More left floor trimming
I worked a bit more on the parts that attach the FAB to the baffle floor. The drawings are not very accurate. The side parts need to be much shorter than what is called out. Also, the corners don’t fit together very well unless you cut an extra jog in the flange. I’m having a little trouble figuring out how this whole thing is supposed to be sealed. At least I think the idea is to have a pretty good seal between FAB, the filter and the baffle floor.
The main point of figuring out the parts was to help determine the location of the filter on the floor. It looks like I can position the filter so that the aft edge of the filter frame is right at the bend line.
I worked further on fitting the forward left baffle floor to the cowl inlet. I had to trim quite a bit more off the inboard edge of the floor so that it could slope down to the cowl inlet and not hit the crankcase. That involved several iterations of installing/removing the bottom cowl (not an easy task solo) and installing/removing the floor and grinding it down with the Scotchbrite wheel. I eventually got the forward floor edge to line up nicely with the cowl inlet. I then worked on the bracket that holds the inboard edge of the floor in position. The part comes flat with a large bolt hole in it. Not helpful. It would be much better to have the bend but no hole. Putting a bend in a small piece of .063 sheet exactly where you want without a bending brake is not fun. I used the vise, the hand seamer, a board, a hammer, and some colorful language. Surprisingly, it turned out pretty good.
The FAB instructions say not to install the angle the connects the left floor with the side baffle. The FAB kit replaces it with a different piece. I guess I move on to the right floor now.