I did get a little bit of prep work done for the fuel tanks though. I moved most of the fuel tank parts up to the garage and I fabricated some anti-rotation brackets to use on the fuel return line that will be installed in each tank. The brackets gave me a chance to play with my CNC a little more and I am quite happy with how they turned out. Not quite as nice as the smaller brackets that Van's provides for the fuel tank vent but close.
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| The one on the left is mine, and the one on the right is the smaller version I got in the kit for from Van's. If you look close you can see where I had to use a small round file on the corners to make the nut fit. This is due to the size of the round bit I was using in the CNC to cut the part. The part above the brackets is the fuel pickup that happens to be a -6 fitting which is the same size as the fuel return fitting I am using. |
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| Here is the bracket with the fitting places in side. This bracket will be riveted to the inside of the tank with the nut and then the fitting will be installed from the outside. This allows me to tighten the fitting from the outside without needing a wrench on the nut inside. |
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| Left wing flap gap fairing completed. |
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| Interestingly those new aileron brackets I installed caused me a bit of angst when trying to fit the fairing. Unless you saw the original you won't be able to see it but I had to modify the bottom right corner to fit the added bulk of the hinge mount. |
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| To add to the problem you can see that there was no room to get a bucking bar on that rivet that is next to the back brace. I was able to smash it to where it will work perfectly well but it technically doesn't fit the mil spec for smashed rivets. I guess I will have to live with this one rivet being 95% as strong as the rest. :-) |
