We aligned the leg fairings and started match-drilling the intersection fairings:
Aligning the gear leg fairing with a laser and plumb bob
Intersection fairing around aligned gear leg fairing
Both intersection fairings match-drilled around aligned gear leg fairing
At this point, it became clear how bad the Vans molds really are - the top ones don't even sit flush when clecoed at two points, and I was still going to have to add more fiberglass layers and finish them - so I stopped and bought the RVBits ones :) those weren't perfect, but were a bit better and were definitely well finished:
Match-drilled RVBits intersection fairing
Match-drilled and enclosed intersection fairing
To bond the bottom intersection fairings to the wheel fairings, we sanded the wheel fairings underneath it, then used resin and flox:
Sanding intersection fairing bonding area
Sanded intersection fairing bonding area
Bonded intersection fairing
Aft wheel and split intersection fairing after bonding
Forward wheel and split intersection fairing after bonding
We then continued with the nose wheel fairing, by filling the gaps around the screws, which was again more challenging than it looks due to the enclosed space:
Filling gaps inside the nose gear fairing
The above obviously gave poor results, but that was then easy to fix on the bench, now that we had a minimal barrier to tighten the screws against:
Nose gear fairing with gaps partially filled
Filling remaining nose gear fairing gaps
Nose gear fairing brackets with re-filled gaps
I also countersunk the tug guards for riveting:
Tug guards with countersunk holes
Next is the nose gear leg fairing and finishing of the nose wheel fairing and intersection fairings.
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.
