7/11/2007
Well, as planned, I remade the center tunnel cover tonight. I'm pleased to say that I am THRILLED with how it turned out! A cool thing about this particular piece, is that it's recycled aluminum from a Cessna 172 rudder that was replaced because of hanger rash. I cut the piece I needed on the sheer at work, then at home I marked the shape of the part to be cut. It's primed with epoxy primer from Cessna...I can see why everybody likes this stuff so much...
Here it is cut out.
And here it is bent to it's final shape. This thin .020 is REALLY easy to work with compared to the other stuff I struggled with last night.
The inside of the cover was the outside of the rudder, so it is painted white...interestingly, however, is that it is NOT primed under the white...you can see the bare AL where the white chipped away from the bend.
I hadn't yet set the platenuts at the inner edges of the seats, so I did that next in order to fit the cover in place.
Then the tunnel cover was cleco'd in place...it fit's NEARLY PERFECT! Sweet!
I removed the cover and the forward seat skins, and riveted platenuts for the stick boots.
Another satisfying night!
3.0 hours