I started off today sanding down the aft NG30 cover with some 220 grit sandpaper (sorry for the blurry pic).  I then needed to add a tiny bit of Metal Glaze to a few spots for some minor blemish cleanup.

I had also spent a little bit sanding down the GPS antenna cover as well, and it too need a few dabs of Metal Glaze for some blemish cleanup.  In addition, you just might be surprised how intricate the sanding job is on this thing, just to get what is seemingly a fairly simple & basic shape.

Here’s the other side that I also hit at the lower edge with some Metal Glaze.

As the Metal Glaze was curing I then grabbed the tool box body and redrilled the 2 rivet holes on the front face that will be used to mount the lower latch assembly.

Speaking of which, here is the lower latch assembly right here.  I quickly realized that my rivet hand squeezer didn’t have a deep enough arm to allow me to set these rivets.  Guess I’ll have to track down some RV buddies in my local EAA chapter!

Shortly after setting the lower tool box latch in place, I took the dried GPS antenna cover and the aft NG30 cover outside and hit them with high build primer and 3 final coats of paint, respectively.  On the NG30 cover, I was only retouching the left side and front, so I added 3 more coats of paint since I’ll be giving it a good wet sanding before clear coating it.

As I was working on trying to find alternate solutions and locations for the pitch trim actuator unit, I realized that to do this right I really need to be able to test out any potential obstruction or tight fit that a component may pose north of the Instrument Panel.  There’s just one issue with this however: when I sit in the pilot’s seat that itself constitutes an estimated best guess as well, since I have no mounted thigh supports, and no actual seat cushions, etc.  In other words, I’m set to make foundational decisions on what goes where in the nose based on a very loose estimate of my seating position, which in some instances is very critical to figuring out what goes where without having my knee constantly banging into something during a flight.

This drove me into yet another mini-epiphany.  I need to institute a slight change of direction, with a compass heading just a few degrees off of current.  In other words, before I can really press on with getting the nose components in place and dialed in properly, I need to get the pilot seat area squared away.  Thus, I need to work from just a bit more aft forward to get this all right.

So, the first thing I did was to figure and mark up the notch in the right arm rest for the Dynon Intercom unit.

I then cut out the notch in the right arm rest for the Dynon Intercom unit.

Here’s another shot of it.

Since I was in the cutting mode on the right arm rest, I decided to finally finish what I started about 5 years ago and widen the seat belt access opening to the plan’s specs. The reason why it looked the way it did above is actually a little comical: I simply read Burt’s forward dimension as 19.5″ vs the actual 14.5″ . . . resulting in a much narrower seat belt access slot.

Here’s the GPS antenna cover with 3 more coats of primer, which it will need to help finalize its shape.  After I give it a good wash, barring any more shaping requirements, I’ll hit it with a couple of coats of dull off-white primer as the final coat & color.

Here’s a pic of the aft NG30 cover with it’s 3 latest coats of paint on the left & front sides.  I did manage to get one run in the upper left corner on the side, but it should be no big deal since I’m going to give this a good wet sanding, then 2-3 coats of clear coat.

Here’s the front side of the aft NG30 cover.  Again, I’m going to wet sand the entire thing here in the next few days before hitting it with clear coat.

I’ll of course continue to work nose component installations, but to really dial in the nose component placements on such critical items as the pitch trim actuator, I’ll be working on both the left and right armrest consoles, and the thigh support areas in between.