![\"A](\"https:\/\/mightyrv.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/IMG_8556.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nYou might think from the picture above that I got it just about right, but there’s just not enough space left at the top of the line to attach the same AN coupling that’s on the other end. So I did what any good civil servant does – I threw money at the problem. I ordered some right-angle AN fluid fittings from Aircraft Spruce that I hope <\/strong>will solve the problem. More to follow…<\/p>\n The next item on my punch list was fitting the forward fuel line covers. Before I could do that some clean-up work was necessary – mounting and torquing a couple of corner gussets that take the place of landing gear weldments for the RV-7A main gear.<\/p>\n The covers themselves are easy, but support angles on each cover’s outboard end require some sheet metal gymnastics to fit and drill to the heavy F-7101 gussets on each side of the fuse. Fortunately, I used a technique devised by fellow RV builder Mike Bullock<\/a>, and it worked like a champ. I won’t steal Mike’s glory, so here are the highlights.<\/p>\n Here’s a piece of scrap angle clamped in place through the fuel line access hole, to provide a fore\/aft reference for the actual support angle. It’s adjusted so it’s flat against the cover.<\/p>\n With the support angles clamped in place, I match-drilled them to the F-7101 gussets with a #40 drill bit, which will eventually be upsized to #30. \u00a0I used a drill stop to avoid drilling through the outside skins.<\/p>\n Thanks for the great instructions, Mike!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some days you spend a lot of time in the shop and don’t get much done…a lot of lateral or backward motion, without a lot of forward progress. The last few days were like that. I mentioned in the last … Continue reading <\/a>Sorry, this is a crappy pic but you get the idea. I’d actually finished these gussets several months ago, but the left one (pictured here) needed some work with a file to clear one of the skin-to-spar rivets. Once the gussets were in place, I moved on to mounting the forward tunnel covers.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Here’s the support angle itself, already trimmed and pre-drilled according to plans, clamped to the scrap angle with a piece of 0.020″ scrap in between to simulate the forward cover.<\/p>\n<\/a>Here are the covers match-drilled to the support angles; when they’re done the covers will be attached to the angles with #8 screws. All that’s left is to enlarge the holes to final size and debur everything. It took several hours to fit and drill these parts, but everything came out fine.<\/p>\n