I sanded down the filler on the cabin frame. There was quite a bit of shrinkage, so I did another round of filling. I think it’ll turn out pretty nice.
I ordered custom throttle/mixture/prop cables from Spruce which should arrive in 4 weeks. I purchased a few other odds and ends from Vans and Spruce as well.
The weather outlook was great, so I prepped the F-704 covers and the upper baggage bulkhead for painting.
Busy night away from the plane tonight. There was an event at Adele’s school and a public hearing about the city leash laws. Both important to attend.
I did spend a little time drilling the F-704 covers for cabin lights. Easy stuff. The covers are now ready for paint and installation.
The angled sniffle valve from Mattituck arrived. It’s a Piper part. It looks like it’ll work great, but I can’t use the standard Vans setup. The outlet of this fitting is 1/4″ rather than 3/8″. I already found some hose I can order to connect the valve to a length of 1/4″ aluminum line. Just one more bump in the road.
I got some good news from Spruce today. They checked with their vendor for the custom length quadrant cables and the diameter is 1/4″. That will fit perfectly in the firewall eyeball fittings. I’ll order those cables soon.
I took the canopy out into the driveway and shot a coat of primer onto the fairing area to see how it looked. It’s amazing how areas that seemed smooth turn out to be really wavy. I have some more work to do still. Part of the problem is the difference in density between the microlight filler and structural filler. They aren’t sanding down at the same rate, which is causing some uneveness.
I continued working on the F-704 covers. I drilled all the holes to full size and deburred everything. It was really fun to do some good ol’ metal working again. It’s been quite a while since I’ve done drilling and deburring. I also pulled out the swivel cockpit lights I bought a while back to fit those to the covers. Looks like I need to drill a couple of 3/4″ holes. But before I do that, I wanted to make sure the lights weren’t going to interfere with the canopy latch keeper. I installed that with the spring. The rod the spring rides on sticks way into the area under the left cover, so the light needs to be below that. The keeper isn’t moving as smoothly as I would like. Hopefully that loosens up over time.
Yesterday after work I finally got back up in the air again. I took a 172 up with an instructor to knock off the rust. It went surprisingly well. I’m cleared to rent the school’s planes, so I’ll be flying more often now.
Adele had a soccer game, so I didn’t have too much time for the project. The 48″ throttle quadrant cable I ordered from Vans arrived yesterday. I used some boards to hold the throttle quadrant in approximately the correct position (since I still don’t have the panel back from Ross yet). I test fitted the cable and the length is perfect for the prop. The throttle and mixture cables ideally need to be about 2″ longer. I could make the 48″ cable work by ordering the cable extensions from Spruce, but I’ll just order custom cables of the correct length.
The only problem is the diameter of the cable. It’s almost 1/10 inch thicker, so it won’t fit through the eyeball fittings I just drilled to the firewall. The instructions for the fittings say I can drill them out, but I’d have to drill them so large for this cable that there’d be nothing left of the sleeve that holds the cable. Argggg! It seems like every time I turn around there’s a new hassle. I’ll see if the custom quadrant cables from Spruce have a smaller diameter.
I worked on the covers for the F-704 sides for a while. I left these off to allow for wiring up some lights. I’ve had the lights for a while, but just haven’t gotten back to it. I deburred the covers and clecoed them in place. Well, the right one wouldn’t fit. I apparently installed the right canopy deck about 1/32″ too far forward and it prevented the cover from slipping into place. I spent quite a bit of time sanding and filing and finally got enough clearance.
The annual trip to the Boat Show was today, so I didn’t get much done on the project. I just tinkered with the seat pans a little bit, prepping them for installation.
I riveted in the baggage compartment side panels and riveted down the left side baggage floor. It’s not an easy task to lean in over the side and deal with nut plates, flush rivets, and pop rivets. The results look great, though. The compartment for the strobe power supply works exactly as planned. I re-installed the power supply and secured the compartment cover.
Warning! This pop riveter is a piece of dung. The top handle has been loose for a while, and I didn’t do anything about it. Well, the darn thing (trying not to swear to keep it family-friendly) slipped out of the handle and put a nice dent in the bottom skin behind the baggage bulkhead. I’m hoping that some tricky massaging with the rivet gun will mostly fix it. At least the dent is on the bottom of the plane.
I took Friday night off, but did some work today. I mainly just deburred and did the countersinking for the baggage floor compartments. The weather at high noon was just warm enough for painting, but I didn’t have the parts ready. I’m hoping I’ll have them ready for tomorrow, and the weather holds.
The family went out Christmas shopping, so I was able to spend some extra time in the shop hammering out the baggage floor compartments. I cut and drilled the hinges for the doors. I also cut and drilled the stiffeners for the floor. I test fit everything along the way. I think it’s going to work out pretty well. I now just need to do some dimpling, countersinking, and riveting.
I worked a little bit on the baggage floor compartments. Designed and building something like this from scratch really takes a long time. I try to think through everything to make sure nothing is going to interfere with each other. I cut one hinge to length and made the doors. I also thought about how to put a stiffener under the floor since the compartment adds too much flexibility to the floor.
I also placed an order with McMaster for some rubber edge grommet material. I have a few places where I need some, plus I want to install it on the glareshield edge. I also found some knurled knobs that might work out well for the ELT door.