque the bolt to a convenient position, put the safety wire in place (taking into account that the bolt has to rotate back to the torqued position), then re-torque the bolt when done. That is a quick-and-dirty description, and it worked like a champ. The prop bolts are now safety-wired appropriately.
Time : 2.0 hours

There is something that I did a while back that I hated. For the oil line passthrough I had originally opened it up to try and fit a hose through. I am using self-fabricated hoses (after mentoring from an expert) and this means I have got stainless band clamps on the ends of the firesleeve. They are fat, and as I kept opening up the hole to try and get it to pass ... the hole got large enough I started to feel uncomfortable with it. So I stopped, regrouped, and decided to run a stainless line for the prop governor oil line.

But this left a big hole. And maybe I am just too picky, but I didn't like it. I didn't like it at all.

So I spent a long time thinking of what I wanted to do, and this weekend I finally decided on a plan and implemented it. Both of my days were busy with family-stuff, but I did carve out a bit of time to work on it. Saturday (today) was the day for making false starts as I fabricated parts. I made some progress, but might need to start all over tomorrow. Oh well.
Time : 2.0 hours

Also, once this is done I can FINALLY finish up the last of my baffle seal work and do the final installation of the baffles. Good grief. It sure is about time!!
Time : 3.0 hours

In the picture you can see what I elected to do. I have a piece of that classic black baffle material used as a "gromet". It is held down with a small plate. The screws are screwed into three rivnuts. I went with rivnuts instead of platenuts because the metal is so messy in that area drilling extra holes for the keeper rivets on the platenuts was looking to be a pain in the rear. Since this is not a structural fastening I felt the rivnuts would be totally adequate. Time will tell. If I prove to be wrong ... I will just have to remake that part of the baffles. After doing it once (and now having templates to work from) doing it again would not be the battle that the first pass was. (Famous last words??)

With that behind me, I will be on to new stuff tomorrow. My goal is to finish up the last of the baffle-stuff over the next day or two. Won't that be cool?? :)
Time : 1.5 hours

I also spent a little time fabricating a bracket to hold the flap position sensor. I'll finish up that install tomorrow.
Time : 2.0 hours

I also screwed the flap position sensor in place. I hope to hit a hobby store tomorrow to get some RC pushrod clevises to create a rod connecting the sensor to the flap arm.
Time : 2.5 hours

It was tedious ... but is is done now, and I'm well pleased.

I also spent some time installing the baffle seal material on the FAB to cowl snout intersection. The only thing tough about that is I am _tired_ of pulling those stubborn pop-rivets. I thought I would need to cut slots in the baffle material to make getting the cowl on/off easier, but I was able to easly enough work the cowl on without any extra slots. I'm quite pleased.
Time : 4.0 hours

Anyway, one of the things documented as a comment elsewhere was adding standoffs to the engine sump so that I can run wires around the front and down the right side where there is lots of room whereas there is a lot less room over on the left side. I did not like the nuts and star washers used, and replaced them with metal locknuts. I feel a good bit better about that (never mind that star washers and regular nuts are used elsewhere on the sump). I also measured for coax, and have a rough idea of how much I need (and will buy a bit more to be sure). I also hauled out the EGT/CHT harness to start looking at installing that, and given the fact that the connector is already installed on one end I will finally have to make a decision on the firewall passthrough technique I want to use. I also need to talk with Stein and the folks at Advanced to make sure I know what I am doing with those thermocouple wires.

So .. a little done today, and hopefully more tomorrow.

UPDATE: I decided I did NOT like the standoffs, removed them, and routed the EGT/CHT harness wires differently. Documented in the Electrical section since that is getting into the whole issue of wiring.
Time : 1.25 hours

The next step was to confirm that the new filter adapter was going to fit. It would .... if I had a 1-inch spacer. As it is the adapter fits fine, with the exception of the filter itself hitting the engine mount. I didn't buy a spacer while at SnF because I didn't know if I'd need one or not. I couldn't know until, well, tonight. I thought this would be no big deal _until_ I had to remove the mags! *shesh*

So, I stuffed rags in the holes where the mags go (to keep crud out of the accessory case) and left the mags off. I also taped over the pad where the OFA goes, and will order a spacer from B&C tomorrow. This little boondoggle is _not_ their fault, as they can't know how every engine and engine mount is arranged.

I will say that the OFA really looks nice. Beautifully machined, and everything (including a little container of Loctite 518 gasket lube) is included in Bill's kit. Now if I can get a spacer in my hot little hands sometime next week, I'll finish up that task. That'll be the 90-Degree OFA, Part 2 entry. :)
Time : 2.25 hours

Yesterday I got some advice from a mechanic I know about how to extract studs. As it turns out there is a dohickey (technical term) called a "stud extractor" used for exactly this situation. In fact, there are a number of them. Some with a cam arrangement to grab the stud. Some look like funky sockets for your socket wrench. And then there is the "hammer on" version which is what John suggested I use.

This morning I went to Sears, picked up a set of extractors, and came home. I hammered the correct one on (after some difficulty finding the family claw hammer) and with that firmly in place, the stud came out with virtually no effort. Wow.

With that done the mags could go back on. Why does every little task involve what feels like a complete disassembly of the area near the task to be performed? Rhetorical question, of course.
Time : 1.0 hours

I then gooped the gaskets with the Loctite 518 (again, provided by B&C in their kit) and bolted it onto the engine. One of the bolts was in a bit of a tight spot, but the other three were trivial to get to and install. I then re-connected the wire to the oil temp probe, moved where some wires were routed, and was able to avoid changing any wire lengths or connectors. I lubed the gasket on the oil filter, installed it, and safetied it. Done deal.
Time : 1.0 hours

I kept looking at ways to transition from the nylaflow line to a metal line secured at the bottom of the firewall, and ended up not seeing why I couldn't just run the nylaflow out the edge of the firewall and skip the AL tubing (which I couldn't get to bend without collapsing anyway). It made for nice tidy installation.

I also started ty-wraping the spark plug wires to tidy that up, but have a little further to go.
Time : 2.5 hours

Today I cut a hole in the firewall for yet-another-eyeball pass-through and routed the control cable through there. I added an Adel anchor in the cabin to keep it out of the way, re-installed Adel's on the routing FWF, and cut the new control cable to length.

While I had this all apart I also fabricated an AL reinforcement ring to go inside the FAB. There had been numerous reports of the rivets holding the bottom ring pulling out due to vibration, and it had been recommended that a reinforcement ring to in there. That took a while to fabricated because (a) I had to bring out the fly-cutter and (b) I didn't have quite a large enough hole saw to cut the interior hole. But in the end I got it done.

I also did a major bit of cleaning up. There were tons of cut-off wire ties and lacing in the cabin. I cleaned that up, put a ton of tools away, and generally got the world a tad more tidy. I also cut the hole in the baffle for the blast tube I want to run to the alternator. I hope to finish that installation this week.

This weekend is the first time back on the project in a month, and it sure feels good to be back at it again!
Time : 4.5 hours