Deburring and cleaning up the fuel pump cover and center tunnel cover parts - 3 hours

 Tedious night tonight. Just cleaning up all of the edges and nooks and crannies. Dubur and smooth out all of the edges. Getting things ready for priming.

 

 

Finishing the tunnel cover mounts - 3.5 hours

 A bit of detailed work today to finish off the tunnel cover/fuel pump mount. With the pump in its final fit configuration, I need to drill the mounting holes into the tunnel cover. Getting this right took some time and some precise work.

 

Next all of the mounting holes needed to be drilled for the nutplates. And there is an amount of them. I also need to make a hole in the cover to allow the fuel pump wiring to rise up through the tunnel cover. This is basically guess work at this point to figure where the hole should be. A larger hole was made in the stiffener than the tunnel cover. I will eventually install a snap bushing. 

 

Fixing the fuel line - 1 hour

 So when drilling the top most (left) hole in the fuel selector cover (to attach the dog house) the drill bit just nicked the fuel line. It wasn’t horrible, but I decided to make a new one. The fuel line and the mounting hole are perfectly aligned and installation of a screw in this hole will be an issue. So to start off, I decided to make a brand new fuel line (Gascolator to pump) to ensure that the line was perfect. Next, I needed to put a slight jog in the top most run to ensure that the future screw would not interfere. 

My thumbs are really sore. That 3/8” line is not easy to work with, without leverage. But I’m happy with the result.

 

Final fitting work on the doghouse cover - 2 hours

 So today was a small job of cleaning up all the edges of the dog house cover and rounding out the corners. This also allowed me to double check the final fit of all the internal components to make sure that I had adequate clearance. I completed drilling the doghouse cover to the tunnel and to the fuel selector cover.

The fit overall is excellent however, I notice that I will have a conflict between one of the mounting screws and the fuel selector cover. At present installation of the screw will press into the fuel line running from the gascolator to the fuel pump. I will need to make some adjustments in the line to ensure proper clearances.

Final fitting the fuel pump cover - 2 hours

Managed another quick build session tonight. I need to complete the sides of the fuel pump cover. I clamped the assembly to the table and then began marking and drilling the remaining rivet holes. The top of the cover needs to be parallel with the bottom of the flange. The forward end of the cover is basically set...as long as the front is vertical. The assembly is clamped into place and I can then start drilling rivet holes.

Once that was done, I can then trim down the sides to fit the top of the cover. All I need to do now is final fitting and drill to the center tunnel cover. This is easy to do as I still have all of my reference lines in place. I started from the rear and moved forward. Drilling all holes, 3/32" first, 1/8" and then #19 last. 

More fuel pump cover fabrication - 3.5 hours

 With the top cover position established. I now can figure out how I want the cover to fit over the pump and where I want the cover to end. I measured and marked out all of the bend points, cut relieve notches and then made all of the bends.  A simple description but it was more tedious then that, I just don't want to mess this up. By the end of it, I was really happy with how the top cover was sitting and now I just need to start fitting the side covers.

I clamped them on, and started using a level to get things straight but soon found that a level is not going to work correctly as the centre tunnel is angled slightly and I want the cover to sit parallel with the pump. I'll stop here and come back to it when I can think it over a bit more.

Fabricating the fuel pump top cover - 2 hours

 Today I need to fabricate the top cover of the fuel pump doghouse. This will basically be a c-channel shape that I will eventually shape into the final cover. To make the initial cutout. I took some measurements of the original stock cover and worked my way from there. I cut a long rectangle out of 0.020" material and then started marking out my flanges. 

The first 90deg bend is fairly straight forward. Once the flange length is set, clamp the oak bending guide, start the bend by hand, and then finish with the rubber mallet. 

 

The next part is trickier. Get the other bend the right distance apart. This is where having the stock cover is super helpful as I can use it as an exact guide. After the opposite flange is bent...I checked it against the stock cover. I'm very happy with it.

Now I am ready to make the flange bend at the aft most end of the cover. Same process....

 

With that done...I am now able to place the cover on top of the fuel pump and establish the final height of the cover. I placed spacers on the top of the pump, placed the cover on, centered it and them drilled with 3/32" holes.