Saturday May 1, 2021
Air Vents, Painting Prep
(5.0 Hours Forward Deck, 0.5 Hours Interior Painting)
5.5 Hours Total

First thing today I installed the nutplates on the attach angles for the instrument panel, then I riveted them to the side deck.

Here's one of the new ($$$) air vents I got to replace the crappy one from Van's. They are machined aluminum and the vent is anodized black.

I started by fabricating some pieces of 0.063" sheet to mount the air vent between the instrument panel and the side skin. It took me a while to get it right.

There is a piece of angle mounted on the outside edge to attach it to the prepunched holes in the side skin. The angle has to be cut out to fit the back part of the air vent.

It works very nicely. I may use the extra sheet under the air vent for headset plugs.

I drilled the angle to the side skin and then dimpled the skin.

I fabricated the second bracket, countersunk the appropriate holes, prepped everything, primed, and then riveted the angle to the sheet. I'll wait to paint the front facing parts of the brackets until I decide how I want to paint the instrument panel.

I noticed a few days ago that the side deck pieces weren't flush with the side skin, so I spent a while filing them down on both sides.

Then I vacuumed out the forward fuselage and removed the remaining blue plastic, all in preparation for painting.

I started masking off the areas that I want to prime and paint. I'm planning to use some thin carpet to cover the bottom skin in between the angle pieces, so I won't paint those.

I also won't be painting the firewall (it's stainless steel), the powder coated steel parts, or any parts hidden by cover panels.

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