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TK's RV-8

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Seatbelt attach points. Lower and middle longerons...
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Laying out the side and lower skins. The garage is getting smaller!!
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Added side skins and bulkheads.
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Adding the bottom skin is proving difficult for me. Lining everything up is a challenge.
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I worked the bottom skin into it's general postion and I am getting more and more clecoes in place but it is a struggle. This skin is placed between the forward bottom skin and the 807 bulkhead as well as mid side skins. Everything is very tight.
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This is where I am currently and I ran out of clecoes. I borrowed more clecoes from the PTW boys and I purchased some others so I am able to continue on. Thanks again David and Mark!!!

Not sure how much I will get done in the near future because I have to rebuild the rudder on my -7A. I suppose I will put together the final order for the finish kit this week before the price increase.
 
Great progress

I thought I recognized a few of my clecos. They are the nasty looking ones probably with pro seal on them:) really looks like the fuse is coming together nicely.
 
Fantastic!!

Looking fantastic Tony, keep it up!!

I estimate starting the fuse in about 1 year, so keep pounding those rivets, I'm right behind you... :rolleyes:
 
I thought I recognized a few of my clecos. They are the nasty looking ones probably with pro seal on them:) really looks like the fuse is coming together nicely.

Tony glad we could help out with the Clecos. Mark remember it is now public that the nasty ones are yours and the clean ones are mine. So when Tony returns them we can get the correct ones back to the original owner.

I think he will return them on Thursday since he agreed his plane will fly on Wed. (just which Wed?)
 
I remember

when my 8 looked like a big shinning canoe and it brought joy to my heart to set in it and make motor sounds! It only gets better! We all enjoy seeing your picture progress. Good Luck.
Bill of Georgia, RV-8A Bluebird, N288WP 96hrs
 
My emp kit was delivered 1 year ago today. I was ramping up for the build before this date but I guess this is my 1 year anniversary since the emp arrived. :D:D:D

Boy, have I learned a lot! I think I'm making good progress too...my plan was 4-5 years and since I skipped the wings (bought second hand quick builts) I am deep into the fuse. Should be on the gear by the end of this year. Then the hold up will be monetary!

Lower and mid longerons drilled. That's alot of drilling, some through the steel weldments.
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I worried about the upper longerons a lot but they fit well. Then I worried about match drilling them. One mistake here will be costly and time consuming.

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I drilled 201 holes through the upper longerons on each side. After using every cleco I owned, I borrowed some more....then I BOUGHT some and I could still use more!

The plans call for lowering the fuse onto sawhorses so I made these beauties out of scrap wood I had from other projects. I cut every piece on a table saw and used 15* on all angles. Just need to find some used carpet on trash night to cover the tops. I'm not sure how long I will be using these as I plan to fabricate a rotisserie but I am sure they will double as step stools before too long.
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Well, that's my 1 year anniversary update!!
 
Looking good!

Tony are you still scheduled for the first flight on Wed remember Al R said he is flying on Tue? The standard answer, just which Tue or Wed. :D

Keep posting pics
 
Looking good!

Tony are you still scheduled for the first flight on Wed remember Al R said he is flying on Tue? The standard answer, just which Tue or Wed. :D

Keep posting pics

David, I think I'll move it up to Monday!
 
I moved the assembly as directed to small sawhorses. This allows short Russians to do some work!
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I actually had the Russian over to help rivet the firewall after we applied the Flame resistant sealant (Thanks Glen) but he immediately pointed out the mess inside the canoe and grabbed the vacuum.
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I explained that I still had some matchdrilling to do and the mess would return but he insisted.

This thing looks cool so I had to take a few pics.
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After fitting the aft deck you have to matchdrill. So I drilled away only to discover I had temporarily removed some parts to install the longerons. Thus the angle shown here was not in its proper position and I drilled through it. Oh well. It was a cheap part that I could have fabbed on my own if I had the angle but I didn't. So I ordered a new part. The hardest part was trying to order that part number....turns out F-811C is actually a section of "F-800" and ordering F-811C was not possible. I had to order the entire F-800 and separate the pieces again. No biggie...it was only like $27.
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Now onto drilling the seat back support bar. I had read other builders have had issue with this. You have to match drill through the cockpit rails and if the fuse is just a hair too wide...you end up misdrilling a few things. I didn't quite understand what the builders before me were trying to explain until I went to drill my cockpit rails. Then I understood what they meant and was largely able to avoid their mistakes. I think Van's has also addressed this issue as my cockpit rails had more pre-punched holes than earlier kits.
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Edge distances all fine for me.
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Here is the closest one but still acceptable.
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Fitting the tailwheel spring...
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I had to use shims here between the bulkhead and spring assembly. It was a pain to line everything up just right but this is a critical step to proper alignment of the entire plane.
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The instructions talk about aligning the tooling hole on the 810 bulkhead with the center of the assembly for lateral alignment but that hole you see here if on bulkhead 811. I assume is was a misprint because there is not tooling hole in the 810 bulkhead. Anyway, I am confident I have things aligned properly.
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Cutting and fitting the aft skin.
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Pretty straightforward. Just take your time and keep trimming until you get the right fit.
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How cool is that!?!
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Then...sadly...it all comes apart. AND they tell you to raise it back onto the workbench. C'mon! make up your mind!
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Then comes the fuel selector valve. I'm using the Andair valve but that doesn't fit onto the normal mounting bracket. Guess what...you have to fabricate your own. Jay Pratt likes to keep things simple. Follow the plans. Modifying takes time....and lots of it. But I just had to have this fuel valve so I had to search some sites to find a solution I liked.

Two pieces of angle and some aluminum sheet should do the job nicely.
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The valve fits in here nicely and looks really good. I forgot to take a picture of it temporarily mounted...:mad:

Then is gets even smaller.
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Hard to believe I ran out of clecos....
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Now I am in the process of preparing all those previously assembled parts for final assembly. Its tedious! Lots of countersinking, deburring, dimpling, and priming. But after that...its RIVETING!!
 
Almost forgot...my electronic fuel pump arrived. EFII, a very nice looking assembly. Can't wait to learn how to flare and bend tubing.
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We're almost tied!

I just ordered my EFII pump and am currently fitting my Andair pump. I do have it all primed, deburred, and clecoed back together.

Getting ready to install the vent lines and do some riveting.

Did you get the EFII with the 90 degree fittings?

Don
 
Nope...didn't know it was an option. Haven't spent too much time planning the install yet.
 
Tony looking good and a nice job. I'm glad I will at least have some transferred DNA on your bird via the clecos. :D
 
Reading this thread makes me want to build again.

Looking real good Tony . . . I miss the build!
 
Hey David and Mark,
You want some DNA in this bird? Come over and scrape some knuckles on her! Anytime, free of charge! :D
 
Tony, regarding the EFII fuel pump, I installed mine standing up (pressure bypass on top) and that may be an issue on first start up. Robert Paisley would like to see it laying on its side to facilitate getting fuel into it before first start. Once fuel is in the unit it will work ok but it will not suck fuel if there is a glob of air in the bypass part. He had one guy burn up the motor trying to get it to draw fuel from the tank in that situation. I plan to draw fuel through it from the fire wall with a syphon pump of some sort.

It is upright where it is due to space limitations and fuel line routing.

Just food for thought....
 
EFII pump orientation

Re Boost Pump mounting,
The Boost Pump is very happy lying flat or sitting on its side with the regulator above the pump. The only orientation that is not good is standing up longways.

Robert
 
EFII priming

I should have also mentioned that the easiest way to get some initial fuel into the pump is to disconnect the fuel feed line at the injector servo and simply pour some fuel into that line. This will backfeed some fuel into the boost pump assembly to wet the components for the first run. Once the pump has pumped a little fuel it will prime nicely thereafter.
Robert
 
The project slowed a bit as life gets in the way. There was a vacation to Italy :D, a trip to Nova Scotia some of you may have heard about, and general day to day responsibilities. But I'm back to work. Mostly BORING, TEDIOUS, DIRTY, SWEATY WORK. Deburring, countersinking, dimpling, cleaning and priming, oh my.

Many parts.
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Tons of aluminum EVERYWHERE.
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I wonder how long before I get a flat tire....

Priming finally begins.
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Doesn't look like much but THIS is a lot of work
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In the interim, the finish kit arrives. $650 just in shipping:eek:
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Inventory is rather simple because the parts are large but few.
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The finish kit crate is an excellent table for countersinking the MANY holes in the longerons.
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Cutting the notches out of the longerons is nerve racking. There is so much work into these things I would probably cry if I screwed em up now.
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The notches came out OK. I suspect they will need more filing when I go to mount the vertical stab but or now they cleaned up nicely.
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The skins are all dimpled and ready.
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The bible also came in today....more studying for me.
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On a positive note, all I really have to do is prime the longerons and then I'm on to FINAL ASSEMBLY!
 
Been some time since I updated but I've been rather busy. Priming.
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Then it was on to riveting the lower longeron. It's been so long since I riveted I almost forgot how! :eek:
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The skill comes right back....like riding a bike.
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I could start doing some skins but the instructions say you might want to tackle the fuel and brake lines while there is easy access to the towers. I'm excited to get to riveting the skins but I don't want to work in confined space if I don't have to. Here I installed plate nuts to the forward floor to accept 10-32 hex head screws that will hold the EFII electric fuel pump in place. I used rubber washer underneath the pump assembly to absorb some vibration.

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Did the same thing for the fuel filter.
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Now to flare some fuel lines. I needed to practice on a few but with help of VAF I was able to quickly get the hang of flaring.
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Looking good.
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Bending tubing is another learning experience...
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It's gratifying when it turns out like you picture it in your mind.
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The vent lines came out nice!
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Ok....here's my trade secret. A tub of Boelube is the perfect diameter for these bends!
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I'm going with the Grove gear with gun-drilled brake lines. Other builders have expressed concern over the tight, almost impossible, bends you have to make to fit the brake lines to the top of the gear. I stole Dan H's solution to this problem. He suggested reversing the fitting from the aft side to the forward side of the gear then make a relaxed loop to make he connection. Here you can see my iPad studying the solution while building on....

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Since I did the gear tower mod I ran into another problem. The plans call for routing the brake line through the "middle" hole. The middle hole on my project will be blocked by the large oval plate. As you can see here...the center hole is blocked.
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I suppose I could "slot" the plate to allow brake line penetration but I didn't think that was the best remedy. I decided to route the brake lines through the upper hole which is wide open. I think it worked out well.
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It took a long time to make all these lines....:eek:
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Here's a shot inside the tower. I tried to keep everything as open as I could and not interfere with possible future installations.
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Lastly, the Russian came over to help me drill the motor mount. He tried doing some crazy things I thought would ruin all my hard work. But in the end, he was right and it turned out perfect!
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Now after I get a few more rivets in the fuse I'll be able to use my new harbor freight rotisserie!
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Lastly, the Russian came over to help me drill the motor mount. He tried doing some crazy things I thought would ruin all my hard work. But in the end, he was right and it turned out perfect!

Any good tips to pass on from the crazy Russian?
 
Any good tips to pass on from the crazy Russian?

When we set up to use the engine mount as a guide we discovered the mount was slightly smaller than all 4 pre-punched holes in the firewall. this meant we would have to cheat to the inside corner of all 4 holes. Drilling the engine mount is through a sandwich of material. You have stainless steel, aluminum and steel weldment. The stainless tries to guide the bit toward the center despite our attempts to cheat towards the inside corner. The Russian insisted we start with a step drill and keep the drill at a higher speed than what I had learned about cutting steel. I thought for sure he would ruin the project if not dull the bit like a butter knife.

I confiscated the drill and was going to show him the correct speed but quickly learned he was right. Slow speed on that stainless just allowed the bit to bite too hard and chew the metal. I immediately granted him drill privileges again and he showed me something else. The step drill allows you to put pressure in a certain direction. Thus cheating towards our desired corner as we went along. A conventional bit wouldn't allow this... After we got the hole bored out to 3/8 into the stainless, we switch over to the conventional bit while using the engine mount as a guide.

These four holes cost me a pulled pork sandwich, beans, corn, fresh tomatoes and mozzarella, and even a "to-go" box but the holes are perfect and I fear without the Russian's expertise I would have had a big mess on my hands. Hats off to Vlad.
 
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Lookin real good Tony!

With help like that, you'll have it in the air in no time. If you follow him after that you'll have 500 hrs on in the first year. :D
 
Hey TK,

Your install looks great.

I have the same fuel pump as you. I also used the same filter. I had read on VAF about the slip on fittings that simply use a rubber seal was not up to aviation safety standards. I kinda justified that it would be fine and built on. My engine began running rough and not idling without the fuel pump on.

20 hrs of flying and the filter was spraying fuel inside my enclosed pump area. I was shutting off using the selector valve so when inspecting my fuel system I couldn't find a leak or issue. I figured it was vapor issue regarding the 95 degree days.

After a troubleshooting run up I shut it down using the mixture. I went home to research vapor issues.

The next morning I had a tumor just in front of my left main gear leg (tail dragger). I have a vinyl wrapped aircraft and the fuel had desolved the adhesive under the vinyl leaving the actual vinyl intact creating a fuel pocket/bubble.

Opening up my enclosed pump area showed a clear dripping and blued avgas potentially fatal issue.

I replaced with the screw tight racing filter from a local shop $26 and problem solved.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ear-230106erl/overview/

Just wanted to pass on my experience. I not knocking anyone's product. The pump is great. The filter is the weak spot as far as I'm concerned. The price of the system makes it very easy to simply replace the filter.

Regards,

Scott
 
See Tony?? you were all worried about bending tubing------yours looks good in the pics!!! Yes it DOES take time to get it right, and yours shows the effort!
Tom
 
Here I installed plate nuts to the forward floor to accept 10-32 hex head screws that will hold the EFII electric fuel pump in place. I used rubber washer underneath the pump assembly to absorb some vibration.

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May I suggest that if you want the best in vibration absorption, you use a rubber washer under the bolt head/washer in addition to the one under the pump.

And, I would safety wire the bolts.
 
EFII filter

There were some filters where the rubber seal did not tighten down as much as we would like. We resized the mating parts. The current parts all tighten to a rock solid connection.

If anyone ever has any issues with any of our parts, we will replace or correct the situation immediately.

Robert Paisley
 
May I suggest that if you want the best in vibration absorption, you use a rubber washer under the bolt head/washer in addition to the one under the pump.

And, I would safety wire the bolts.

Mike,
I like the rubber washer idea. Probably not going to safety wire the bolts though. I can barely loosen them when I use the allen wrench due to the "squashed" nature of the platenuts they mate to. If somebody persuaded me to actually go through that trouble I would have to find 10-32 bolts that were drilled for wire because I don't really want to spend the time to drill the holes myself.
 
Many of you know I misdrilled the tailwheel spring weldment. With just one cleco and one clamp, the weldment was able to shift causing the misdrill. If I had to do it over I would drill each piece separately.
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I discovered moments later that this was a $50 part from Van's and would set me back a few days until it arrived (let alone re-locating the 4 pilot holes). I posted here on VAF to find a few remedies and within an hour I had visited a local welder who quickly fixed my dilemma.

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With that behind me it was time to start riveting. These rivets proved very difficult even after bending and shaping the tabs on the aft bulkhead. Some rivets are less than stellar and some of them are just ugly. I probably have a better chance now to drill them out but I fear it may make them worse.

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Next up is the forward side skins. There are a few parts that get installed and sandwiched in this step as well as a bead of sealant between the skin and firewall flange.
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When I went to dispense the sealant on my alreay open tube I notice it was very hard to squeeze the caulk gun. I used a 12" drill bit and drilled into the tube through the tip. I struck oil but much of the sealant had hardened to a point that it was unusable even though I had a nail in the tip to seal it up. This time I was a bit wiser and used a nail, some plastic, and duct tape to seal the tip after use. Hopefully it will be usable the next time I need it. This stuff isn't cheap!! It cost me 2 hours of fuel to pick it up from Glen at 53VG. :D

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Looks like the sealant made a nice bead on the firewall.

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Then the baggage rails go on.

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Followed by the mid and aft side skins. Then eventually the aft bottom skin.

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Riveting then becomes the task at hand. FINALLY!

I recruited a retired air traffic controller (The guy who trained me actually) to help me rivet since he used to do rivet work for Beechcraft on Gulfstreams. We spent a long day riveting as much as we could....with the occasional "drill it out" break. :mad:

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We did the forward and mid side skins. I was glad to have his help as the gear towers proved a bit akward to reach into despite the mod I made to open them up.
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Most of our rivets came out very nice. There is one or two spots in the skin where we dented them with the gun. Hardly noticable though and if I can see them later on I may fill them before paint.

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The aft side skins are left for me to complete solo. They are relatively easy for one man. Then I will recruit Butch again when I flip the canoe.

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After completing the aft side skins I felt comfortable the structure could be mounted to the rotisserie. The tail support is a must with this rotisserie....if you try to leave the fuse on the stand by itself it will fall to the tail. I have something supporting the tail now but it is not secure enough for my taste. I'll work on that in the coming days.
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The nice thing about the rotisserie is that you can flip it over all by yourself quite easily. Here she is flipped for the first time. I have about 1-2 hours of riveting some hard to reach side skin rivets before tackling the bottom skin rivets. Its becoming more and more of an addiction now as I feel like I have an airplane to work on vs just a bunch of parts.
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Riveting the fuse skins is complete except for the forward bottom skins. To torque the nuts and bolts inside the center section, you have to get creative. This makeshift tool did the trick.
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Next was the cockpit side rails. Pretty easy.
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The seatback support plates were a bit challenging but with the rottisserie...its a breeze.
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Then the actual seatback support.
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I keep priming all the cockpit parts and will eventually spray the cockpit with JetFlex. I'm just not sure when the best time to do that is....:confused:
 
Now its time to break out the Grove gear for drilling the weldments. This task is a bit overwhelming considering a mistake here will be quite costly and extremely time consuming to repair.

So I took the fuse off the rottisserie and leveled it out.
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I drilled the inner bracket wear plate on the press. Piece of cake with a good bit and Boelube.
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Fits nicely.
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Trimming the crossmember is essential to fitting the oversized Grove brackets.
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Next I clamped 8' aluminum angle to each gear leg for alignment purposes. I have read several write-ups and techniques and I "think" I know how to proceed.
I marked the center of the leg and center of the angle and rested the angle on 2 bolts to secure the angle to the leg. I think this works well.
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Then I spent a few hours marking the fuse centerline on the floor so I could take measurements from each angle. It was a time consuming process...I first started with plumb bobs at each end marking the center. then I tried a chalkline between the two. I didn't like the chalkline so I tried a laser line. That works but I had to cover the garage door windows and turn off the lights to see the line. Not a good long term solution. So I used the laser to lay out a tape line. This took time but came out well.

Here is the aft plumb bob through the tailwheel spring bolt attachment hole. I used a spent pop rivet shaft to locate the bob directly in the center of the hole.
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I used the center cleco to locate the forward center.
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Here is a shot of the laseer doing its job....but the camera can't pick up the red line as the flash goes off.
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Tape line complete!!
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Now the plumb bobs go on each corner of the angle. Then its time to take measurements, tweak the gear, take more measurements, tweak the gear, take more measurements, tweak the gear....you get the idea...
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Here are my measurements. I need some advice here. I think this is good enough but want to check first. I also want to drill now but I am scared the gear will move. What do you guys think of these measurements??
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I also had to file away more crossmember on one side vs the other. Is that normal??
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It's about a 1/8" difference...:confused:
 
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