Finished drilling the baffle seals. I read on one of the RV forums, that applying some RTV between the baffles and seals is a good idea. The seal material tends to pucker, so the RTV will hold it in place. We’ll see.
Julie helped me move the wings and stuff out of the guest room and back into the garage. Time to get the wings finished off and moved down to the hangar.
I decided it was time to drill the seals to the baffles. Not much to it. I laid out the holes on the baffles 1/2″ down from the edge, about 1-1/2″ between. I then clamped the seal material in place and drilled to #30.
I decided to leave a little more extra above the baffles for a total of about 2-1/4 inches. I marked on the material with a ball point pen and cut them out. Not too tricky.
I spent a bunch of time looking through the Mouser catalog for some better knobs, push button switches, and mini toggles. I also found the coax and Molex connectors that SteinAir sells. I’d rather get them from Mouser, plus they sell them cheaper. The coax connectors are Mouser part# 523-31-320-RFX. The Molex connectors can be found by searching for “Molex .084″. I was going to order the coax connectors from B&C, but they are now selling a genuine mil-spec connector that costs $5 each. The connectors that I’ve been using from SteinAir seem just fine and cost $1.33 in quantities of 10, which is how many I need. $13.30 sound much better than $50 for 10 connectors.
A few parts that I ordered from B&C showed up, so I could continue with wiring. I hooked up the alternator output to a 60 amp circuit breaker on the panel. I also installed the diode rectifier for the landing lights and hooked it up, running some 14 AWG wire out to the wings for the lights. The diodes will allow one switch to control the flasher and turn on both lights solid.
While I’m waiting for a few electrical parts from B&C, I decided to finish off the baffles. The only remaining task is to cut and install the rubber baffle seal material around the top. I looked all over for the baffle instructions, but I seem to have hidden them somewhere. I ended up cleaning up the workbench in the process, which isn’t a bad thing. If I remember right, the only thing they say about the seals is to install them. I don’t think there was much helpful information. I did some searching on the forums to find some advice. Leaving 2″ of material above the baffle walls is a good starting place. I’m going to try 1″ below.
I used some paper grocery bags to make templates, holding them up to the baffles, drawing a line, and then cutting them out. Looks like I’ll be able to use one strip for each side, front, back, and sides. I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. Getting the baffles off will be impossible without a break in the middle of each side where there’s a seam in the baffles. Time for more research.
I’m getting down to the last few items on wiring. I hooked up a white LED and a little switch in the roll bar support cover that I made a while back. That’ll serve as a baggage compartment light.
I also ran some coax to the left antenna for the GNS430 comm, although I need some more coax connectors before I can attach both ends. The last wiring task was to hook up a wire to the battery bus. So far, nothing is hooked up to that bus yet. I’m expecting the AF-3400 will use it.
To finish off the panel, I did some more thinking about where I want the parking brake lever. I can’t decide on a good location yet. I did decide to mount the alternate air lever on a little angle below the panel. That way it’s right next to the throttle quadrant. I also mounted the cabin heat lever, although I didn’t hook up the other end yet.