Installed brakes, sealed firewall, finished cowls and baffles

Sealed up the firewall pass throughs. I followed the Van’s instructions on the left side using fire sleeve and RTV. It was challenging to get the fire sleeve stuffed into the fitting around the wire and also to safety wire the outer sleeve in place. Big hands. Small spaces. On the right side, there was no way I was going to be able to get my hands into the space necessary to take this same approach. I was able to form a cone around the cables/wires with tape. I then used a calking gun to fill the void with 3M Fire Barrier 2000+. The tape on the forward side formed a mold to force the sealant between all of the wires. Made a huge mess but it worked.

Installed AN fittings into brake calipers. Fabricated the brake lines and installed.

Finished installing the baffle seals on the cowling and installed the cowling back on the airplane.

I also spent some time tidying up the wiring under the panel and installing the adel clamps and wire ties on the control cables.

Today’s Time (hours):	10.0
Finish kit (hours):	323.0
Total Time (hours):	1057.0

Got the gear and engine mounted and moved to the garage!

Special thank you to Jared, Wes, Scott, and Remy for all their help on Saturday! We got the fuselage out of the basement, Got the main gear attached and wheeled it around the house, up the hill, and into the garage. Then we bolted on the engine mount and nose gear on.

Mounted the battery and starter relays to the firewall along with the associated fuse and ammeter shunt. Mounted the MAP, oil pressure, and fuel pressure sensors. Jared and Wes added all of the fittings to the Engine and we bolted it to the mount.

With the relays wired, I threw the aster switch and everything lit up! No smoke. Yay.

Today’s Time (hours):	16.0
Finish kit (hours):	191.0
Total Time (hours):	925.0

More work on the landing gear

Primed the upper gear braces and gear attach angles.

Split the nose wheel. Stuffed the tube into the tire and semi-inflated it. Put the tire and tube on the heels and bolted them back together.

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Packed the bearings using my handy dandy bearing packer and reinstalled them into the wheel. Did a similar job on the main gear wheels. The main gear bearings were packed in a preservative grease. So I cleaned them with solvent dried them with compressed air, and repacked them with Aeroshell 22.

All three wheels assembled.

I upgraded the nose gear wheel and axle to Matco. The axle has a bolt that keeps the axle from rotating. So I drilled a hole in the fork to accommodate. I temporarily assembled the fork and axle to keep everything together.

I installed the gear attach angles and the upper gear braces. I loosely installed the gear attach bars. I should be able to just bolt the gear legs in and tighten them up.

Next step is to clean the garage and relocate the fuselage from the basement. It won’t fit through the door once the gear is attached.

Today’s Time (hours):	8.0
Finish kit (hours):	175.0
Total Time (hours):	909.0

Began TricycleLanding Gear & Engine Mount (Section 40A)

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Separated the gear attachment angles on the band saw. This is a hefty chunk of aluminum angle. It took a good 15 minutes to get through it on my puny band saw.

I decided that a new tool was in order to make the diagonal cuts. So I picked up a DeWalt Angle grinder and some cutoff wheels. It cut like butter. It took all of five minutes to get both angles cut.

Scuffed the angles as well as the other parts. Ready for priming tomorrow.

Today’s Time (hours):	2.0
Finish kit (hours):	167.0
Total Time (hours):	901.0