In a major milestone, we finally attached the cabin cover for good.
Getting it in place was slightly annoying - we had to lower it to a raised position to get the conduits through to the tailcone before lowering it all the way:
Cabin cover slightly raised from position so as to give access to the conduits
Conduits run through to the tailcone
There was also some interference with the conduit area that had to be trimmed:
Interference between the bulkhead side channel and the conduit area
Trimmed conduit area for clearance
With those resolved, it was then time to rivet the gussets, apply resin/flox, and tighten the bolts for the first time (we realized some of them are a bit too long and needed too many washers, so I expect to still change them):
Side gusset riveted in place
Cabin cover gap filled with resin and flox
Gusset area with resin and tightened bolts
Once that cured, I riveted the aft portion of the cabin cover in place:
Riveted aft portion of the cabin cover
The tailcone top forward skin is still not on, mostly because we need to get some sealant for the forward edge before we can attach it.
I installed a nutplate to hold the center console side panel:
Nutplate to hold center console side panel
We used the windshield (even without trimming) to mark a line of the inside of the top forward skin so we want to apply primer/paint on it (and later do a first cut of the glareshield material to it):
Windshield in place to mark glareshield area
Forward fuselage top skin with glareshield area cleared of vinyl for primer
Forward fuselage top skin being protected with tape in non-primed/painted areas
Painting the visible parts of the forward fuselage top skin
Primed and painted forward fuselage top skin
Forward fuselage structure assembled together
Forward fuselage structure riveted together
Cooling/defrost fan doublers riveted in place
Panel attachment flanges and nutplates riveted in place
With this, section 31 is complete, except for the bracket that holds engine cables which I'm not yet sure I'll need. Actually attaching the panel to the fuselage is part of the later section 41, which I'll do after the firewall layout is complete.
I attached the gear leg brake hose - only to realize that the hose was a bit too long and left a lot of slack (that would ultimately either press against the bracket or the inside of the leg fairing):
Gear leg hose with a lot of excess length
I asked Aircraft Specialty if this was intentional, and without even asking they sent me new hoses that were about 1.5" shorter, which I thought was awesome. The new ones fit much better, so I tightened that:
Shorter Aircraft Specialty left gear leg hose temporarily attached in place
Shorter Aircraft Specialty left gear leg hose temporarily attached in place
Gear leg hose attachment to brake
I secured the hoses with friction tape, and confirmed that there's good clearance from the wheel fairing:
Gear leg hose secured with friction tape
Gear leg hose clearance to wheel and leg fairings
Now I'll only come back to this section to final-attach the engine mount, as mentioned in the previous post.
I fabricated the plate to mount the EFII fuel pumps on based on the length of the support angles underneath, and then attached the pump to the hose - aaand the plate was too short, probably because with the wing-root-filter variation of the Aircraft Specialty hoses, the pump gets shifted slightly forward:
Fuel pumps on the initial support plate (too short)
so I made a new plate, this time about 1 1/4" longer on the forward end (and sent it to Aircraft Specialty - they even included it in a newer revision of their manual!):
Drawing of the fuel pump support plate with dimensions
With that, the pumps and hoses fit perfectly, so I used the template included with the pumps to drill holes for those, and made smaller holes for #8 screws that attach the plate to the angles underneath, then match-drilled those:
Fuel pumps attached to hoses, with the longer support plate
Fuel pumps on the support plate
Pump support plate and angles
After primer, I installed the nutplates, angles and the pumps themselves (those use a 1/4-20 bolt, so not AN4s). Installing the angles made me realize that the MSP-42 rivet that the Aircraft Specialty recommends is fine on the side without the inspection panel, but with the added thickness of that, MSP-43s had to be used on the right side:
Primed pump support plate and angles, with nutplates riveted
Pump final-attached to the support plate
Support angles riveted in place
With this, only the final assembly of the pumps/forward hose are left for this section (and pump wiring which I'll count towards the avionics section) - I'll do those once I'm ready to close the tunnel.
I trimmed the forward main wheel fairings to leave plenty of room for the brake hoses to go through underneath the intersection fairings, then primed all the fairings inside and (where not gel coated) outside:
Trimmed forward main wheel fairings at the intersection fairing, for brake lines
Primed wheel fairing inside
Primed intersection fairing
Finally, I bonded the tug guard doublers with some flox and then riveted them:
Tug guards bonded in place with epoxy+flox
Tug guards riveted in place
I still have the nose gear leg fairing to complete, and I've ordered the replacement part for it, but who knows when Vans will actually ship it.
I riveted the GTN attachment bracket, then riveted the GTN opening doubler:
Subpanel structure with doubler attached around hole
I then added grommet edging around the GTN/GNX hole (which took a long time because Spruce was backordered on the SL3, which is the right one for the panel+doubler's thickness):
We primed the nose gear fork (except the brass insert, of course) and mounted it and the wheel in place:
Primed nose gear fork
Nose gear fork in place
Nose wheel attached to nose gear fork
We match-drilled and temporarily installed the engine mount, with the nose gear:
Engine mount attached in place
Nose gear installation parts
Nose gear installed in place
Actually attaching the nosewheel, while keeping the plane level to work on the fairing, required jacking the airplane significantly higher:
Significant gap below the main wheels to get the airplane level
Nose wheel installed in place
This was a while ago, and I've seen done a lot of work on the fairing (posted separately). The main thing left for this section is permanently installing the engine mount, which I'll only do after having the fiberfrax firewall protection in place, which in turn I'll only do after having the engine hung (but not permanently attached) at least once to measure distances and positions (e.g. the hose for the EFII pressure regulator gives a specific position for the regulator, which needs to be measured with the engine in place).
