Painted the Main Lift Struts and More

The last large (i.e. long) part that needed to be painted were the two main lift struts.  They came from Just Aircraft with gray powder coat applied but we decided that they would look much better painted the same Vestal White as was applied to the fuselage.  We had to scuff the powder coat and clean the parts before painting.  We also painted the small Jury Struts at the same time.

Lift Strut Painted Vestal White

To paint the Struts we moved the fuselage outside for it's debut in the sun!  We had to take a photo with the two builders (i.e. US!) for our family and friends!

First time Painted Fuselage has been outside

With the last long part painted and allowed to cure we no longer needed the large paint boot taking up a large portion of the garage.  Over the Thanksgiving week, the front part of the paint booth was removed.  The side entry door was re-framed and installed. The two front doors still need to be extended in height in order to allow them to seal up the room.

Re-Sizing Paint Booth

We started working on the firewall next.  Just Aircraft had provided us with stainless steel material for the firewall.  To save some weight (about 2.5lbs) we chose to use titanium as our firewall material.  That material was sourced from McMaster Carr.  First the width was trimmed using hand shears.  We then had to cut notches around the nosewheel mounting points on the fuselage.  The nibbler tool worked perfectly for this task. Once we had the bottom edge of the firewall where we wanted it to be we marked the side areas that needed some clearance notches.  The process was identical to the original notches and quite a bit quicker since they didn't need to be as deep.

Ed using Nibbler tool on Firewall

Finally, once the firewall had a good fit we drilled the 8 attach point holes and cleco'd the firewall in place.  We also drilled the four corner engine mount holes.  We still have some work to do on those holes before we can put the engine mount on the fuselage.  The top of the firewall still needs to be trimmed to match the boot cowl, but that too is for another time.

Firewall Drilled and Cleco'd in place

Hours: 15