Finished riveting the firewall together.
Reamed the engine mount attach hole to .375.
Riveted relay doubler and all the nut plates to the firewall.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 1.5 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 63.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 517.5 |
Riveted the angles and lower gusset to the right firewall side. Used tank sealant to Seal the top of the firewall to the sides and clecoed in place along with the top firewall angle and riveted them together. Clecoed the tunnel sides to the firewall assembly. Sealed the firewall center to the sides and top and clecoed in place. Clecoed the upper top angle and gussets in place. Final drilled the nose gear brackets.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 2.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 61.5 |
| Total Time (hours): | 516.0 |
Received the new firewall angles from Van’s. Deburred, scuffed, and primed them. Then taped the holes I shouldn’t countersink and countersunk the rest.
Clecoed the angles and gussets to the firewall. Then back-riveted the left firewall side.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 2.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 59.5 |
| Total Time (hours): | 514.0 |
Dimpled the firewall sides.
Machine countersunk the firewall angles to mach the dimples in the firewall. Unfortunately I got distracted and neglected to tape off the holes I wasn’t supposed to countersink in the diagonal firewall angles. So two new additions to the scrap pile. New parts ordered. Moving on to the next section in the meantime…
Before moving on to the next section, I was able to dimple the firewall top section and countersink the associated angle as well the relay doubler.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 2.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 53.5 |
| Total Time (hours): | 508.0 |
Primed all the aluminum firewall parts.
Machine countersunk the firewall angles and riveted on the support angle.
Dimpled the tunnel sides and riveted the nutplates to the top flanges. Dimpled the cover angle brackets and riveted nutplates to the top flanges. Then riveted the brackets to the tunnel sides. Riveted the nose gear brackets and firewall angles to the tunnel sides.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 3.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 51.5 |
| Total Time (hours): | 506.0 |
Scuffed all the aluminum parts. Ready to prime.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 0.5 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 48.5 |
| Total Time (hours): | 503.0 |
Peeled all the parts. Cut apart the parts that needed to be separated. Deburred all the edges.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 2.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 48.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 502.5 |
Picked and inspected all the firewall parts.
Ordered my Finish and Firewall Forward kits. I also ordered the nose gear wheel (WHLNW511.25) and axle (WHLAXLE24) from Matco and deleted them from the finish kit. The wheel that comes with the kit apparently has the valve stem positioned in a way that there is insufficient clearance to put a cap on the Schraeder valve. Not a huge deal but figured I might as well. You can read Tim Olson’s blog for a writeup on why I’m replacing the stock setup. Jared tipped me off to this issue when we were at the Matco booth at AirVenture. So nice to have folks that have already tread the same ground!
The nice folks at Matco new what I was up to and reached out to ask if I was building an RV-14 and let me know that I would also need the spacer kit with the axle (WHLA24SPKIT).
| Today’s Time (hours): | 1.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 46.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 500.5 |
Ron's RV-14A Build Log 