These first two pictures show the tail cone fairing pretty much out of the box.
I have done a little trimming to get the thing to be symmetrical. A lot
has been written about the poor fit of this fairing but this looks pretty good
to me.
April 10 - 19, 2003 ~26 hours
I'm not really sure how many hours these pictures represent as I've not done a very good job of documenting each night. I asked Van's to ship me the tail cone fairing and the wing fairings so I could go ahead and get these done while waiting on the delivery of the finish kit.
I've spent some time on a lot of little things but have primarily focused on the fairings of the tail section.
These first two pictures show the tail cone fairing pretty much out of the box.
I have done a little trimming to get the thing to be symmetrical. A lot
has been written about the poor fit of this fairing but this looks pretty good
to me.
These two are with the holes drilled for the fairings. I spent half a day
just putting nut plates on this and the rudder fairing.
Rudder fairing in place. Nut plates installed and I actually wired up the
strobe power supply and make it all flash. Pretty cool but also pretty
blinding in a dark garage (:
I'm
not real happy with the way this end turned out. I'm not sure how I'll
finish this up. I've seen some examples where the piece that has to be cut
off is put back with screws. I'll probably leave it alone until I see some
other RV's.
These two show the brake lines.
I've tried to get as much stuff done as possible while waiting on the finish kit.
I have the wing fairings fitted and drilled as well.
The LAST BIG skin to be dimpled.
I want to rivet these skins in place but keep putting it off just in case I need
to get the the rear section.
04-24-03 .5 hours
Pulled the wings off. They had become a nuisance. This thing really did look more like a plane with the wings on but the garage is too small, finish kit should be here in a couple weeks and I'm tired of walking around them. Should have taken them off weeks ago.
The first half of Saturday morning was spent painting the loose interior pieces with Rustoleum Hammered paint. I had painted the top of the baggage compartment a couple weeks ago and it turned out very well. I was totally dissatisfied with what I painted today. I had Linda come out and look at it as well. Here assessment was "It looks cheap". So I spent the last half of Saturday morning with paint thinner and MEK un-painting 'cause one thing for sure "this isn't cheap!". I'll buy some automotive paint and try it again later.
After a break for some yard work, I added the plate-nuts to the inboard wing skins where the wing fairing will attach. Sunday afternoon I added the plate-nuts to the access holes in the bottom of the wings.