Fuselage

I worked for several hours yesterday and today to bend and fit the short curved tube that connects the fuel filter to the fuel selector valve. I'm finding that short pieces are as challenging, if not more so, than the longer ones. The margin for error seems even smaller. I spent as much time on this one little piece as I did on the longer forward piece. But with patience and careful work, I finally got it done. The hardest part of working with these little pieces is that you have to leave enough length of straight material on each end to be able to slide the little sleeve piece back enough to be able to use the flaring tool to flare the end. You need at least 3/4" of tubing sticking out beyond the sleeve, when the sleeve is pulled all the way back. If there's any curve at all, the sleeve won't slide back around it. By the time you do this to both ends on a short piece like this, it means the bend of the curve has to be tighter. So it really doesn't end up looking like the example shown on the drawings. Anyway, I'm really glad to have this finished.

Now that the fuel system from the firewall to the fuel selector valve is complete, I can work on the pump housing cover. As it comes from Vans, it's built much larger than it needs to be for the Andair system, so I spent the rest of my time today cutting it down to about half it's height. It takes some thought and careful planning to get the height just right, especially on the front end which slopes downward. You want to make sure it will clear the front end of the pump and the tubing. In my case, the front end is about 1/2" high.

Perfect! I'm very happy with how good this looks.

All that remains is to drill it to the aft cover and the floor cover, and install some nutplates. Then it will be ready for prep, priming, riveting, and painting.

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