Main gear leg mounting part 3.

Got one main gear leg mounted last night.  Not easy to reach in there and get all the parts to align.  The outboard clamp and the leg must go in and up together and the clamp wants to bind up on the long bolts.  The inboard stack up of shims and the clamp block are a challenge to get all in the right place at the same time to be able to insert the bolts.  

There is a correct orientation for this spacer block.  The radiused edge goes down and the chamfered edge goes up.

This block must go up evenly.  Be careful not to get it into a bind.  Hard to believe that this is all that keeps the gear leg from folding up.  The red stuff is grease I put on all the bare steel surfaces to prevent rust.

One down one to go!

Main gear leg mounting part 2.

Got the wear pads installed on the other side tonight.  

Tight quarters here.....If you don't install these rivets per the KAI's, this will most likely be an issue.

Finished the Finish Kit Inventory

 Finished the finish kit inventory.  Was only missing a few nutplates and some AN fittings.

The glare shield fairing has a crack/chip out of the gel coat.  Van's says just fix it when I paint it.

Yes I can do that but I paid almost $200 for this option and I expect a part that is not damaged.   I mean I am already had to pay over 35% more for the kit than what I agreed to when I ordered it and now I am told I have to accept a damaged part.

Vacation Time!

 The family is going on a cruise from Boston Ma to Halifax Canada then to Sydney Canada then on to Price Edward Island and back down to Portland Maine then back to Boston.  

Ironically we are traveling on the exact same ship we were on for 16 days last year for our Hawaiian cruise.

See you in a couple weeks!

Main Gear Leg Mounting Part 1

 Got started on mounting the main gear legs.

The KAI's have you prime these gear leg wear and spacer blocks.

And apply a thin coat of grease to the exposed steel parts.  To prevent rust.

Then I mounted and torqued the large gear leg wear plate.  Make sure you put the two long bolts in before tightening the four screws.  The tolerances are very tight here.

One side down, one side to go!

Gear Leg Fittings

 Installed the brake line fittings in the gear legs.  In the past this was not called out early and folks found out they could not be installed once the gear leg is in place and they would then have to take everything back apart to install them.

Glad I am not the beta tester!

Use the proper thread sealant and pay attention to the clocking of these fittings otherwise you will have extra work ahead if you get them wrong or they leak.

Finish Kit has Arrived !

So I got a call from ABF that my finish kit was to be delivered today.  I was supposed to meet the driver someplace because they would have a difficult time getting to my home address.

Much to my surprise, the driver called and said: "I am at the foot of your driveway."  So I had to hurry and run down to the road with my truck and slide the finish kit into the bed.  He was blocking the road so I had to expedite and did not get any pics.

Let me tell you, the finish kit crate is heavy!

Had to call over some help to get the crate out of the pickup and into the garage.  Once it was inside, I started pulling out all the parts.  5 large leaf bags of paper later I had a pile of parts.

Not shown is the canopy, rear window, and the canopy frame.  Not sure why I did not take pics of those items. 

Sure does not look like much for the cost of this kit!