While waiting for parts for my oxygen system to arrive (specifically the fill port which I plan to mount under the baggage compartment floor), I decided to start working on the panel.
I first marked and trimmed the cutout areas. Aluminum inserts will be mounted here that hold the instruments.
I then marked holes in the lower console and drilled holes for nutplates that will allow the lower console to be attached to the main panel. I did all of this fitting (and cleaning up of the edges) outside of the airplane but didn’t take pictures. I had to trim some of the flanges and sand down some high spots to get everything to fit together well.
The side panels were then fitted to the main panel and lower console and holes were drilled for nutplates. I then fitted everything into the plane and used a strap duplicator to drill holes for attaching the side panels to the tunnel (using the holes in the tunnel cover/tunnel and existing nutplates).
While I was working on this, I also upsized the hole for the Andair Fuel Selector extension.
I designed the custom fuel selector bracket to keep the rotational axis in the same location as the stock fuel selector so the intended location in the tunnel cover lined up perfectly.
I have more fitting to do (and the fitting of the center console) but I’ll tackle that later.