Finish Kit 7
11/13/05 5 Hours
Today wasn't so productive really. I spent a lot of time thinking about how to do the sides of the cowling where the two halves join. I started off making some Skybolt flanges out of 0.063" and continued to work out how it was all going to come together. There's a big radius inside the cowling where the thickness increases for the honeycomb, and this was interfering somewhat with the strips I'd made. It was about this time that I started seriously thinking about doing the hinges for the two halves.
About 3pm, Mike stopped by, which was pretty good timing really. I told him the plan, and he wholeheartedly agreed that would be the better way. So, that's what we did. I tossed aside the stuff I'd done for today and went down the new route.
Mike also helped to get the gaps closed up along the sides so it wouldn't need to be filled. That'll save me a ton of time later on, and keep the cowling edges a little nicer. We filed some material from the front area so we could close the gaps more, and it worked like a charm!
Here, we have the hinges drilled and cleco'd on. See the gap? What gap?! Much better.
Now you can see the nostrils are a lot better also.
The other side...
11/20/05 8 Hours
For some reason, it didn't seem like I did very much today. I wasn't even messing about much, and I had no real interruptions. Larry came by and chatted for a short time, but not for long really.
I did some more messing with the cowling, sanding the edges along the hinged side joints to get them butted together. Right now, they overlap in some places, so this needed fixing before I sort out the holes down the sides of the lower cowl.
Once this was done, I put the cowl back on the plane, and put a shop light inside so I could use it to see where I needed to drill the new holes for the sides. Since Mike helped me fix the gaps along the upper/lower seam, the holes were now a lot off, so I needed to redrill them. Fortunately, these holes get hogged out a lot for the Skybolts, so the original holes I drill will get swallowed up by the new ones.
The next task was to rivet the hinges on to the cowling halves. This took me ages. The time consuming part was drilling some holes in the hinges for the epoxy to key to. I first drilled pilot holes, then drilled them to 7/32". These hinges are even lighter now! I roughed up the cowling and the hinges to help with the epoxy bond, then I mixed up some epoxy and painted it onto the cowling halves and the hinges, and riveted them on. Here's the lower cowl.
And the upper.
While this was setting up, I moved on to the Skybolt flange strips. Time has flown by already today! I used the Skybolt template to drill all the pilot holes. I also drilled pilot holes for the tab reliefs. Then I got the unibit out and enlarged the holes accordingly.
Here is the finished part. Lots of cutting, drilling and filing going on to make this. This is the lower right hand one.
Then, I rivetted it onto the plane! This looks quite nice. There were a couple of rivets at the bottom that I couldn't get. I need to get a no hole yoke or something to get these. Either that, or a thin bucking bar.
Here's a close up of it.
11/27/05 5 Hours
After getting home from Chicago this morning,I managed to sneak a little time in at the hangar. I din't have my camera with me though, so no pics. I managed to finish off all the Skybolt flanges for the firewall, and riveted the lower ones, and the left side one on. I can't rivet the upper ones yet because these will go on when the top forward fuselage skin gets riveted, which will be a while yet.
I still need to drive a few rivets, and tomorrow a shipment from the Yardstore should arrive with a no hole yoke, and some different bucking bars so I can finish it all up. Then I can get the skybolts in the cowl too as there's also a pair of Camloc pliers in there. Once that's all done, it's back to the baffles. You need the lower cowl in place in order to do the front floors of the baffles.
12/4/05 6 Hours
We got some snow today, so my first job was to clear the driveway. Ugh. I better get used to it, as there's surely a ton more to come. I received my order from the Yardstore, so I could finish up riveting the skybolt flanges. Here's the other side before I'd finished riveting it.
Then I opened up the holes on the cowling for the Skybolt studs. This was pretty easy. I put the Skybolt washers in and put the little spring clips on. This was easy enough without the use of a special tool. You need the tool to put the studs in though. Here's one assembled.
We put it on the plane, and it fit pretty nicely. We took it off to do the baffles before I got to snap a pic though. Oh well, next time.
1/29/2006 9 Hours
While I was waiting for Lucy to pick me up, I needed something to tinker with since I didn't have much time left. I thought I'd tackle a brake line. I got an order from Pegasus Racing of a bunch of teflon braided hose, and a variety of fittings. This is how I did the lines to the calipers. I think it's a lot better than the aluminiun tubing. The tie wraps are only a tempory means to figure out the length of the hose, and hold it in place so I can see the fit. These hoses are incredibly easy to make. Pretty cool stuff. If you want to do something similar, go to Pegasus' brake page. At the bottom here, I used a straight nipple, then a 90 degree hose fitting. I could've used an AN elbow like the plans calls out, but I would have had to take off the whhel pant brackets to get them on! This solution is just as elegant.
At the top end, I used a 45 degree fitting.
This image shows the routing of the hose. It worked out pretty nicely. I didn't get chance to do the other side. Something for next weekend.
On a roll today, I made all the brake lines that were left to do. I started with the ones for the brake pedals to the parking brake valve. These were pretty easy, as both ends terminate in a straight swivel fitting. I might even order some more stuff and do the lines between the passenger side and the pilot side. They just look nicer than the nylon tubing.
Here's how you'll see it from the pilot seat. There's a lot of stuff hanging around under there!
I moved along to the brake line for the right gear. This was a little trickier as both ends have a 90 degree fitting. These fittings need to be oriented correctly so that the hose doesn't have to twist, something it doesn't do too well. I marked the hose where the fitting needed to be oriented to, and marked the nut on the fitting in it's fully tightend position. Then, when I tightened the whole thing up, I made sure to keep the marks aligned. Thing is, when you tighten the fitting down on the hose during assembly, the hose will turn in the nut, and if you don't keep an eye on where it stops, you'll be all messed up. Don't ask me how I know this!
Here's the wheel end. Same as the left side really. Using the flexible hoses means I don't have to have a curly loop of aluminium tubing down here. Temporary tie wraps again too.
The area where it goes into the cowling.
And the firewall end. A bit out of focus, but never mind.
I finally got around to ordering the stop nuts from spruce, and torquing the gear leg bolts. These have been sitting loose for some time now, and Mike was worried I'd forget to do it! Well, here it is. Torqued.
I had to make some clearance on the lower part of the cowling because of the Skybolt flange. The area where the cowl gets thicker interfered a bit. I sanded it away to make sure that the cowling sat snugly.
Next week, I should have the new snorkel from Van's, so I will make some progress with the baffles and some cowl inlet trimming.