Geek's STi Build

[bbs428]

That wiring looks mighty nice! I hope my result is half as good as that. I admire your attention to detail.
I'm going to use these pics to use as a guide and as a motivational challenge to spur me on. You set the bar high my friend!

Thanks for posting!

[Geek]

After seeing your Mustang and your paint job - my bar isn't even close. In the Corvette world we would call them "10 foot" cars. They look great as long as you're more than 10 feet away. But thanks for the kudos. Squids have to represent!!

Gary

[Geek]

Wiring is almost complete behind the panel so I thought I would move on to installing the boot cowl. My post in the General section let you know that fitting it took some time and my very cautious approach before I started drilling holes in the fuselage and firewall. After wrestling with the cowl a few times, I realized that I couldn't get a real good fit where the bottom of the cowl wraps under the fuselage. The area below the front of the door was pushing out on the cowl so I figured I needed to relieve that interference first and then fit the rest of the cowl. Worked out great and I was able to get a good line on where to cut the cowl forward of the door. Drilled all the holes in both the fuselage and the firewall. I am planning on screwing in the boot cowl to make it easier to remove for any future maintenance should I need to. It's an airplane - what can go wrong? I also fitted the side panels on the firewall and riveted them into place. Added a little Hysol in that joint just for fun.

Boot Cowl 2.JPG

[Geek]

Started work on the two NACA side vents on the boot cowl for the cockpit air vents. Located them according to the directions but had to make my own cutout template since the one in the instructions must have been an older one that was not the same size as the ones in my kit. (The takeaway from this is to check your vent versus the template provided before you cut) Made the cutout on both sides, drilled and Hysol'd the vent into place. Let that dry for a day and then used the filler to smooth in the sides of the vents into the boot cowl and fill the Cleco holes. After it dried and I could sand it smooth, I primed the vents so they are now complete. While waiting for things to dry, I worked on a little more wiring (couple grounds I forgot to account for) and decided to mount the Parking Brake/Pedal Adjust placard. My locking tail wheel control was encroaching on the space that placard would normally take so I modified it a bit (gotta love a table saw) and mounted them as shown. Also as an aside, I appear to be filthy rich in Garmin CANBUS terminations (mine are already installed). Should anyone need one of these (or all of them), I am willing to share.

NACA 1.JPGNACA 3.JPGNACA 2.JPGNACA 6.JPGConsole Label.JPGCAN Terminations.JPG

[Geek]

Still waiting for a couple parts to proceed with the boot cowl/firewall so working on a few things that I either needed to get done or sub-assemblies for later. One of the major things to get done was finish up the brake lines to the calipers from the parking brake valve. Wanted a bit more of a robust brake line down the struts to the calipers than the stock Nyloflow lines. So I changed over to 3/16" stainless braided PFTE lines. Bought an extended length bolt for the caliper where I mounted the Adel clamp to account for the thickness of the clamp. Fitted in the seat pan to insure that the upper adapters from 3AN to nylon fittings didn't interfere with each other. Was pretty happy with the way they turned out.

Strut Brake Line Upper.JPGStrut Brake Line Low.JPG

[PapuaPilot]

That sure looks like a potential chaffing point where the hose goes through the steel airframe. You might consider using a rubber grommet.

[jrevens]

Looks like he may be running the line through a piece of rubber hose there.

[Geek]

That sure looks like a potential chaffing point where the hose goes through the steel airframe. You might consider using a rubber grommet.

Looks like he may be running the line through a piece of rubber hose there.

Thanks for the inputs here. Both of you are correct - I think. The braided hose is sleeved on the pass through with thick shrink tubing which was my initial approach to the chaffing possibility. I went down yesterday and put the plane weight on an engine hoist, disconnected the shock on one of the struts and flexed it through what I think would be its range of motion. My original perception of "how it will work" was that if the hose wanted to move, the slack that would allow that would be the loop at the caliper and that's true for maybe 98% of the movement. But I did notice that it still pulled just a touch on the upper a bit. Not enough to make it move in and out of the fuselage but I could see it get tight and pull. Nice thing about making up your own brake lines- you can reuse the fittings as long as you put in a new 'olive' and I bought extras just in case. So I am going to put a pass through grommet up there at the top. I do remember that Dustin (Shadowrider) mentioned that when his brother's airplane was inspected by the DAR, he wanted a grommet up there. Easier to do it now when there isn't any fluid in the system yet than later when I would have to bleed it all. Again, thanks for the comments.

Gary

[PapuaPilot]

Have you consider putting an AN fitting where it passes through? You could use a firewall type fitting and hook up the hoses that way.

I would hate to have a brake line chaff though at an inopportune moment and ruin your day.

[Geek]

Have you consider putting an AN fitting where it passes through? You could use a firewall type fitting and hook up the hoses that way.

I would hate to have a brake line chaff though at an inopportune moment and ruin your day.

Great minds think alike I guess. Ordered a couple bulkhead pass through fittings. Pretty easy to change how the adapters go from the 3AN to the nylon pipe. Looked like the best option and actually the path of least resistance (which in my experience isn't the case most times. Murphy likes to cause conflict I swear)

Thanks for the inputs.

Gary