Finishing Kit

I'm still diverting some time away from the canopy, for another sub-project that I'm excited about. I ordered some upgraded air vents from Stein a while back, and ever since they arrived, I've been anxious to dive into this and get them installed. I ordered the smaller size vents. From my experience in a friends' RV-7, they provide PLENTY of air. So here are my new vents!

I started by making a template out of some thin white cardboard. It took a while to get it just right, but it's a whole lot easier than practicing on aluminum.

Here's what it looks like in the plane, next to the panel under the side rail. You can see the side vent on the fuselage in the background, where the air will come in, and connect to the vent with a flexible SCAT tube.

Finally, I cut out two pieces of aluminum. Since the right and left sides are mirror-images of each other, I can finish them both by clecoing them together. I have often used this technique for symmetrical right-and-left parts. They are both deburred and finished at the same time, and come out identical so they look the same.

Cutting out the center required the use of my most-dangerous tool, the fly-cutter. Worked like a charm.

A while later, here are the finished parts, along with angle pieces that I fabbed, ready to rivet together.

And here they are, primed and riveted together. Ready to go in the airplane.

Here's how the one on the left side looks. I'm really pleased!

And here's the one on the right side.

I was excited about riveting them to the fuselage, but I'm going to wait. I want to paint the brackets the same color that I will use on the panel, so it's consistent with the panel. So for now, they're done.

UPDATE: I ended up re-making these brackets, using some very nice ring brackets that I bought from Classic Aero Designs. As nice as these turned out, and as proud as I was of my work here, I had some good reasons for re-doing them. Rather than repeat my reasons and discuss it all here, you can fast-forward to my page from the future, on January 1, 2013 and read all about it there.

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