May 05, 2024     Starting on the interior - (2 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Not too much today. Took out the interior pieces to see how they fit and figure out what needs to be painted with the interior in place.
Drilled the holes for mounting the armrests.
Drilled the hole in F-704K for the armrest attachment. I will prime the inside of the F-704K but will leave the outside unfinished so I can glue on the leather interior finish pieces.

  May 03, 2024     Easy-Out Storage Compartment - (2 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

I took the Easy-Out storage compartment that sits between the seats and using extra materials that I got when I received my seats and interior pieces, I covered the storage compartment. I used dark grey for the top (the opening) and the light grey for the body of the compartment. I just had to use contact cement to get it all on.

  Jun 09, 2023     Cockpit Floor - (5 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Cut floor panels out of 1/4" maple cabinet plywood (leftover from when I built the kitchen cabinets in our current home). Used double sided tape to mount the wood blocks to the underside of the plywood. I will put some kind of foam on the bottom of the wood blocks (fairly thin foam) when I go to mount them for sound-deadening purposes.
After I finished that, I remounted the oil cooler mount and then mounted the oil cooler to the mount.
The final thing I did today was to take the battery out of the box and mount it to the firewall in the previously built box.
Actually, I did go back out there and mounted the fuel valve on the fuel valve mounting plate - newly painted red.

  Feb 28, 2023     Ordering the Interior - (.3 hour)       Category: Interior Finish

Ordered the interior from Classic Aero Design. Seats using Van's foam pads, stick boots, glare shield coaming, and the sidewall package. Orion Mist for the base color, Orion Graphite for the seat inset, armrest, and sidewall, and scarlet for a stripe on the seats and a stripe on the top of the sidewalls.

  Nov 28, 2022     Baggage Tie-Down Rings - (3 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Fabricated doublers for the baggage floor panels. The doubler is for a baggage tie-down ring (actually a drawer pull).

  Nov 21, 2022     Aft Baggage Bulkhead - (4 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Assembled the aft baggage bulkhead in order to assemble the 6114 wear blocks.
Riveted the 6114 wear blocks in place on the aft bulkhead. Installed nutplates under the shoulder harness openings.

  Jul 22, 2022     Crotch Straps - (3 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Just like yesterday except this time it is the co-pilot's side.

  Jul 21, 2022     Crotch Straps - (4 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Spent the whole day doing the pilot crotch strap installation. Measured the Hooker attachment - almost 5/16". Cut wooden spacers to that dimension, secured them in place and then put the unit in place in the floor ribs. After getting it correctly placed, match drilled holes in the floor ribs. Then I put the nutplate in place and finally secured it in place with LP4-3 blind rivets. Took a lot longer to do than it took to write about. Tomorrow the co-pilot seat.