RV-7 N117TR - Page 17

crabandy · #**161** 09-30-2013, 08:13 PM

I got ahold of the shop that originally overhauled my carb, he said the needle and seat needed to be adjusted and to send it back and he would fix it.
I made some poster board templates just in case I want some sort of fabric glare shield.

Krazy glue is your friend for small hardware in hard to reach places. I glued the washers to the nuts, inserted into a box end wrench to get it in place.

I also used Krazy glue to glue washers to the roll bar match the windscreen to the canopy.

I wanted a watertight seal so I installed the fairings and used electrical tape over the windscreen. I removed the fairings and put a small bead of proseal underneath the fairing, it took some cleanup on the metal with a rag and acetone but I think it turned out all right. I'll know tomorrow when I remove the tape.

I'm going to have to get more sidewalk chalk for the hanger, the girls had all the food groups and then some displayed until the next rain.

rockwoodrv9 · #**162** 09-30-2013, 09:59 PM

Well, they had my favorite group, TREATS! Your plane is looking good. How about a few shots of the whole plane? I'm going through builders withdraw being stuck in Michigan without my plane!

crabandy · #**163** 09-30-2013, 10:08 PM

Dang, I had it all together on Fri for taxi test and I was too excited for pictures. Today the carb is in the mail to Arkansas, tape over the windscreen, panel is on the bench, canopy is on the floor waiting padding/tape and I need to pull some interior panels to get to some rivets. Oh we'll that's the story of most builds, put it together, take it apart and repeat!

crabandy · #**164** 10-01-2013, 08:20 PM

Removed the tape and all is good, I will probably touch up the proseal in a few spots to make sure I don't have any leaks though.

Thanks to Ray for helping me rivet the windscreen fairings and longeron rivets. I need some AN426-3-6.5's to rivet the last 10 on each side. They are going to be kinda tough to buck under the canopy deck. These are the last rivets on the airplane, Wow!

I also fabricated my baggage/kiddo seat tie downs in the baggage compartment but no pics.

crabandy · #**165** 10-02-2013, 05:56 PM

My second try at the cargo/kiddie seat anchors. I didn't trust the rivnuts to hold in a crash scenario. I made the anchors out of .125 aluminum tapped for the 5/16 ring and a large area washer and nut JB welded on the back (wanted more surface area than a nutplate). I blind riveted to the fuse bulkhead and baggage floor rib. I planned on using a 3 point tie down system with a standard car seat for kiddos.

The two rings in place with the bulkhead cover. I drilled holes for the tie downs through the bulkhead cover for easy on/off.

I made a .063 angle to capture the top of the bulkhead, center rib/slider rail and top tie down. I drilled out the existing rivets and re riveted the angle in assembly with the existing 1/4 inch threaded rod and another AN 4 bolt. I'm going to plastic coat the D ring tonight so it doesn't jingle.

crabandy · #**166** 10-03-2013, 07:40 PM

I drilled 1/4 inch holes in the bottom of the canopy horizontal rails so I could shake out the leftover blind rivet pieces.

I bought some industrial strength velcro at Wal-Mart, I wasn't expecting much but it's pretty decent stuff, I used the soft side under the rear canopy skirts. The self adhesive works really well, even the little pieces I trimmed off stuck to everything.

crabandy · #**167** 10-04-2013, 03:28 PM

My dad and I just drove the last 20 rivets on the RV!!! Last airplanes he riveted on were repairing B-52's in the 60's.

crabandy · #**168** 10-04-2013, 06:10 PM

I pulled my carb off and shipped it to Larkin at Tri-States Airmotive in Ar on Monday, the float needed adjusting and the gasket on the accelerator pump had rolled. I'm excited to get it back next week and get this thing weighed!

crabandy · #**169** 10-07-2013, 06:03 PM

Short session after work and picking up kiddos from school. I prosealed the edges of the canopy in my good clothes, Very Daring! As far as I can tell no proseal on my clothes or canopy where it's not supposed to go! I used a large syringe lots of gloves, electrical tape and cleaned up any stray proseal immediately.

I also installed the $17 battery I finally found at radio shack in the ELT, I still can't believe it was $17 for a battery 1/2 the size of an AA.

crabandy · #**170** 10-08-2013, 09:43 PM

I installed the Experimental sticker, seatbelts and played with the flap position sensor bracket.

I notched a corner of the panel and used a rubber bushing for the wires on my under glare shield led lights.

On the lowest setting with the Kick dimmer, I think it's very doable for retaining night vision and seeing in the cockpit. If anything it could be a little dimmer, but for less than $30 for the LEDs and dimmer I'm happy.

On full blast, it really lights things up.

I took a pic with the Whalen strobes/navs and landing lights on at night, guess which side has the 75 watt Hid vs the 50 watt Hid? Duck works was having trouble importing the bulbs at the time, instead of waiting on an indefinite back order for the 50 watt I put the 75 watt on the right. I'm going to have some aiming to do but will probably use the 50 for taxi and 75 for ldg.

Kind of a crappy pic, the crescent moon through the prop and runway lights looked much better in person.