Fuselage

The shipment of a few items from Aircraft Spruce showed up a couple days ago, so I'm able to turn my attention back to finishing up the plumbing of the brake lines in the cabin. I started by pulling up all the soundproofing material that I had installed a while back. I had used leftover scraps and pieces to piece it all together, and after working around it and staring at it for a while I decided it looked shoddy. Even though it's under the cover and won't be seen, I can't stand it. So I ordered a new sheet of material and installed some of it today. MUCH nicer.

I had been wondering how hard it would be to get the old stuff removed, because the adhesive on this stuff is very sticky. But working carefully to get a corner piece of it started, I pulled it up slowly and it came right out. I'm very happy with how nice the new material looks. I had to do this before installing the brake lines, because once they're in, they won't ever come out.

Brake Lines Made Easy:

Next, I dug in and started on the left brake line. As with the fuel lines, it took me a while to figure out a strategy. Nobody tells you how do to this. How do you get the line in place? What end do you start with? Do you flare the ends first on the bench? How long is the piece of tubing you'll need? All this and more goes through your mind as you try to figure this out. I won't bore you with all the trial and error, but I finally came up with a logical, workable plan. I'll just let you in on what I finally figured out.

First, using a piece of wire, I pulled the wire through the grommets and shaped it in the shape the tubing will need to take, from start to finish. This gave me sort of a template, and also the length of the piece of tubing I will need to start with. It also serves as sort of a practice session, so you can figure it all out.

So after I pulled the wire out and measured its length, I cut a piece of tubing. I ended up cutting it about 62-1/2" long. This gave me a few extra inches. You will trim to final length once you're almost finished. You don't want it any longer than necessary because it's more of a hassle dealing with all that tubing in the cabin while fitting it in place. I deburred and smoothed one end (the aft end for the brake line fitting under the gear leg weldment) but don't flare it yet. If it's flared on the bench, it won't go through the grommets. It has to be flared inside the fuselage. I didn't take a lot of pictures today. I'll take more next time when I do the right side. I just wanted to test my methods and get one of them under my belt. Seen above is the left line, in place. It goes on top of the fuel line and through the gear leg weldment in a similar fashion.

Here's the end of the tube, flared and fitted to the AN fitting on the gear leg weldment. I got the left line halfway installed tonight. I'll have more pictures and details next time when I do the right side.

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