Firewall – Page 2 – RV8-Hangar

Fuel Pump Bracket & Power Pass Thru

Posted on February 3, 2015 by Michael — No Comments ↓

Time: 2 Hours

Due to the bad Midwest weather events my UPS shipments have been delayed a day or two so I’m still in a holding pattern for riveting the fuselage skins. I need to run the fuel lines and brake lines before I do anymore riveting as I have great access now. I did however get a couple of things done today. I blind riveted the fuel pump/filter holding brackets to the forward floor after priming and painting them that I did last Thursday. I used the rubber strip that Van’s supplied and trimmed as instructed to give the edges some protection.

The second item that I took care of was to drill and install the Jegg’s power pass thru. This will allow my “hot” battery cable to pass thru the firewall to the starter contactor and give a nice clean look. Again drilling through the stainless steel firewall is a pain!

Not a lot of work but still progress. I should have the fuel items this week and Saturday my buddy Glen is coming over to help be make the lines so that I can prep for skin riveting.

Miscellaneous Work

Posted on January 25, 2015 by Michael — No Comments ↓

Time: 5 Hours

Today I finished up the remaining priming and painting of the long longerons and the lower aft longerons.

I also put the rear baggage floor nutplates in the mid aft longerons before priming and painting them.

In between those tasks I worked on the forward NACA vent. I laid out the 6 rivet holes and drilled them through the vent and skin. I then deburred the holes and dimpled them for flush rivets. I sanded the surface of the plastic vent so that it was pretty smooth since I will be painting it with the skin as it will be slightly visible from the cockpit.

Before I riveted the vent to the skin I cleaned the skin and primed the surface. In between the coats of primer I took the time to make a clear plastic template of the bottom section of that skin. There is a hole on the bottom side of the skin that will be where the wing fuel line will come through. I have read that it’s kind of a pain to make these fuel lines with all their bends after the skin is in place. This template that I made will allow me to make up the lines before the skin is in place and the fact that it is clear helps the alignment.

Once the priming was done on the skin I grabbed the ProSeal and mixed up some to create a seal for the vent to the skin.

I had just a couple pieces of the seat ribs that need to be primed and painted. While I was waiting for those items to dry in between coats I got to work on a couple new items I had. I had ordered a battery contactor, a starter contactor, ANL fuse base and a 24/48 tab grounding block from B&C specialty products. The grounding block will allow for 24 tabs on the engine side of the firewall and 48 tabs on the fuselage side of the firewall. I planned on putting the ANL base, starter contactor and grounding block on the firewall. The master contactor was going to go on the forward side of the right gear tower. These placements will allow for short cable runs between each of these items in the battery. I use the same layout as my buddy Glen’s RV-8. I will say drilling through the stainless steel firewall is a real pain!

I also got the rudder cable guides that go on the seat rib support cleaned up and riveted the nutplates on them.

I then grabbed the drill and a 8″ 3/16″ drill bit and match drilled the 4 engine mount holes. From the inside drilling forward. These holes will be enlarge to a bigger bolt size but for now they just needed to be match drilled. It’s easier to do this now without the side skins on and later the larger drilling can be done from the outside in.

Another good day in the Hangar and I’m getting back into the swing of things after the long holiday break.

New Firewall Work

Posted on November 1, 2014 by Michael — No Comments ↓

Time: 6 Hours

The new firewall arrived last Saturday in prompt fashion from FedEx all crated up and secure from Van’s. Unfortunately, for the build, I had a very busy flight schedule this week flying all 5 days with a couple of overnights in there. That put a pause on the work in the Hangar for the week but I got back at it today. First up was to un-crate the firewall and get to deburring.

What I did get done last week I between flying was to touch up the paint on the parts that I removed from the damaged firewall.

I finished deburring all the edges using a file and sandpaper, man this stainless steel is sharp!

I then final drilled all the holes to their final sizes, this was done in conjunction with the other parts on the first firewall. After that I grabbed the DRDT dimpling machine and dimpled all the required holes. With all that work done I clecko’ed the substructure pars to the firewall for riveting.

As before the best way to rivet these parts is with the back rivet set.

Since I left the bottom support in the forward floor I left all those rivets out as well as both of the bottom engine mounts. This allowed me to slide the firewall back into position.

I was then able to get the remaining rivets with the bucking bar and gun.

Then it was just a matter of returning all the parts I removed to get at the firewall.

So I’m back in business and moving forward again. You might notice that the firewall is no longer resting on the table and is elevated about an inch or so with a couple pieces of 1″x4″ under the gear towers so this doesn’t happen again! Overall this mistake has cost me 10 hours of extra work, not as bad as I was figuring but I don’t want to do it again.

Renewed Energy

Posted on October 24, 2014 by Michael — No Comments ↓

Time: 4 Hours

This last week I traveled to Orlando, Florida to attend the NBAA (National Business Aviation Association) annual convention. This is the largest aviation convention in the world and the 7th largest overall convention.

I attended various classes on several different topics including weather advances and fatigue management. Along with classes, seminars and presentations there is also a very large static display at the airport showing all the latest and greatest business aircraft.

Another thing the week did was to give me some down time away from the RV-8 build and Hangar to regroup and renew my build spirit after the huge mistake I made last week. So I had the new drive and ordered a new firewall and had it shipped for an arrival this weekend. So after running all the errands this morning I got in the Hangar to start the big job of disassembling the firewall.

If you remember all the parts on the firewall were riveted to it first before being riveted and ProSealed to the forward floor. I decided to leave the bottom support of the firewall attached to the forward floor so I don’t have to remove the old ProSeal. I looked at all the rivets and think I can get to them after the firewall is placed back into its position. So that row of rivets was the first up on the drill out schedule.

So now that the firewall was off the forward floor I put it on the workbench and started the drilling. I worked on one side and then the other so I could keep the parts organized. I drilled just deep enough so I could snap off the head and used the auto punch to pop out the shaft. All worked pretty good and I only had a few enlarged holes.

So all I have left to drill out are the 2 horizontal supports along with the various nutplates in them. I have an EAA chapter meeting tonight so that’s where I quit for the day.

Once I have all the parts off I will do some sanding and cleaning of the parts and put a fresh coat of paint on them. Hopefully the new firewall will arrive tomorrow and I can get to work finishing the edges and holes along with dimpling.

Firewall Done, Forward Floor Work

Posted on August 17, 2014 by Michael — No Comments ↓

Time: 7 Hours

After my regular weekend breakfast with the guys I headed home to get to work in the Hangar. First up was to finish the riveting of the substructure to the firewall. There were 3 rivets in each of the lower engine mounts that I could not get with the back rivet set. I thought long and hard about how to tackle these rivets by myself. Trying to hold the metal, bucking bar and the gun at the same time proved to be a problem. An idea popped in my head, why can’t I use the DRDT to dimple these rivets. If I’m carful I could get these done with out damaging the machine. I had to take a couple of parts off of it so that I could get a straight shot at the rivets. In the end it worked like a charm. With all the firewall rivets done I moved to the nulplates on the firewall with the back rivet set. Next would be the rivets on the flanges of the substructure that would eventually hold the baggage compartment floor in place. The plans tell you to do this step before doing all the other riveting on the firewall. The problem is that with these nutplates riveted in place cause a problem for several of the firewall rivets and the back rivet set. The way I did it was simple and had no issues.

With all the firewall rivets done I moved on to the forward floor section. This was pretty simple to do with the back rivet set. I just took my time looking at the plans as there are certain areas that don’t get riveted now. I started with the nutplates on the cross members and then moved to the floor.

That’s as far as you go for now on the forward floor. The next task was to work on the cooling ramp. I’m not totally sure what this ramp does for cooling just yet. It gets riveted to the lower part of the firewall in the front and curls under going aft and tapers as it goes towards the back. I’m sure I will understand as I get farther down the build. I just needed to trim each side of the ramp to a prescribed angle, deburr the edges, deburr the holes, dimple the holes and prime.

While the primer was drying between coats I started the next task which it the gear towers. These towers will tie the main landing gear to the fuselage and is what gives the RV-8 it’s incredible gear strength. I started by fluting the flanges if the forward and aft walls of the towers on both the left and right gear towers. This will allow them to sit flat.

I separated and deburred the heavy angle aluminum pieces that tie the gear towers to the forward floor. With those done I clecko’d all the parts together.

I decided that 7 hours was enough and felt like this has been a great weekend in the Hangar. My flight schedule is light this week, so I should get in some good Hangar time over the next few days.

Total Time – 1938 Hours

Empennage Total – 218 Hours
Horizontal Stabilizer – 83 Hours
Elevators – 53 Hours
Vertical Stabilizer – 22 Hours
Rudder – 37 Hours
Fiberglass – 23 Hours

Wings Total – 536 Hours
Wing Structure – 216 Hours
Fuel Tanks – 135 Hours
Ailerons – 53 Hours
Flaps – 42 Hours
Wiring – 11 Hours
Fiberglass – 56 Hours
General – 23 Hours

Fuselage Total – 1184 Hours
Canopy – 124 Hours
Engine: 115 Hours
Cowl – 64 Hours
Firewall – 62 Hours
Firewall Forward – 16 Hours
Forward Section – 285 Hours
Center Section – 57 Hours
Seat Substructure – 27 Hours
Mid Fuselage – 131 Hours
Aft Fuselage – 190 Hours
Wiring – 113 Hours