It’s been so busy at work I’ve just not had a chance to work on the plane at all. I managed to get out there an do a whole bunch of prep on all the interior cabin parts. After clean (soap), scrub (scotchbrite, rinse and MEK) acid etch (and MEK) I primed all the parts.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
