17 MAR 17: FF 1-2 step 1 and deburring: 1 hour

I spent the past two weeks up in Charlotte doing some training for the airline I fly for, so I had a bit of a gap in building.  Today was a short session – cut, final-drilled, and deburred the oiler cooler mount – no pics.

18 MAR 17: Sanded cabin door frames, added flox: 3.5 hours

With the doors pretty much complete, it is time to start all the finish work – sanding, filling, sanding, and filling…  Started by ensuring I had a consistent 1/4” gap between the gutter and the inside door shell for the McMaster-Carr door seals.  Had to sand in a few places and add flox to build up the gutter in others – no pics.

19 MAR 17: Removed doors/cabin top and began sanding inside of cabin top: 5.75 hours

As depressing as it is to rip everything apart, it is part of the forward progress.  Time to begin finishing the inside of the cabin top.  Back to where I was months ago – ha ha:

I took the time while the cabin top was off to make a template of the glare shield.  I’m going to make a fiberglass lay up to overlay on top of the glare shield – will probably cover it with ultra-suede.  The reason I’m making a cover is so I can remove it to clean out all the dirt and bugs that will eventually find its way into the far reaches of the glare shield/windshield junction.  This way I’ll be able to remove it and vacuum it off.  Sheet of plastic to make a template:

Finished template:

Sanding the inside of the cover flat, so the seal lays flat:

Looking pretty good.  I’m not making it perfect, just level enough for the inside portion of the seal to lay flat.  I’ll then fill in the portion between the overhead console flange and the seal.  This will leave a flush edge on the cabin top for the seal to butt up against – should look nice.  I’m also going to lay up a few layers of fiberglass over the strut hinges to make small covers to cover up the cutouts in the overhead console.

20-21 FEB 17: 45-5 (R) 10-12: 6.75 hours

Trimmed the right door to a pretty good rough fit – off, on, off, on….

 23 FEB 17: Installed repaired fuel tank, more sanding of right door: 5 hours

Well, I’ve been dreading reinstalling the fuel tank that I had to remove to repair the damage from it falling off the cradle while taking it out to my hangar.  My motivation to do it was 1) I had the day off, and 2) hot weather will be here before long.  I was pretty sweaty as it was – can’t imagine doing this in the hangar in the middle of summer!  Wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, but still sucks to spend a couple hours like this:

In the end, I was very glad to have it back on, and it really wasn’t too terrible bad.  Definitely easier to do it in the cradle vs. if it was mounted on the plane.  Nice for the wing to be back together!

Went home and spent a couple more hours sanding the right door. 

Top:

24 FEB 17: Sanding door, 45-6 (R) step 3, 45-7 1-5: 3.5 hours

Did some more sanding of the right door and fit the hinges onto the cabin top and door.  Installing the hinges on the cabin top:

Nice to have the second door attached!

25 FEB 17: Riveted corner nutplates onto overhead console: 1 hour – no pics

28 FEB 17: Drilled/cut holes for door handle, epoxied door: 2 hours

1 MAR 17: Fit PlaneAround latch into door: 3.25 hours

You know, even though this went WAY quicker the second time around, it is still a PIA to get everything in place and working correctly.  Bottom slot cut into door for gear assembly:

2 MAR 17: 45-12 (R) 1-5: 6.5 hours

Cut and fit the PlaneAround door pin blocks for their angled pin guides.  Neat to see both doors on the plane!

3 MAR 17: 45-15 (R) 1-3: 6.5 hours

Drilled the holes for and mounted the cabin pin blocks.  Last thing for the night was to mix up a bit of flox to bed in the hinge bracket, so it has a nice mounting surface against the cabin top.  Fun, fun!

4 MAR 17: 45-16 (R) 1-4: 3.25 hours

Fit the strut to the right door.  Locating bar attached to the strut bracket in order to get the correct location for mounting the door attach brackets:

I still have TONS of work to do on the doors – fine tuning of the McMaster-Carr seal, final edge/gap constructions, final sanding painting, etc. – but the rough work is done!  I read so many horror stories about the doors, and, even up to this point, it was A LOT of work, so it feels really good to see both doors on the plane – if only temporarily!

5 MAR 17: Firewall planning: 1 hour

Temporarily hung the engine mount (with a bungee cord!) to get an idea where to place firewall pass throughs.  I have 4, 3/4” pass throughs, but doubt I’ll use all 4.  I am going to try to separate engine sensor wires from power wires, so perhaps I may use all 4…