Saturday 1 ~ Sunday 2
Well my main focus this month was to get the aircraft painted. The first thing I did was to book it in at the paint shop, I figured with a date to work to I would get it done. I spray painted on a final coat of smooth prime to the the top cowl, I did this outside and it was a bit too cold and as a consequence I got runs. Fortunately runs in Smooth prime are never a big deal and one it had dried I was able to sand them out and do a finish sand with 320 grit.
The second job I completed this weekend was to fit all of the nut plates for the cowling and counter sink all of the holes for the tinnerman washers. That was a time consuming job, it took most of a day.
Monday 3
One area I didn't get finished on the top cowling was sanding around the "gills" This area is a real bugger to sand back nicely, just a real fiddly area. I got one of the completed this evening.
Tuesday 4
I sanded down the second side of the "gills" this evening, it went a little faster, I don't know why, its not the sort of thing I want to get good at!
Wednesday 5
I sprayed a second coat on the gills as I had pretty well sanded them back to far. I sprayed it with my touch up gun and they will be pretty quick to re sand. The painter came by and we discussed how we were going to support the aircraft for painting. We decided to remove the engine and make a stand up that bolts to the engine frame. He felt that it would give him enough room under the aircraft and he would only need a stool to paint the top area.
Thursday 6
I re sanded the gills, and as I though it didn't take too long. I spent a bit of time masking the doors and sanding an edge on the Plexiglas to the paint would stick.
Friday 7
No building
Saturday 8 & Sunday 9
I did a final sand of the doors and, masked up all of the surfaces that I didn't want painted. Once I had finished that I wrapped up and put them out of harms away.
I made the jig for the front of the aircraft for painting which turned out to be quite simple. I was going to do something far more difficult, but my friend Gert cam by and he came up with a simple inverted "T" shape that bolted onto the engine mount.
I removed the engine, hopefully for the last time and put it back in its box. Since I haven't fitted up all of the plumbing the engine goes off and on rather easily.
Monday 10
No building
Tuesday 11
I washed down the fuselage did a little sanding, the last time!
Wednesday 12
No building
Thursday 13
No building
Friday 14
I did a couple more hours of sanding on the fuselage
Saturday 15 ~ Sunday 16
I took the most part of a day to finish sanding the fuselage and I was happy to have the job completed. It feels like I have been spending the last year and a half with a piece of wet and dry sand paper in my hand.
I ran in the new fuel hose up through the center console and connected it to the fuel pumps. I have it tie wrapped to the top of the wheel well and there isn't much room in the tunnel area.
One job I have been putting off is the running of a #4 gauge wire for the battery to the rear of the aircraft. I did purchase 25 feet of welding cable which is quite a bit more flexible, but my concern was trying to get it to fit into the cable duct under the door sills. By now they were pretty full of wires and fitting one more really fat one in was going to be a challenge. My first go at it had it all the way though and my draw wire broke just as it was going to emerge. For the second go round I put a thin smear of petroleum jelly in it and it worked like a treat, I was so glad to have that in and done with.
Monday 17
I did a final sand on the top cowling this evening.
Tuesday 18
No building
Wednesday 19
No building
Thursday 20
I sanded down the bottom cowling this evening and wrapped it all up ready for painting. I also re installed the stainless steel fire wall which is one of my least favorite tasks.
Friday 21
I have a cowling for the main wheel which I hadn't really done much work with. I sanded and sprayed it with smooth prime, however i thnk its going to need a bit more work with filler.
I ran by the airport and collected the trailer ready for moving the aircraft out to the painters.
Saturday 22 ~ Sunday 23
I finished masking up the fuselage, (or so I thought) and took fuselage out the the paint shop. The painter took a look at it and decided he wanted me to re do the doors and around the windscreen. By the time I had masked every possible hole in the fuselage and washed all of the surfaces down I had pretty well used up all of the weekend.
Monday 24
The aircraft was painted today and it looks really great. I have gone with all white and I will apply vinyl pin stripping latter. One area need some re work. It would appear that some moisture was trapped in the filler in the area below the pilots door and when it was baked in the oven it bubbled a tiny bit. The painter seemed unconcerned and told me that it was not an uncommon problem with fiberglass work.
Tuesday 25
I collected the aircraft put it on the trailer and towed it home very carefully. I put it on its support frame as a temporary measure until I make a better support.
I removed all the masking tape and the whole paint job seems defect free.
Wednesday 26
Tony K has a nice support frame that I wanted to copy. I made mine with materials I had on had so ti was a bit over engineered, but it was simpler to make.
To weld up my frame I had to take a run out to the airport and I bumped into my friend Marty who was about to take off in his RV6. Well he invited me along so that put the welding on hold for a couple of hours, any excuse to go flying.
Thursday 27
A workshop clean up was long over due so I took an evening off building and did a big clean out.
Friday 28
I made p a couple of short cables to go between the starter contactor and the engine out of the #4 cable.
Saturday 29 ~ Sunday 30
For quite some time I have had a big bunch of wires handing loose so I spent the weekend going through what I had and what I might have missed. Unfortunately some of my labels had fallen off so that made it a whole lot more interesting.
I mounted in the instrument panel for the final time (twice) and started to sort through what would go where.
