A week of airplane building

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A solid week of airplane building…missing Oshkosh, but getting a lot of work done.

I’ll be adding text here when I get the chance.  Right now it’s a holding place for pictures so I can document what I got done…more to follow.

Support for brake line Adel clamps

Matco PVPV-D parking brake and doubler –

Parking brake valve and doubler

Doubler plate taped to firewall

Temp fitting the parking brake doubler

Testing out my plumbing idea.

Valve taped into place

Parking brake taped into place to check lines

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Parking brake valve crossover lines installed.

Brake lines protectedBrake lines protected against abrasion with spiral wrap. Somehow it makes them look more “finished.”

Canopy latch parts painted

Canopy latch parts painted

Canopy latch installed

Massaged the canopy frame, then reinstalled skin. Flush dies in the pneumatic rivet squeezer helped work out inadvertent creases in the skin, and a flush set in the rivet gun helped with the frame.

Canopy taped for final drillingCanopy taped in place with spacers installed for final fame drilling.

Riveting the canopy frame 1

Riveting the canopy frame. It’s about time I put that 12″ double-offset back rivet set to good use.  It sucks up a lot of kinetic energy, though…90 PSI on the compressor just to get the rivets to set.

Riveting the canopy frame 2

Another picture of riveting the canopy frame

Frame riveted

Here’s the canopy frame riveted, with the skin reinstalled, and fitted back into place on the fuselage.

Canopy frame fitted and ready for drilling

Final fit before drilling the hinge brackets

Canopy frame side fit

Fit is pretty good on the right side.

Hinge hooks drilled, bushings insertedCanopy hinges drilled and bushings installed

 

2 thoughts on “A week of airplane building”

  1. You’re way ahead of me. 🙂 Looking at your parking brake valve installation — I have the same valve and am looking at the same general location. Did you use nut plates attached to the firewall, or just bolt through it and use nylock nuts or something else?

    • Hi Dale,

      In those pictures the valve is just temp fitted to the firewall and I’m using nyloks on the engine side of the firewall. When I mounted the valve permanently I flipped the bolts around with the heads on the engine side and the nyloks on the cabin side – using nylok nuts on the hotter side of the firewall didn’t seem like a good idea.

      Nutplates would work fine, and I don’t recall why I didn’t use them – laziness, probably 🙂 . I may yet go back and install them, who knows…

      Good luck with your project!

      Best,

      Dave

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