I had previously fitted and tested the door hardware and we were ready to bond the door halves. I decided to bond and fit the copilot door first to make sure there were no surprises before bonding the other door.… Read More »Copilot Door Bonding
I had a few final things left to do before bonding the door halves. First up was preparing the stiffeners for the door struts. I chose to alodine these for corrosion resistance. This gave me a raw metal surface to… Read More »Door Bonding Prep
The door pin guide blocks that come with the PlaneAround kit are larger than the Van’s blocks and include guide extensions for the pins. I shaped these on a belt sander to fit in the respective recesses. I positioned them… Read More »Door Blocks and Pins
I finally received a small box of back ordered parts that include the gear mechanisms for the door handles. I am installing the PlaneAround third latch kit and the Aerosport Low-Profile Door Handle so I have three sets of plans… Read More »Door Handles
As mentioned in my prior log entry, the alignment holes in the doors don’t align well with the fuselage (but they do align somewhat for the inner shell on the pilot door and for the outer shell on the copilot… Read More »Door Alignment
Time to get started on the doors… I’m expecting this to be a journey given what others have said about this part of the build. I started out by marking and trimming the edges. I used a piece of wood… Read More »Door Prep
I moved forward with drilling the engine mount so that I can get a better idea of how things will fit on the firewall. The plans have you drill one hole to 3/8″ and then match drill the remaining holes.… Read More »Engine Mount Match Drilled
I completed the inventory of the finish kit and reshuffled my parts organizers to put like things together. My preferred method of organizing parts is consolidating the same components across multiple bags (ex. AN3-6A screws in one bin etc.). One… Read More »Finish Kit Inventory
I ordered my finish kit way back in August of 2021 and it finally arrived today. Most importantly, I now have doors so I can get started on that part of the build. There are several items still remaining on… Read More »Finish Kit has Arrived!
I’m past the 500-day mark waiting for my finish kit so I decided to order NACA ducts for the forward cabin so I can get them installed now while the upper forward assembly is unattached. I removed the primer in… Read More »Forward NACA Ducts
