Today I worked to finish up the wheel pants and the inspection doors. I removed the screws and cut and sanded out the access hole behind the door which will give access to the wheel and inflation stem. The door was installed and the pants reassembled for Craig to prepare for primer.
I was then set on the lower and upper cowl by using the DA and 100 grit to sand off the K36 primer I had sprayed prior to flight. In areas that were too complex, it was sanded by hand. Gil had also glass over some foam that is being used to slightly bump out the lower air intake so that the mixture arm doesn’t contact the cowling. Once this cures we can grind in the interior out a little and give the arm some additional room.
Once the cowls were sanded, I used a knife to cut open the skybolt receptacles in the masking around the firewall. Since Craig is an expert, he previously put several layers of masking on, including the inside of the flanges so that even though the receptacles are open now, no contamination can enter the engine area – brilliant – shows he has been to this rodeo before for sure! Once they were opened up, the cowl installed like it normally did. I used some of the newer .085″ hinge pins I got from McMaster Carr and it was much easier to put them in. I was able to do it by hand and didn’t require any grease to do so. The stock pins required the use of the cordless drill to get the pins all the way in.
Gil continued his expert fiberglass work. He got the front windshield transition glassed over. He also worked up some flox and got started on improving the empennage fairing on the tail cone. This fairing had some good gaps between it and some of the surfaces so the flox and some sanding should greatly improve it’s contour with the plane.
At the end of the day I walked back to the “clean” side of the shop and noticed the “To-Do” pile was gone. Everything back there has been prepared and is ready for primer and paint. So that means we are getting close. We should be into paint in the next few weeks.
myrv10factory 