Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

I carefully measured the width of the fuselage at the cabin frame, which turned out to be 42-5/8″. Allowing for the 3/16″ thick angle on each side meant the cabin frame needed to be 42-1/4″ wide. I used the belt sander to trim just a tiny bit from the center joint. I clamped everything down and drilled the joint plate to the frame using the location called out on the plans (thanks Matthew). I was going to drill the strap next, but I needed to round the corner of it first. I didn’t feel like firing up the grinder.

Instead, I pulled out the panel and sub panel and clecoed that together. It looks very cool. Now I just need to fill that panel with $$.

There were just a few parts left on the shelves from the fuselage kit, so I tried to place some of the items. I tried fitting the two covers that go on the front of the F-704 and figured out that I riveted on the two outboard floor stiffeners in the wrong orientation. I can’t believe I did that. Now I need to figure out if it really matters.

While the family was sleeping in, I spent about an hour in the garage working on the fuel pump tubing. The Imperial bender works really well. Reading the instructions to figure out how to measure and mark the tubing takes a while, but the results are perfect. Once I got the hang of it, I didn’t have to redo any of the tubes (except when I stupidly left off the nut and sleeve before flaring).

I mounted the pump temporarily with some clecos to finish off the connections with the fuel selector. After a bad start a month ago, this ended up turning out very nice.

I spent the rest of the time fabricating all of the little parts needed for the cabin frame. It took quite a while to measure, cut, and shape these little buggers. (Edit: With Van’s recent modification of the cabin frame to F-706 attachment, four of the fabricated parts are no longer needed. Check before you bother to make all of the parts.) It’s hard to tell from the picture, but most of the parts are cut at an angle to allow the cabin frame to tilt back. I can’t imagine doing all of this without a band saw. I also drilled the large holes in the back of the frame with a hole saw.

I didn’t get anything done on the plane yesterday, as I was busy helping Julie install a brick patio. We got maybe 1/4 of the way done. It was actually nice to work outside, although I was getting antsy to get something done on the plane.

Today I riveted together the base for the fuel pump, drilled it to the floor stiffeners, and installed plate nuts. Clamped down the pump and filter, and bent some of the tubing. I’m right about back to where this kit should have started out.

Since I needed to paint the fuel pump base, I decided to paint some other cabin parts as well. I probably have one or two more batches of painting after this one.

Adele had a soccer game, so I didn’t get too much done. Seattle hit a record high temperature yesterday (88°F at KSEA), so the garage was also a bit uncomfortable. I finished drilling and countersinking the fuel pump base for the angles that are replacing the flanges. I also primed the angles and a few other miscellaneous parts.

I decided it was time to get the high pressure fuel pump figured out. It’s been sitting around half-assembled for too long. The first tube I tackled will hopefully be the most difficult. As I mentioned in this post, a common problem with the fuel pump/filter kit is that one of the fittings on the pump must be moved. The fitting has a nice pre-made piece of tubing on it, but I wasn’t able to re-bend the tubing to make it work. I used the new 180 degree bender to make a replacement. My first attempt was close, but I didn’t leave enough room at the end to slip on the sleeve and be able to get the flaring tool on it. You need a fairly long section (1/2-3/4″) at the end of the tube for that. My second attempt worked great. I was a little worried that I made the bends too wide, but I trial fit the cover with no issues.

The rest of the tubing is rather dependent on the location of the pump relative to the filter relative to the selector valve. Seemed like a good time to clamp the things down. However, I still had the problem where the fuel pump base wasn’t fitting well between my floor stiffeners. Time to fix that. I can understand it being off a little bit, but mine was close to 1/8″ too wide. I tried bending in the flanges and jamming it in there, but the base bowed up and tended to spring out. I noticed that Walter Tondu solved the issue (4/12/04 entry), by cutting off the flanges and riveting on angle stock at the correct width. I talked with Van’s support a few weeks ago on this subject. They said they would look into the issue and that using angle as a fix would work fine.

I cut off the flanges with the band saw and cut a couple of pieces of angle to replace them. I laid out the holes and drilled them and then called it a night. It’s a little frustrating to spend time on something that should have worked in the first place, but it’s better to just take care of it and move on.

I didn’t do much tonight. Getting the empennage disassembled last night kind of wore me out. I did manage to rivet the attach plate to the VS front spar.

I also finally received the 180 degree tube bender. I will not order anything from Amazon “Marketplace” again. It’s basically no better than Ebay–maybe worse. I ordered a tube bender off the Amazon web site. They charged my credit card immediately. I still haven’t received the bender from them, can’t find out the status, and can’t cancel the order. I ended up ordering one from the Sears web site and it showed up in one week. This is the Imperial 370-FH, the model that Walter Tondu recommended. This thing works great. If you’re going the fuel injection route with Van’s high pressure fuel pump kit, you’ll need a 180 degree bender. This is the best bang for the buck.

I tinkered with the bender for a while trying to figure out how to make the tubing runs for the Airflow Performance high pressure fuel pump and filter.

I made some new rudder stops. I started with the aft outside edge about 3/16″ further out than called for in the plans. I ended up sanding that down to about 1/8″ over a few iterations. The rudder now stops 1-1/8″ from the elevators in the neutral position. I considered making some Delrin stops as outlined on Jeff’s site here and here, but ultimately decided that just using the aluminum stops is easier.

With that complete, it was time to remove all of the empennage parts so Julie can get her car back in the garage. I deburred everything as I removed the parts and cleaned up quite a bit.

I didn’t do too much today. I tinkered with the rudder a little bit. It looks like I’ll end up making new rudder stops. Rather than start that, I read over the instructions for the cabin frame. I pulled out the raw stock I’ll need and started to cut a few parts.

Inventoried all of the hardware for the finish kit.