[grover]

van's website says 8 weeks lead time for the finishing kit. any idea on how to judge when to actually order it? i'm about to prime the fus skins and begin (continue) riveting. is there a way to estimate how much time it takes to go from 'out of the jig' to needing finishing kit parts? this assuming reasonable daily progress.....

 

[rv8bldr]

Hi James

That is a really hard question to answer because we all work at different speeds. I would suggest that if you don't have the fuse out of the jig yet, it is still too early. I spent 150 hours just wiring the airplane. Granted some of that was firewall forward, and you need your engine and engine mount (which is in the finish kit) for that, but there was easily 100 hours for me wiring other stuff. There is also the other interior stuff to do, like seats, armrests, top skins, panel, etc.

That said, it is nice to have the kit there for when you need it, so if you have the $$ sitting around under a mattress or something, go ahead and order it.

Yeah, I know, that was no help

 

[DGlaeser]

Finishing Kit timing

I'm building a 7A, and I ordered my finishing kit when I rolled my canoe. It is scheduled to ship next week. I've delayed mounting my wings to drill the rear spar hole until it arrives, so I can do the root fairings at the same time (suggested by my son who is currently painting his 7A). Because of that, I could have ordered it a couple of weeks sooner, but overall it's going to work out fine (for me anyway).