Fuel line / static line / Deskinning
Tonight was filled with miscellaneous stuff.

I started by taking off the top fuselage skins and the roll bar. I peeled the blue vinyl off the inside of the tail cone. I'm going to rivet on the aft top skin this week... and maybe the forward skin as well. I think many builders leave it off for access but I'll only have the manual trim cable and the wiring for the strobe light. I can crawl back there if I need to.

While I was at Ray's the other day, he pointed out that the static line runs through the baggage area somewhat unprotected and out in the open. It doesn't look very good and runs the risk of getting snagged by baggage. So I've decided to reroute the static line under the left side of the baggage floor, through the aft half of the center section and then up the side skin behind the 704K cap strip and forward to the panel. This will keep it completely out of view and won't get caught by any of Sandi's shopping bags. (FYI, I previously added two wiring runs underneath the baggage floor on the outboard sides and installed some conduit.)

Next I decided to tackle that fuel line again that runs from the facet pump to the fuel selector. I ordered 12' of tubing from Van's which would give me about 4 more tries to get it right. I got it right... twice.

This time I put the fittings on, flared the end, clamped the fitting in the vise gently and bent the tubing as close as I could to the end. The tubing collapses a small bit but not too bad. Once I got the bend about 45 degree's, I bent the rest of the way by hand off the vise. I got it right the first time... but when I bent the aft end up to mate with the fuel selector, I forgot to slide the other fittings aft to be past the bend... so I had a nut and sleeve trapped. So I had to make a second one. Glad I'm done with that. Once my finish kit arrives with the parking brake valve, I'll finish the brake line runs and be done!

(Time: 2.5 hrs)
- posted by Matthew @ 9:26 AM