I didn’t take any pictures, but tonight I primed the gap seals for both wings. I used my standard primer the Stuart Systems EcoPoxy water-based epoxy primer. I am using high air pressure, lots of air, and minimal paint flow. It means I’m slowly building up layers, which makes for a better finish, I think. The downsides are that I’m often waiting for the compressor to catch up, so it’s slow, and paint particles get blown all over the garage. I have a fine layer of primer on many things in the garage. The high airflow seems to also dry the paint very quickly. So most of the paint particles being blown around are dry by the time they settle on things, and it’s more of a dust than a layer of paint.
Gap fairing dimpling
Today I dimpled the gap fairings for both wings. The plans are not very detailed, but some common sense seems to be in order, I think I have dimpled the correct sides of the parts.
I also found a couple of steps of didn’t realize I needed to complete. I short row of countersinks in the wings, and the j-channel for the outboard bottom wing skins. The j-channel isn’t drilled, and is supposed to be match drilled using the spar. I’ll need to match drill it against the skin, which should be ok, but would have been easier before I dimpled it.
Leak tested right tank, primed bottom skins
Two days ago I set up a tank test on the right wing tank. This time I carefully checked the tank fittings to ensure I had the correct amount of torque. I pumped a little pressure into the tank and left it for a couple of days. The water level in the manometer has tracked the temperature changes very closely, and I’m sure the tank is not leaking.
Tonight I primed the bottom skins for both wings. I have other parts ready to prime too, but I’m out of bench space, so will save that for tomorrow. It’s easy when only priming gone side of the parts, especially when they are flat and rectangular.
Priming the bottom wing skins
Additional molex connectors for extra wiring runs
The last two days I spent time making some mount brackets for extra molex connectors in the wing root. I needed to have at least some modifications to account for the pitot heater wiring (3 wires), but wanted to also mount a molex connector for the extra wiring I’ve run through the wings. This will make it much easier to install additional electrical devices in the wings later.
After checking with Vans, that I could safely rivet through the torque tube mount bracket, I cut out some small plates from a sheet of 1/16 aluminum. Then I marked the location for the molex connectors, cut them out with a drill and Dremel tool. Once I had a good fit for the molex connectors, I located them, drilled some holes, deburred, primed and riveted the plates into position. I have one connector on the right wing for the three spare wires, and two connectors on the left wing; one for the pitot tube wiring and one for the spare wiring. I used a bigger molex connector for the pitot tube wiring since this will carry 10A on two of the wires (power and ground for the heating element). The spare wiring will carry much lighter loads, as the wire is a smaller gauge.
Securing wing wiring
Today I spent some time tidying up and securing the wiring runs in the wings. This was mostly a case of installing zip ties and de-slacking the runs. I also installed some heat shrink to each of the molex connectors and installed some spiral wrap in areas where there’s a possibility of rubbing on bolts on the wing spar, or screws from inspection plates etc.
