The first thing to do was assemble the rollers. This picture is an example of how *not* to do it since I did it completely wrong. The nut is supposed to be one of the thin jobs, and I have the bushings inserted incorrectly which means there is no room for the rail. I'll try to remember to take a picture of what they are supposed to look like.
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| From Finish Kit |
Once those were done I cut the rails to length. I cut them a bit long on the band saw, then used the heavy scotchbrite wheel to fine tune the length.
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| From Finish Kit |
I don't recall if I ever took a picture of the storage I have on the back side of my plans stand. I got the idea from Jeff Moreau. I picked these up at Lowe's for about $20 each, and they are great. It isn't quite enough storage for all the hardware, but it's most of it.
As stuff gets used I relabel and reuse the drawers.
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| From Finish Kit |
This is the front side. I use an index system with tabs to make it easy to find the sheets, and keep the previously used plans in the lower area where I can refer to them if I need to.
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| From Finish Kit |
I forgot to take any pictures of working on the slider frame and rail install, so I'll have to come back and add those later.
After finishing the frame, since it's too cold to work on the canopy, I decided to start on the engine mount.
First thing I did was to just match drill the prepunched holes in the firewall to the structure behind. 3/16" holes.
I then used some spare bolts to temporarily hold the mount to the fuse so I could check all the hole clearances and center everything as best I could. Turned out to be a very good fit and didn't require any particular tweaking.
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| From Finish Kit |
Once those were good, I started to enlarge the holes. I did it in two stages - first to about 5/16", then final drilled to 3/8". Used lots of boelube. Honestly getting through the weldments behind was worse than the stainless firewall.
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| From Finish Kit |
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| From Finish Kit |
I laid out the holes for the cables (throttle, carb heat, mixture, etc) next.
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| From Finish Kit |
Lining up the nose gear attach bolt to the firewall to check for alignment.
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| From Finish Kit |
During test fitting I noticed one of the nutplates on the fuel pump mount was interfering with the engine mount. I'd read about this previously - solution is to file it down. I did that until I could get a thin feeler gauge through without binding.
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| From Finish Kit |
Everything finished up and cleaned up. Mount is only temporary since I'm sure I'm going to have to take it off and on again a few more times before I can finally secure it for good.
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| From Finish Kit |
