Mounted firewall gizmos
I got a ton of stuff done today, and not just on the plane. I washed both cars and we put the hard top back on Julie’s car. That means the garage is all mine for the winter (insert sinister laugh here). I can do the fairing on the front of the canopy, mount the landing lights in the wings, and lots of other fun stuff.
I started off working on the strobe power supply mount. I riveted it together, positioned it between baggage ribs, drilled, and pop riveted it in. CreativAir pre-drilled the mount plate to 1/4″ for AN4 holes, which isn’t so great. The holes are so close to the housing that it’s impossible to get a socket on the bolts. I ended up stepping down to AN3 bolts. I put nut plates on the back side of the mount to make it easy to remove the power supply if I ever need to.
From there I worked on getting the firewall squared away. I decided it was time to rivet in the firewall recess. I got out high-temp RTV and went to town. I managed to get the stuff everywhere. Sort of reminds me of messing with Proseal without the stink. I was able to rivet most of it solo, but requested Julie’s help for the rivets along the top and bottom. The bottom ones were really impossible to even inspect without climbing into the fuselage, which Julie thought made a funny picture.
With the recess in place, I permanently installed the cabin heat selector, contactors, battery box, and brake fluid reservoir. I dabbed RTV under the bolt heads to make a good seal. It’s cool to have so much stuff on the firewall. If you look carefully, you can see a little spec of light in one corner of the recess. It’s hard to get the RTV to span the rather large holes in the corners of the recess. It’s going to take another coat or two of RTV.
Almost forgot that I put some heat shrink on the copper bar between the contactors. I might put some electrical nipples on it as well. It seems like a good idea to cover up any metal carrying +14V straight from the battery.
November 3rd, 2005 at 7:19 am
Dave,
While you are fussing with the firewall… there are some nutplates you might want to put on now. Two go on the top horizontal firewall support angle where you just riveted your firewall recess. They are for adel clamps that hold an oil pressure line I think. (See FWF drawings) There is a 3rd nutplate that gets put on the left (pilot) side vertical stiffener down low that is for a clamp that holds the vent tube. You can see a pic of that one on my site.
Matthew