Chapter 13/21 – In RV country!

First thing this morning I pulled the peel ply off the fuel pump mounting pads.  There were a couple minor air bubbles but the layups looked good.  I cleaned up the peel ply strings a little before snapping this shot.

And then sanded the areas that I couldn’t easily apply peel ply to last night.

I then quickly checked the fuel pump fit on the mounting pads.

Before heading out on a 2-part quest I prepped & floxed the 2 larger click bonds in place onto the mounting pads, securing the fuel pump in its mounting position to keep the click bonds appropriately spaced.  I was heading over to my EAA Chapter 186 buddy & RV-10 builder, Jeff Karrel’s place for some help riveting the lower latch to the tool box, since he of course has all the big gun riveting tools required to do such a job.  The rivets on my lower tool box latch are just too low for me to get to with my hand rivet squeezer.

I also stopped by my local Village Hardware store to pick up some 1-1/4″ SS hex drive cap head screws.  Normally stores only have half-inch increments available after 1″ (then 1-1/2″, 2″, 2-1/2″, etc.) but behind all the other cap head screws they had a small box: 1-1/4″ length for apparently a previous special order!  Voila!  And they didn’t even have a price… but we worked out a price and I bought a couple and was on my way to Jeff’s in short order.

Jeff showed me his beautiful RV-10 build (that thing is HUGE!) and after about an hour of shooting the breeze we actually got to work.  Jeff pulled out a deep-necked pneumatic rivet gun and asked me if I wanted to do the honors.  I did, but I wanted him to do it so I could have yet another builder’s “mark” on my build as well!

Here’s some action shots of Jeff driving the rivets on my lower tool box latch.  Also, you can see his incredibly clean RV-10 build in the foreground.  He is just finishing up riveting the tail section to the front fuselage… exciting stuff.

One more shot of Jeff driving home the rivets on my tool box . . . huge thanks Jeff!

After another couple of hours talking shop with Jeff, I then drove home and set the tool box back in its proper spot.  I then grabbed a shot of the rivets Jeff set in place.  It’s all coming together!

I then cleaned up & prepped the 2 large fuel pump mounting click bonds for glass.

After adding a bit of flox for transition around the edge of each click bond, I then laid up 3 plies of BID over each one.  I peel plied the 2 layups and then took off to meet a buddy of mine for dinner and a movie (sorry, no pic of the peel ply on the layups).

Upon returning home for the evening I pulled the peel ply and cleaned up the layups.

I then test fitted the fuel pump mounting on the freshly installed lower click bonds on my glassed foam mounting pads.  Looking good!  One small issue that I have is that the 1-1/4″ bolts are too long to fit in the gap on the fuel pump mounting frame.  I’ll have to drill out the aft-side mounting holes –which aren’t used here– to a wider diameter to allow the bolt head to fit and slide through to the other (forward) side.

I then test mounted the fuel pump’s pre-filter to check its fit & placement.  Again, looking good so far!

Hopefully tomorrow after I drill out the aft top mounting holes to fit the upper mounting bolts in place I’ll be able to report that the fuel pump is officially mounted!

 

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