5/7/2007
My parts order from Van's still isn't here...not that I expected it to be here...
So, I worked on more of the miscellaneous stuff I've been meaning to do. Before I left work, I removed the powdercoating from the co-pilot's stick. It actually came off very easily with the wire wheel in the bench grinder, much easier than I thought it would. When I got home, I used some emery cloth to clean it up a bit.
Then I reamed out the fuel line grommet hole with a manual reamer that I borrowed from work. Pretty slick!
After that was finished, and a visit from Carl Peter's, I worked on fixing my mistake I made on both flaps. This is something that Brad Oliver pointed out to me, and I emailed Van's about it back in December or so. They said as long as it's not in the way, it PROBABLY will be okay. Well, I don't know for sure if anything will interfere with it, and Van's also said if nothing else, it is weight. So, since I am watching my weight carefully on this, I decided to remove the offending area. The tab above the line shown here is coming out.
A friend of mine at work offered to take some of my deburring bits to his shop and make some SUPER sharp bits for scoring this piece. We talked about it, and felt this would present the least amount of risk of damaging surrounding surfaces. I worked like a charm, and when it was scored deep enough, I simply snapped the tip off with my hand seamers.
Above is the rough break, and below is after lots of filing and sanding to make the two match up.
Then I masked off the area, and primed the exposed aluminum.
I repeated the above steps for the other flap, and both came out great!
If my part isn't here tomorrow, all I have left to do until it gets here, is to remove the powdercoating from the pilot's stick...
2.25 hours