Since I had moved the essential bus bar one hole lower, I added the new bottom hole and nutplate (keeping the top hole for the fuel pump relay):
Additional hole for essential bus bar
I also added nutplates for #8 screws to hold the main wiring harness through adel clamps, underneath the right side flange:
Panel with nutplates for holding the main wiring harness
Alternator regulators attached to panel ribs
Attaching FlyEFII ECUs to the panel ribs
FlyEFII ECUs and display turned on
FlyEFII ECUs attached to panel ribs
FlyEFII connectors attached to firewall
FlyEFII ECUs with connectors attached to firewall
For attaching the Bus manager, I used two of the same holes that attach the ECUs, plus another pair of holes for AN3s, and added nutplates (the plastic is pretty thick, and I used soft rivets for those) (I also had no L4 nutplates at hand, so had to order those):
Bus manager cover attached to mounting angles
Bus Manager cover with nutplates attached
Last but not least, I trimmed the side of the mounting angle to allow airflow out of the Bus Manager:
Bus manager mounting angle, trimmed for the fan opening
I finally obtained a CO Guardian 455, so I had to cut a hole for it on the bottom center insert - I laser-cut a template out of acrylic, then used that to cut the carbon fiber + metal insert:
Cutting the CO Guardian template from acrylic
CO Guardian template for cutting the bottom center panel insert
CO Guardian template over the bottom center panel insert
Bottom center panel insert, with opening for the CO Guardian
Bottom center panel insert with CO Guardian 455 installed
I had to slightly adjust the bottom center panel for that to fit:
Bottom center panel, trimmed to fit the CO Guardian
For mounting the GTR20 radio, I made a custom mount similar to the one Vans provides for the wingtip strobes, which lets me mount it in either direction, and attaches to the side of the tailcone:
I haven't been too good at keeping the posts here going - this one should've gone out in December, and there's a lot of other work we've done that I haven't posted yet.
I match-drilled the throttle quadrant to the tunnel cover and adjusted it to be flush against the center console:
Throttle quadrant attachment match-drilled into tunnel cover
Throttle quadrant adjusted to center console
I also attached the headphone cord clips to the center console:
Center console insert with cord clips installed
We then primed and riveted the subpanel and nutplates for attaching the avionics:
Subpanel parts primed
Subpanel riveted together
The only part remaining for this section is actually riveting the subpanel and skin to the fuselage, which I'll do after the firewall penetrations are ready.
Now that the main wheel fairings are done, we started attachment of the nose wheel fairing. To our surprise, but consistent with other reports on VAF, the fairing sat high enough (with the Vans-recommended spacer block) that it was hitting the diagonal part of the nose gear leg, so it had to be trimmed quite a bit further to fit in the right spot. Once it did, we transferred the holes from the brackets to the fairing (using the magnet technique) and then trimmed the openings to give enough clearance:
Nose wheel fairing top hole, elongated to clear the nose gear leg
Marking the required tire clearance on the bottom of the fairing for trimming
I'm glad I opened up the tug holes slowly, because they were initially misaligned - opened them up in the right direction with the Dremel tool, and then added the tug guard mod and its doubler:
Misaligned tug bar hole with correct position marked
Tug guard match-drilled to nose gear fairing
Tug guard doubler inside nose wheel fairing
I also installed the hinges on the main leg fairings in preparation for attaching them:
Main gear leg fairing with hinge match-drilled
Countersunk main gear leg fairing hinge attachment holes
Inside of the hinge riveted to the main gear leg fairing
Hinge fully riveted to main gear leg fairing
I then used the templates to cut the required openings on the nose leg fairing:
Nose gear leg fairing after initial trimming with the template
Next we still need to finish the nose wheel fairing, then actually attach the leg fairings.
I reinforced the wheel pant holes we had drilled with a couple layers of fiberglass:
Main wheel fairing reinforcements in place
Main wheel fairing reinforcements after curing
It was then time to fill the gaps between the fairings and the bracket, starting with protecting the brackets with aluminum tape and waxing that:
Right fairing bracket wrapped with aluminum tape for gap filling
Right fairing bracket wrapped with aluminum tape for gap filling
Axle extension wrapped with aluminum tape for gap filling
The first batch gave pretty good results, and only required a bit of sanding with the Dremel to get to a final shape:
Main forward fairing aft gap fill before finishing
Main forward fairing axle gap fill before finishing
Sanded right main forward fairing axle gap fill
Sanded right main forward fairing gap fill
When I tried to do the other side by myself, however, the fairings probably moved around too much as I tried to position them, and that made a big mess, so we had to repeat the process to fill the gaps:
Big resin mess around left aft fairing holes
Big resin mess around forward fairing holes
Fixed and sanded gap fill on right main wheel forward fairing
Fixed and sanded gap fill on left main wheel aft fairing
I also started the leg fairings, by using the templates (I printed additional copies of it) to mark the cut lines, then actually cutting them:
Main leg fairings marked for cutting
They fit nicely in place, but we still need to align them (another slightly annoying step):
Main wheel and leg fairings in place
Main wheel and leg fairings in place
We're also getting ready to do the nose gear fairing, so the wheel and brackets are now in place:
