Painting the forward canopy deck - 5.5 hours

 Well since the weather is nice, today is a painting day. Before I can bolt the roll bar on permanently, I need to paint the forward Canopy decks.

This actually turned out to be much more of a pain than I was hoping it would be. I prepped everything nicely and gave a final light wipe with acetone. Then I sprayed it with one stage final coat. It was perfect! Then I noticed a fish eye on one of the rivet spots. I’m sure I could have left it as-is, but I chose to whip the paint off, clean, re-prep the area, and re-spray. This takes about an hour or two in all…so progress was slow.  Crap, I got a run in the paint!!! Wipe it off…..redo all over again. The third spray was good (not prefect) but good. 

In the mean time, I noticed that my paint on the forward center cover (F-982E access plate) was failing. The paint must not have mixed correctly when I first sprayed it last year?. Well.. fortunately the paint wiped off with heavy doses of acetone. The epoxy primer underneath is not phased by the acetone, do I didn’t have to really re-prime, I just had to work at getting all of the old paint off, prep and re-spray it. This time the paint was perfectly mixed. (I looked over all other interior pieces and everything was fine, this part was the only piece that had signs of paint failure).

 

While still on a roll with the priming and painting, I decided to give the NACA ducts some attention. I’m sure that I could have primed them just fine well after they were installed, but why not give them a good once over now while they are accessible. A gave a light wipe down of the plastic with acetone. Being very careful with the acetone as it melts this plastic. 

 

More brake line fitting - 3 hours

 I went back to Mopac and purchased 2-14" lines for the park brake to pedals, and 2-36" lines for the pedal to pedal connection. 

 

Do there is no doubt that the 14" lines are the correct choice over the 16" lines. However I am a bit concerned with the length of the 36" lines. They look right, and run nicely to the other pedal with gentle sweeping bends, however when moving the pedals back and forth, I see that I am getting some rubbing of the lines on the brake pedal tubes. To help combat this, I designed and 3D printed brake line clips to help separate lines. After installing them, they certainly do much to keep lines from rubbing together, however I'm still having some issue with the right pedal. I just need a little more slack in the lines. I might need to go back to 38" lines. 

 

 

 

Started installation of flexible brake lines - 1.5 hours

 Before I get the front deck into place, I want to ensure that I have all of the brake lines on the rudder pedals sorted out. The local auto race shop Mopac, which is similar to Summit Racing in the US sells stainless braided PTFE brake lines.  

I ended up purchasing 2-16" lines for the park brake to pedals. And 2-38" Lines to run from pilot pedal to co-pilot pedal. On initial fit, both look a tad long.

Perhaps I should go to the next size down line 14" and 36" respectively.

 One item that I did, was to route the brake lines through the lightening hole in the brake pedal brace. I 3D printed a type of 2-piece interlocking grommet/line holder out of black PLA. It took a revision or 2 to get it right. Holds the lines nicely in place.

 

Installed F-6118 rudder pedal brace - 1 hour

 Short day in the garage today. I installed the F-6118 rudder pedal brace.

 As well I also installed the rivet for the top flange of the F-902 bulkheads (These are AN470AD3 to preserve the proper edge distance as the AD4 will blow all edge distances in this super tight area)

Small fixups and installing the brake pedal assembly - 5 hours

 Before I can start prepping the front canopy deck for assembly. I need to put a bit of work into the cabin area and brakes. I did not finish this area off originally as all of the drilling of the front deck results in a bunch of metal filings I didn't want all over the fuel system and brake system. 

 I removed the center cover to expose the forward brake lines. During the original installation, I didnt get one of the plastic retainers installed as I was short 1 half. So, I took care of it. 

 Now...The issue I was having with my brake pedestal install last year is that I had an amount of play in the WD-655L/R brake weldments that would (in work case scenerio) allow the two master brake cylinders to rub against each other. To combat this, I need to install a small washer in the F-6116 bearing blocks to limit the amount of potential movement I can get between the two weldments. 

Last year I had cut a few 1 1/4" dia x 1/4" thick discs out of HDPE plastic. I just need to trim them down to proper size. Using the 3D printer once again, I made a template/guide so I can trim the white HDPE to a tight press fit in the bearing block. One 1/4" spacer is installed in opposite ends for each F-6116 weldment.

Next, I need to install eight AN fittings in the master cylinders. As per the Van's Instructions, I am using a small amount of tite-seal on the NPT threads to help seal them. 

Before the brake assembly is installed. I need to finish final installation of the park brake and the park brake lines.
 

Now I am ready to permanently install the brake pedal assembly. And I can also confirm the 1/4" spacers work perfectly as it prevents any lateral movement in the assembly causing the master cylinders to touch together.  

Installed brake line spacers and the flap actuator - 3.5 hours

 I started to install the brake line spacers that I had 3D printed. It takes some time to lay things out. I need to ensure that the spacers do not interfere with any of the many nutplates and screws. Lots of head scratching on this task.

I also need to use the drill press and drill mounting screw holes to clamp the lines. Originally, I was going to just proseal the lines on. But I do want the ability to change lines out easily if needed, so small screws are the way to go. I raided my pinball parts stash and found very small machine screws that will work well! A little bit proseal is mixed and the bottom half of the spacers are installed.

While I wait on that, I decided to move on to the cabin area flap actuator. I just want to get the cabin put together. Easy enough I put the mounting bolt in to the assembly. And the cotter pin is set. 

 A few more screws and the flap actuator are installed. 

Work is getting soo busy I am going to have to put the build on hold for a while. It’s bitter-sweet as it’s good to be busy, but I really need to keep building. 

Installed the weldment….The second one - 2 hours

 I finally managed to get to the second flap weldment in the winter after messing up the first one. I ordered one back in around March/April '21 but didn't receive one until September '21. Through a mistake in ordering I actually received (and paid) for two. Good lord. Well, lets get this thing in there.

I carefully opened up the holes in the weldment  with the drill and finally with a reamer, with much better results then my first attempt. The holes for the bolts are very snug with no play. Much more acceptable. 

 In it goes into the cabin area. Looks great.

 

Test fit brake line spacers - 1 hour

 I need to support the brake lines running down the center tunnel. I've seen various methods used, but none looked all that great to me. I wanted something that looks a bit more purpose built. Why not 3D print something? My co-worker Dave at the office bought a 3D printer so I designed some parts to cradle the brake lines. These are a two-piece unit that will clamp down the lines and hold them straight and tight. They also have a slight grove to allow them to next into the floor stiffener angle.

 

The fit is excellent!

Drilled the passenger control stick and fitted fuel pump - 4 hours

 Lots of little tasks to work on today in the cabin area. One item on the list is to complete Vans Service Bulletin SB-07-2-6 that permanently attaches the passenger side control stick by means of an AN3 bolt. It’s always a tricky task to drill a round tube cleanly and accurately. I drew out the measurements on AutoCAD and created a template. Using the template, carefully transferred the drill points onto the control stick. Closed my eyes and drilled each side to #40. Then I drilled again all the way through with #40. 

 

Now that I have perfect alignment. I clamped the assembly in the drill press and then upsized to #30, #19, and eventually a 3/16” reamer. 

 The passenger control stick is now ready to be installed in the Fuselage

 

Next…I might as well see how the fuel pump fits. The center tunnel cover is a bit tough to slide into place with the final paint taking away some clearance. Eventually I got everything into place and it sure looks good. 

 

Fabricating park brake lines - 7 hours

 Well...Fabricating the park brake lines (lines that run from the park brake to the 90deg fittings) its a lot more difficult than one would think. Its just really tricky as the lines are so short, you must be precise in all your bends and cuts.

Today took a long time, but in my opinion it was well worth it. The fit is fantastic and looks pretty good. Figuring out the bend recipe was murder...I have so much scra/garbage bent tubing lol. I didn't write down the bend recipe for these as frankly I don't think anyone would; A - Need them, or B - be able to repeat it.  There were some tricky bends and some tight bends involved with these. I have to start some bends with the end of the tube on the end of the bender tool like this;

Or I have to make an immediate bend following another and I have to rotate the tube 90....slip the bend just far enough back and start the next bend.

After many many many attempts I finally was able to fabricate a left and right brake line. 

I am essentially done bending brake lines....It was so much much work but I am so pleased with the results and I have about 40' of tubing left over for future. I suppose I will give all the bending tools a good clean and light oil and I can now put them away in storage. Actually...there is quite a lot of tools that I can start thinking about putting into storage and free up some drawer and cupboard space.