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RV-7A JCarne

Another good day today. I'm beat after today, a lot of up and down movement. However, it was awesome to be installing systems on the engine.

After installing the Avstar fuel servo I focused on the mixture control cable. This little Rube Goldberg contraption I think is just so cool! It works wonderfully too. It took awhile to adjust things to made sure I was hitting the stops. Just a tip for others, set the cable to the full rich stop first and the other one will take care of itself. But make sure to verify!

20200530_140159 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next was the throttle cable. I have a bit of a dilemma on this one. The way Van's would have you do it it puts the cable at a pretty fair angle that seems a bit off. I increased the size of the bushing just to see how it would look. It looks better for sure but I'm torn on which one to go with. I don't like how far away the bolt is from the arm in option 2 though. I'm probably just over analyzing this.


Option 1 - Van's 3/8" bushing
20200530_153335 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Option 2 - Larger ~3/4" bushing
20200530_154430 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Putting the throttle cable through its paces. Gotta make sure the throttle arm is hitting the stops.

20200530_154545 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Another shot of the throttle cable. I had the firewall already drilled for the cable passthrough which is not the most ideal location with the new nosegear. It works fine though, just have to snake it around the engine mount a bit. (don't worry, the bends in the cable aren't as severe as they may look in the pic) Cable is as smooth as silk too. Bonus: I also extended the fire-sleeve a bit to serve as abrasion resistance.

20200530_184036 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I'm debating on what to order for this fuel line. A stright fitting may result in the hose not getting out of way fast enough for the nose gear parts. A 45 fitting may rise too quickly and get in the way of the scat. A 45 rotated sideways a bit may be just the ticket.

20200530_212613 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Finally, I installed the fuel pump fittings so I could take some measurements to order hoses.

20200530_213629 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

As always, hope my build log is helping someone out there and let me know if anyone sees anything they don't like. Firewall forward will need the most eyes on it! :)
 
Jereme, plan on moving the mixture control arm and readjusting that contraption. When you have the FAB installed the mixture control arm in ICO may just touch the back of the FAB.

I used a longer bushing on the throttle arm also.

Travis
 
Jereme, plan on moving the mixture control arm and readjusting that contraption. When you have the FAB installed the mixture control arm in ICO may just touch the back of the FAB.

I used a longer bushing on the throttle arm also.

Travis

Oh poop, thanks for the tip. I'll hold it up there and see if it's good to go or not.
 
Jereme---we found a 45* hose end at the firewall bulkhead fitting angled outboard on a 16 inch hose routed around the gear mount works well

Tom
 
Another good day today. Got the forward top skin fully riveted! So cool to be done riveting the last skin. There were some tricky rivets indeed and a big shout out to my dad for running the bucking bar all day.

Here are a couple of pics of the action in progress.

20200531_142434 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20200531_142448 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

All finished! I even had the time to seal the rest of the firewall with some Firebarrier 2000.

20200531_170023 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

My panel even feels more complete now. Just need to buy a few more devices to plug in and install the LED strip lighting and avionics will be done!

20200531_170112 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next up cowling!

On another note, I am flying tomorrow to get back into the groove of things. It has been many years since I flew regularly so I'm looking forward to getting back to current!
 
Jealous

Yeah! I?m a wee bit envious at this point. Nice to see people making progress! Hope to see you/it in the air soon💪💪
 
Hi Jereme, I see your cowling is next so thought I'd give you a heads up before cutting. Vans gave me a 0-320 lower cowl for my RV7 instead of the 0-360. Good thing i didn't cut it, Got the 0-360 one now and sent the 0-320 back. They look pretty much the same but the scoop is lower than the 0-320 - Cheers -
 
Yeah! I?m a wee bit envious at this point. Nice to see people making progress! Hope to see you/it in the air soon💪💪

Haha thanks!

Hi Jereme, I see your cowling is next so thought I'd give you a heads up before cutting. Vans gave me a 0-320 lower cowl for my RV7 instead of the 0-360. Good thing i didn't cut it, Got the 0-360 one now and sent the 0-320 back. They look pretty much the same but the scoop is lower than the 0-320 - Cheers -

Thanks for the tip Bob. I just checked and it is good to go.
 
Electrical system

Jeremy,

Have you discussed your electrical system anywhere in your post?

Curious to know where you settled on this.

Cheers
 
Jeremy,

Have you discussed your electrical system anywhere in your post?

Curious to know where you settled on this.

Cheers

I have had a couple of other threads on here as well as the Aeroelectric forums. Long story short I went with Bob K.'s Z-13/8 schematic. I stuck pretty closely to it too. The only thing I did differently is I have two ANL fuses. Feel free to pop me a PM with your email and I could even send a PDF of the schematic (I made some changes).
 
Oh boy, started the cowl a couple of days ago. I can already tell this is going to be fun...

After a bit of sanding and trimming this is about the best I can get the halves nested behind the spinner. The flanges of the top don't extend down far enough and I can't bring them together anymore as the spinner area would no longer be round. Looks like I have some flox jobs in store for the future.

20200601_180910 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Luckily the fore and aft relation of the two cowl halves is not nearly as bad as I have seen on some build logs.

20200601_181021 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Then is was on to getting the top fit to the fuse. This wasn't too bad to do. Just takes a bit of time measuring and eyeballing to make sure it is in the right spot.

20200602_144614 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here is a closeup of the seam after trimming. Trimming was surprisingly quick.

20200602_160225 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I also started fitting the bottom cowl but forgot to take pics. I'll report back tomorrow when I get the bottom all trimmed up.
 
Got the bottom cowl fit today and everything drilled to their respective hinges. Fitting the bottom cowl wasn't as bad as some make it out to seem.

She aint perfect but it's pretty good so far. Tomorrow I will take care of some details like the oil door and center attach plates (nose gear leg area) and then start working on fit and finish. The finish is going to take some time for sure but you got to start somewhere.

Here it is all trimmed up and ready for more drilling. Not too shabby.

20200603_132217 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Everything all drilled up.

20200603_160623 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

The gap is a little less than 1/4". I will have some filling/sanding to do in this area to get it all even.

20200603_160629 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
Oh boy, started the cowl a couple of days ago. I can already tell this is going to be fun...

After a bit of sanding and trimming this is about the best I can get the halves nested behind the spinner. The flanges of the top don't extend down far enough and I can't bring them together anymore as the spinner area would no longer be round. Looks like I have some flox jobs in store for the future.

Don't forget that your spinner is actually a larger diameter than that backplate. You may be exactly where you want to be.
 
Don't forget that your spinner is actually a larger diameter than that backplate. You may be exactly where you want to be.

Ya height wise it looks great. I am thinking the forward part of the cowls will need "leveled" with the spinner. In other words, the cowl doesn't seems to be parallel with the spinner back plate. Thanks for the tip!
 
Cowl work continues. I feel like I made good progress today. I think I am so motivated because I just want to get the cowl done and over with, it's not that I hate fiberglass, I just don't like it. :D

First up today, finish the oil door cutout and install the hinge.

20200604_100037 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here it is with the door and hardware temporarily attached. I rounded the corners of the door after this picture. I will blend this area into the cowl with micro to get a nice even gap around the door.

20200604_105029 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Then I was on to getting these attach plates drilled. I had to cut the aft part of the cowl where the exhaust exits. I cut it flush with the sides of the cowl. The plans don't really detail what do with this area but it looks flush in the drawings. (the forward one goes on top of the cowl bottom but I just used it as a drilling template)

20200604_115841 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next up was to start on the cowl louvers. Holy tomolly that core was a bit tough to get out of there. I ended up using my dremel sawmax, a belt sander, a die grinder, and a power grinder. Tip: the power grinder worked the best.

20200604_122651 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Then I laid up four layers of 9 oz fiberglass just like the plans say to do.

20200604_141926 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next was the inlet ramps. Once again you are given no dimensions or good way of knowing where they go. You just have to position them in an area that feels right; you know... be the air. haha

20200604_154148 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

After putting the cowl back on the fuse so the inlet ramp bonds could properly cure in the right orientation I layed up 5 layers of fiberglass in a small little patch on top of some packing tape. These will be hinge pin covers. Although I'm not entirely sure on what shape I'm going with yet...

20200604_194325 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I'm getting closer to really spending some time finishing this thing with lots of sanding and TLC.
 
Looking good!

You are making such great progress.... Keep it up and you will be flying in no time. Is the bottom cowl with the metal parts stock / plans now? is that a change with the new mount? I do not remember it looking that way on the older 7
 
You are making such great progress.... Keep it up and you will be flying in no time. Is the bottom cowl with the metal parts stock / plans now? is that a change with the new mount? I do not remember it looking that way on the older 7

Yep looks like they made the change with the new nose gear. They also don't use hinges anymore on the bottom of the cowl. However, I already had mine riveted and sealed so I am sticking to them. Someone at Van's told me the reason they changed here was that pulling the center pins might be a pain with the new nose gear. I found there is plenty of room though.

So Jereme - Great progress!
What?s your gut feel for first flight of this bird?

I would guess 4-6 months if everything goes to plan. I don't think it will be the time holding me back but rather the funds. I still have to buy a few expensive avionics items like the EFIS. I am also back into flying to get current which eats up some cash too. My goal for sure is before 2020 is up.
 
Cowling work continues. I am still a little ways off of done but I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I think by the end of this week I should have it finished.

First up, trim the slots for the cooling louvers. Van's came up with a pretty nifty way to do this using a unibit. Worked really well and went quicker than I thought it was going to.

20200606_101630 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Connect the circles and trim away.

20200606_110638 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next I had to extend the top cowl about 1/32 - 1/16" using a flox mixture. I followed Dan H's thread on this, it worked really well. The hardest part is waiting for the epoxy to set.

20200606_192851 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I then spent some time sanding the edges to get a nice fit all the way around. I have a pretty consistent paint gap now.

20200607_104822 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I had to shape the cowl a little on the left side of the cowl around the spinner, the two sides definitely don't match each other. No one would probably notice but me. I sanded this out and put some micro in a few key areas to blend things better. Tomorrow after my flight I will get a few hours in my sanding logbook.

20200607_204549 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
Well believe it or not I have still been working on the bird but when you spend most of your time sanding fiberglass there isn't much to show. Until now... haha

While waiting for epoxy to cure I did a few odds and ends. Like this hinge pin retainer, works great.

20200609_143110 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Finished wiring the plugs for my wingtips. It's a simple plug and play deal now, wingtips are done.

20200611_093440 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Figured out some decals for the three unlabeled pull cables. I tried to make some water transfer decals but it simply didn't work. My wifes Cricut cut some vinyl out no problem at all! I will just put some clear coat over them and they will be good to go. If they ever come off it is no big deal to replace, took about 5 minutes.

20200614_181649 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20200614_181716 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

After many hours sanding I finally got the cowl ready for primer. She aint perfect but she is pretty dang good! I have just a few cosmetic things to fix before paint. That will be a ways out though... I'm quite happy with how things came out. Also, I decided to keep it standard with the oil door. I like the look of the flush ones people do but I didn't want to wait a week for the parts to show up. This works quite well.

20200615_164914 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Everything fits quite nicely and snug! The only hing pin that is a bear to get in is the top long one, it is hanging up on the very last eyelet, I still need to figure out why.

20200617_105211 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I'm extremely happy to be done with the cowl. Now if Van's would just send me my baffle kit already. lol

On another note, I don't have it in writing yet but I'm pretty positive I have reached an agreement with someone for a hangar at the airport here in town. That is a big win! It's even the closest one to the runway too. As soon as the windscreen and baffles are done I think it will be time to make the big move!
 
Jereme...decent work I guess...hahahaha

So, it looks like you will be ready for flight soon and have time to help me wire my darn plane as it is clearly beyond me...

Great work and proud of you!

K
 
Jereme...decent work I guess...hahahaha

So, it looks like you will be ready for flight soon and have time to help me wire my darn plane as it is clearly beyond me...

Great work and proud of you!

K

I think it's time to start slamming it out man! haha give me a call today if you want, I'm free almost all day.
 
I had a heck of a time finding pictures of starter cables for the M1B setup so hopefully this helps some people out.

You have to make a little steel tab for this adel clamp due to the prop. gov. line.

20200618_154552 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Adels straight to the sump here. Washer in between of course.

20200618_154600 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Loop it up not down or it will interfere with the airbox assembly.

20200618_154608 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I also fabricated the battery ground. Here is a pic of the crimp.

20200618_160840 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I did all of that on the cheap. I found some 2awg welding cable in town and she had a 5 ft cutoff that she sold to me for 7 bucks! :D
 
Okay, finally have time to make an update! I have been going strong in the garage lately! Okay, I did take two days off because I was out of town but still...

I spent a day or so working on tidying things up and connecting things firewall forward. I also found a minor mistake but more on that in a minute. In this next pic I am pretty positive I am going to relocate that MAP sensor as it is currently slightly below the port. Probably wouldn't be an issue but I want the hose to always drain back into the intake.

20200620_173823 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I also somehow managed to get too much heat into a solder sleeve when I did the mag wires and it took me a hot minute to figure it out! Needless to say the shield and core where connected and I had to crawl under the panel to fix the issue. This took the better part of the day, I also redid the other mag wiring too just to make sure. Now that the mag wiring tested properly I hooked em up. The kiddo was even excited (although mom wasn't that I stepped back to take this picture). :D

20200621_173418 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

The kiddo was really on a roll the last couple of days, here he is checking some bolt torque on the nose gear. I think he has heard stories of these RV nose gears... haha :D

20200620_173716 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next up, baffles....

20200624_084810 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
The first part of installing baffles goes quickly, buuuut that's where it stops.

20200624_113757 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

The first really time consuming part of baffling is fitting the front ramps to the lower cowl, not too difficult just a lot of off and on. These conical bends took me back to my HVAC days. I even got them right the first try; score! In fact, I think those days are really helping me out with these baffles! I have only spent two days on them and got them pretty much installed and started deburring things.

20200624_162510 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Back to the story now.

Here it is with the front baffles installed and everything is ready for the first trimming.

20200624_182434 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

This is after the second and final trimming. The hardest part of trimming is trying to figure out how to scribe a line. I sure as heck couldn't get these big guns in through the inlets. haha The directions get suuuper flaky about the front baffles so that was my best interpretation as to what needs to be trimmed.

20200625_104609 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

With all the trimming done it was time to install a few things. First the oil cooler. Van's has you mark 1/4" to align the 709 plate. I had a feeling that with the extra support angle I was about to install that would be too much. I'm so glad I pushed that number down to 3/16". This is the absolute minimum a person needs to have clearance on the nutplates the oil cooler attaches to.

20200625_115245 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here you can really see what I mean. The bolt/rivet holes are all very close to the inside radius of that angle. Why does that angle look short you ask? Because it is. lol Two reasons, there is no real point going any lower than that screw head as that is really the structure you want. Second, this was the only piece of 1" angle I had anywhere to be found! :) Seriously though, every single thread I found shows the cracks starting towards the top. I have no doubt that missing them bottom two rivets won't be an issue.

20200625_133704 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Now the oil cooler could be mounted. I also drilled the Anti-Splat air shutter. This thing is quite nice!

20200625_145348 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here is an inside view.

20200625_145451 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here was the last job before dissassembly and deburing.

20200625_165751 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I am just going to install the parts naked in Alclad, I don't know that priming is going to gain me a lot here, parts are easily changed if needed and to be honest I'm not worried about corrosion up in the cowl anyways.

Next up, deburring, final assembly and rubbers!
 
Looking good, just a note and it may be to late. Dont cut the forward lower ramp on the pilot side. You may want to bend the front down to provide rigidity and support for the air filter if you have enough material left.

Just an FYI: I didnt have enough room for the conical piece next to the air filter.

I'll try to find a pic.
 
For me to get the FAB in the correct location I needed to reshape it around the starter solenoid and one starter bolt on the opposite side of the starter.




 
Thanks for the great pics birddog! Ya I'm betting after seeing the pics that the conical piece will likely have to go. Maybe I'll tackle the fab before I get too carried away on anything else. Those pics will help a lot.
 
One more idea for ya while your in this area of the baffle building Jereme, after seeing the issues with cracking baffles this really stiffened up the rear baffle and outside corner at the oil cooler. I didn't add any extra angle at the corner which may be a mistake but this (j-stringer) seemed to be a better fix to stop the flexing which is causing the cracks in the first place.

 
Well birddogs posts got me motivated to install the filtered airbox before continuing on my baffle journeys and I'm glad I went that route. The FAB affected quite a bit of things on my front left baffles.

After getting the flange fit it was time to cut the 3/8" gap below the ramp.

20200627_105344 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next comes the tracks. Here you will also notice that my filter tracks are more outboard than a guy would like but it's still manageable as you will see in the next pics.

20200627_133928 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Since there was no room for the screws called out in the plans that normally go through the ramp I had to improvise. I know I'm not the only one that has had to do this and in the end it worked quite well! As you can see I made a little angle that rivets to the side baffle and the outboard track screws to it.

20200627_133935 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here she is with the retaining clips in place. I had to go off script quite a bit but in the end it worked out nicely.

20200628_101010 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

As far as the alt. air door goes I know a lot of people have had issues with it hitting the oil drain back tube. I did not have any interference with it. To top it all off I was really surprised how well the flange rested against the FAB.

20200628_112107 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here it is after a bit of filling. Also, if you haven't installed this yet bend your tab a little higher than I did; you can see I bent it where it meets the flange. This was too low which wasn't a big deal, just had to grind down the door a bit.

20200628_123124 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I didn't have to do any modifications to the fiberglass like many before me have. Here you can see how close it comes to that starter.

20200628_085338 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Finally, I did a bit of trimming of the cowling inlet to get a 3/8" gap here. Van's doesn't mention anything about a gap here but after searching the forums and using common sense it sounded like 3/8"-1/2" was the magic number so that a guy can actually remove and install the cowl. In this pic you can also see I trimmed the center baffle a little too much and had to rivet on a little plate. Trimming the cowl also removed the third screw which once again sounds quite normal after searching the forums. I just need to fill that rivet hole now.

20200629_123736 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
Almost done with the baffles now. Installing the seals was pretty easy except for the inlet area, it is tricky for sure.

Here is the grand picture of the seals. I peaked inside with the cowl on and daaaaang the seals conform quite nicely to the top cowl. I don't see puckers anywhere.

20200630_181455 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

The tricky inlet area, this is what I came up with. Time will tell if it works well or not. The seals seem to want to seal again the side of the ramp for a pretty large section. I have read many others getting the same situation.

20200630_181510 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Down lower the rubber seals against the flat of the ramp. I didn't do as nice of a job trimming this side but it seals quite nicely which I guess is what matters.

20200630_173127 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

The right side I am really impressed with. It forms a very nice seal with the ramp that also looks good.

20200630_181324 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Let me know what you baffle wizards think, especially if there is something that needs fixed.

On a somewhat unrelated subject, I got my flight review signed today after going through a bit of dual this last month to knock off 15 years of rust. :D Solo in the pattern today for a few touch and goes. Winds were 11 kts gusting 21 and crosswind to boot, great day! (those winds are normal where I live haha)
 
Firewall forward continues.

Got the PCU5000 on Friday from the VAF group buy, thanks VAF members who ordered! I was worried this was going to be difficult to install with the engine already on, it was probably the easiest thing so far! Plenty of room to work back there. I could even get a torque wrench on all the nuts! You can do almost all of the assembly with it swung out of place, then just put it on the mount with the gasket and torque it down.

20200704_123726 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here is the other side. You can also see how I wired the mags.

20200704_123741 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Fabricated and installed the ground strap. This stuff is actually doubled up, you have to put one strap inside the other when you make this. I made sure to do a good job getting all of the paint off of the engine where this connects.

20200704_162013 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I also installed the alternator b lead and field line. It is clamped to the starter wire on the way up to the alternator.

20200704_161946 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I think I am going to start the windscreen now and since there is a few short fill/micro jobs on that I will save some more firewall forward stuff to do while I wait for epoxy to cure. Not too much longer and she will be making the big move!
 
Firewall forward continues.

Got the PCU5000 on Friday from the VAF group buy, thanks VAF members who ordered!


That was fast. Did they send you a message letting you know it had shipped? I haven't heard anything yet.
 
That was fast. Did they send you a message letting you know it had shipped? I haven't heard anything yet.

All I got was an email from FedEx. I got into the group buy pretty early so I may have been one of the firsts? Who knows. I would imagine it shouldn't be too much longer for ya.
 
All I got was an email from FedEx. I got into the group buy pretty early so I may have been one of the firsts? Who knows. I would imagine it shouldn't be too much longer for ya.

I signed up with a week or two remaining, so if they're doing first come, first served, it might be a while for me. No problem, I haven't even started the fuselage yet.

Thanks for the reply!
 
Windscreen is glued on, now we wait.

Mask it like crazy.

20200705_162419 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20200705_162430 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here she is all glued up.

20200706_112128 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Some people get really carried away with clamping contraptions here. All I needed was two straps and a couple of wedges. This is the only spot that needs clamps on both sides.

20200706_112144 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I made sure to use a couple of shims to make sure the sliding canopy edge doesn't smack this one.

20200706_112213 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Dang, this thing is starting to look like an airplane!

20200706_112355 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
Canopy work continues.

After using mass quantities of tape it was time to lay up some fiberglass.

20200708_225233 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I went with 5 layers of 9 oz crowsfoot. I will pop it off when cured and Sika it to the fuse when it's finished and ready for bonding.

20200709_113444 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I was also working on my last baffles task and couldn't resist taking this pic.

20200709_151002 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Speaking of baffles, look how sweet this seal is!!!

20200709_124816 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I also did a couple of firewall forward things like install the oil fill tube. I used the Real Gasket from Spruce. Highly recommend over the paper one. Some people say the gasket pushes out when you tighten it but I have no idea how someone manages that, it would take some torque to do!

20200707_174626 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Also got my first go at a crush washer when installing this oil temp sensor. By the way, crush washers... what a stupid concept, I will not at all be surprised if this leaks. Anyways, I tightened finger tight and then added the 135 degrees of rotation the manual calls for. Also, kind of bummed the Dynon sensor doesn't come drilled for safety wire. I saw a Dynon employee recommend to use a hose clamp and safety it so that is what I did.

20200707_174606 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I gave Clint at Vetterman a call and he said if my exhaust hasn't already gone out it should be coming up pretty dang soon. I ordered it at the end of May and can't wait to get her installed. Then I can finish up wiring things and installing the cabin heat system.

Fuel and oil lines just shipped, except for one of them. I'm waiting on Tom S. to tell me when I can purchase one of their sweet transducer brackets! :D Then I can purchase the last line.

It sure is coming together! Move to the airport not far away now. I'm trying to get pretty much everything except wings on before then. I have to start summer school on July 27th which I'm not super excited about project wise. On the bright side it should give me enough extra cash to purchase the EFIS!
 
Windscreen trim is starting to take shape.

After trimming it was time to slather on some micro. You can also see I opted for a somewhat less common trim around the corners. The roll bar blocks your view a little bit right there with the gusset so I trimmed this to cover it. I also cut the trim strip just a bit larger than the Sika bead to hide it entirely.

20200713_155003 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Sanding came next, there is always more sanding... haha

20200714_114453 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

We won't know for sure until after priming but I have got pretty lucky on all my other parts, hopefully this one too.

20200714_114542 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

One more picture for good measure.

20200714_114551 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

After sanding it was on to the epoxy skim coats. I have been doing three in the past and have broken through them before, I'm going to do four for sure on this, possibly five.

20200714_151342 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I also did a bit of firewall forward work. The oil cooler shutter is hooked up (still need to bend the rod a bit). This thing works really quite well from what I gather.

20200714_151352 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Also got some fuel/oil lines shipped in from AS/TS/Ithinktheyareoneessentially. :D

20200714_151357 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20200714_151403 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I wish I would have went just a bit shorter on this firewall to pump line but this length works just dandy.

20200714_151415 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next I will sand the skim coats of epoxy and get some primer on that bad boy! I will probably have this canopy thing 100% finished by the weekend, so exciting!

My exhaust shipped today too so I can really get to finishing things firewall forward.
 
Beautiful work on that windshield trim

Thanks Larry, not as good as yours though!

Look great! I am always impressed by the quality of your work.

Thanks Dan!

Dude! You made the top of the page! Rock Star!

Machine! Machine!

Ya I was surprised to see my post so high.

Here is a pic of primer curing. The fiberglass work came out beautiful! It looks rough in the pic where the light shines on it but I assure you it has a nice smooth shape. I did however get a little bit of dust in the finish. :( I'm not worried though, it will need to be sanded before paint anyways. For now it will serve it's job beautifully going 190mph through the air. :D

20200715_151210 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Partially cured here.

20200715_230709 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
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