Chapter 9 – Parking Brake Handle

Today I started by doing another round of updates on my comm wiring diagram.

Then I started configuring the T-handle for the parking brake.  Since I haven’t been able to find a properly labeled T-handle anywhere, my plan was to label it myself today and then clear coat so I could determine if I A) could do it, and B) needed any other materials to accomplish it.

Here’s the type of handle that I used (it’s the same make, but a different handle than I actually used).

And here’s the same handle type after I labeled it with rub-on lettering.  The letters weren’t perfect when I went to clear coat it, but moreover, some loose edges (unbeknownst to me at first) were literally blown away when I hit it with the initial application of clear coat.  So, again, it’s clearly not perfect or as nice as it started out (or that I would prefer!), but it will definitely work as intended… at least for now.

As for the clear coat itself: I wanted to make sure that since this handle will most likely be subject to a fair amount of sunlight, and handled often, that the clear coat would stand up… so I shot 5 coats of matt clear on it.

I then grabbed my comparatively lightweight cable assembly and handle –versus all the other T-handled cables I have on hand– and prepped it for trimming the handle down.  I bought this cable assembly at an auto parts store a while back since it was so lightweight, but I wanted a T-handle that would allow both more (“easier”) gripping power & enough top surface area to label it.

I grabbed my Dremel Tool and cut off the handle.  After removing the plastic handle material, it was then that I discovered that inside the handle was basically a round bolt head.

Originally I had planned on using the remaining plastic of the handle to secure the new handle in place with flox, but I then made the decision with the exposed round “bolt head” to cut as many 1/4-20 threads on it as I could to really help secure it in the new T-handle that I was going to mount.

It was a bit tricky, but I was eventually able to use my die to cut a few 1/4-20 threads in the cable handle rod’s exposed round “bolt head” (yes, sorry for the pics!).

I then test mounted the freshly threaded cable handle rod and noted how deep the rod went into the handle.  I then cut a couple grooves in the handle rod just below the threaded head to provide gripping for flox.

I then whipped up a small batch of epoxy with fast hardener, put a big drop of epoxy into the T-handle threads and threaded in the cable handle rod.  With the rod set & clamped in place (hanging upside down), I then whipped up some wet flox to fill in the remaining void between the handle rod and the T-handle threads.

I then left the handle & cable assembly alone to cure.

Finally, here’s a pic of the parking brake handle floxed in place on the cable assembly, with the cable assembly installed in the cable assembly sheath.  At this point the parking brake cable & handle assembly is ready for install.  As for the weight, the entire assembly shown below weighs 4.55 oz. (0.29 lbs) whereas my stock T-handle cable from Aircraft Spruce weighs in at 13.85 oz. (0.87 lbs) . . . a whopping 67% heavier than the T-handle cable I just made.

As is often the case, I didn’t get nearly as much done as I had planned on today.  But, getting this parking brake handle labeled somewhat successfully and installed on the cable assembly was a fairly big task that I can mark as completed.  Again, it may seem that my timing is a little odd, but I need at least one T-handle assembly completed to determine both the correct placement for the handle and the required structure to build to house the parking brake and nose hatch release T-handles that will reside on each side of the nose gear wheel well viewing window.  In addition, this housings for these two handles will bracket the fuel tank selector valve.

With this seemingly sideline task out of the way, tomorrow I can get back to working on the GIB fresh air & heating duct valve #3: the PIC & GIB air distribution valve.

 

Chapter 22 – Intercom Wiring Harness

Today I was still feeling pretty wiped out from my world wind trip down to North Carolina and Virginia Beach, so I took it kind of easy.  As I was doing some domestic cleanup duties I ran across a book on Burt Rutan that my son gave me as a gift, so I spent a good hour or so reading that . . . a little inspiration for the build!

After reviewing a bunch of pics I took of Marco’s firewall and engine compartment, and researching a bit while looking at some other folks’ firewalls, I then reworked the component diagram I have for my firewall.  May seem a bit ahead of the game, but if all goes right I will be mounting the firewall to the fuselage for good here in the next few weeks, and I wanted to figure out internal hell hole (aka “firewall forward”) cable & wiring runs, oil heat line configuration, and component placement.  Obviously, figuring out a close estimate of where all my firewall transitions will be on the engine side of the firewall will drive the placement requirements on the hellhole side of the firewall.

In addition, as I install the canopy I will construct a GIB headrest assembly that will also be a compartment containing the GRT EIS4000 engine management control head and the Electroair Electronic Ignition controller as well.  Having a good idea for where & how these component wires transit the firewall is a good thing.

Still in the electronics mode, and not feeling up to snuff for shop work, I worked a couple more connections on my Dynon Intercom wiring harness.  Specifically, I prepped and terminated the 22AWG 2-conductor shielded cable for the Mic connection from the intercom to COM1 (GNS-480).  Using the opposite end of the same 2-conductor cable, I also prepped & terminated the connection from the Intercom’s auxiliary audio input to the VX-Aviation AMX-2A 10-Channel Audio Mixer (see below).  I also printed out & labeled these new Intercom wiring harness cables with heat shrink labels.

I’ve been kicking around the need for an audio mixer for a while now, but the reality of this requirement hit me as I was helping Marco with his panel upgrade on his flying Long-EZ.  If there are more audio inputs coming into the Intercom from such devices that I have on hand like the Trio Autopilot, GNS-480 NAV & system audio outputs, etc. then an audio mixer is required to get them into one signal.

So, I finally made the decision to research out what I needed and make a final decision on what model would fit my requirements.  The end result –which I’ve had my eye on for a while– was the VX-Aviation AMX-2A 10-Channel Audio Mixer.  Apparently, Vern at VX-Avaition doesn’t sell these any more and has handed over sales control to makerplane.org, which is where the pic below is from.

As you can see, the form factor for this 10-channel audio mixer is a modified 25-pin D-Sub connector so the unit is very small and lightweight.  I don’t need it just yet, but it is on my list of stuff to buy so I’ll most likely order one in the next month or few.

In addition, I finalized my decision on the AMX-2A by incorporating it into my Comms wiring diagram.

Tomorrow I plan on getting back into the shop and turning & burning to get the cockpit stuff knocked out to get on with finalizing the nose build and getting the canopy installed.

 

Chapter 22 – Heat System Overview

Today I started out by spending a couple of hours updating wiring system grounds and my comm component interconnections in some of my wiring diagrams.  I also figured out my Audio Mixer requirement and updated that accordingly.

I then went down to the shop and spent a couple of hours cleaning and organizing it.

Then, since my next task required the dismantling of the mocked up heat exchanger and duct system, I decided to knock out the next oil heat system video that I had promised to do a while back . . . so here it is:

 
Tomorrow I’ll break down the oil heat & duct system and start working on it again.  I’m not that far out from mounting it into the backseat area permanently.

 

Chapter 22 – Heat/air ductwork

I started out today by pulling the GIB duct transition for the upper vent off the tape form and marking it for trimming.

I then trimmed it with the Fein saw.

Here’s the underside of the GIB duct transition for the upper vent.

And the view from the rectangular sidewall duct heading into the vent tube transition.

Here it is set in place on the sidewall duct.  Again, I’ll be able to tweak its final position as I install the vent sidewall console.

Keeping on the duct theme, I then marked the position of where the duct traverses the pilot seat back in the lower left corner.  I then drilled 4 pilot holes for the corners of the rectangular duct hole.

I got the front side glass cut out using the Fein saw, then razor knife & then removed the foam.

I then cut out the aft side glass, cleaned up the hole and micro’d the edges.

As the micro on the duct pass-thru hole cured, I then got to work tying the respective left & right side GIB LED floor lighting wires together (white, red & ground pairs) into one lead.  I used solder splices to take the 2 right & left leads into a single wire lead.

I then covered the solder splices with protective heat shrink tubing and labeled all the GIB LED floor lighting wires.

I then tested both the white and red LED light pairs. They may look quite dim with the lights on, but with the lights shut off –as in a dark cabin– these things give off plenty of light.  And I should add: NOT blinding lighter either.

I then was finally able to get around to cutting the slot in the forward end of the Heat Exchanger inlet duct for the fresh-cool-air/heater-air valve control arm.  I then mocked up the heat exchanger mounted inside the GIB area with the air ductwork in place.  Also note that I have the upper GIB vent duct transition in place as well.

Here’s a closer shot of the oil heater heat exchanger.

I then wanted to get a shot showing how thin my entire ductwork and heat exchanger mounting is.  Of course, here I have to give a shout out to Nick Ugolini for R&D’ing the appropriate thin-line roll-your-own ducts.

Over the next few days I’ll be dealing with out-of-town visitors, then once I again I am heading to North Carolina until the end of next week.  Once I return, it should be 100% all go on the plane build until RR 2017.

So . . . see you next week!

 

 

Chapter 22 – It… all… matters…

Today I actually started off adding a couple of more shielded wires to my Dynon Intercom wiring harness connector (no pics).  With the 2 wires I knocked out today, that puts me at about halfway done on that harness.  In fact, I’ve got one more wire to add and then I’ll call it done until final install.  Why?  Well, the majority of the remaining intercom harness wires come in from the relay that controls the COM1/COM2 selection functions for the intercom.  And I can’t wire that up until I’m close to going live.

I then started back in getting the jacked up situation from yesterday straightened out.  I decided to bite the bullet and simply add another 3/16″ piece of Nylaflow –which will carry 3 wires–  from the left sensor cover over to the right and then a 1/4″ piece of Nylaflow –which will carry 6 wires– from the right sensor cover over to the right sidewall where the wires will merge into the small wire bundle that traverses the side of the fuselage.

I measured out what I needed and cut a piece of Nylaflow.  I then dry micro’d some around the Nylaflow to attach it and glassed in a ply of BID over each end.  I have to tell you, even this endeavor was just being a royal PITA! [I 5 min glued it the front wall but for some reason it just did NOT want to stay in place . . . ]

After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I finally got the Nylaflow settled in close to what I wanted and after each end was cured, I then glassed a single patch of BID in the middle to finish off the 3/16″ Nylaflow conduit install.

I installed the left sensor cover in place using 5 min glue on 2 adjoining sides and silicone RTV on the other 4 (It’s hex shaped).  I then used my main battery to keep it in place while it cured.

A little while later, after the middle patch of BID cured, I then micro’d and glassed in the second piece of Nylaflow conduit, only this one was 1/4″ as I mentioned above.  I also used 1 ply of BID as I did before.

Even more of a while later I then 5 min glued & RTV’d the right sensor cover in place.  To be clear, I tested the LED lights in each sensor cover before securing them in place.

I will say that with this smaller Nylaflow conduit sitting right below the 3/8″ Nylaflow above it, the lip created by the top big Nylaflow conduit complete eclipses the lower conduit and you just can’t see it.

BTW, I’m covering the pictures by subject in this post versus jumping back & forth, but in reality I did go back on forth on these tasks.

During cure times above, I took a piece of urethane foam and shaped it to create an exit duct out of the top of the main duct that moves the air to the GIB upper duct vent.  I cut a piece of 1.25″ diameter 6061 tubing that I ordered specifically for these ducts… mainly because that’s the diameter of the eyeball air vents that I have on hand.  In addition, I also ordered some Skeet tubing as well, but it’s on back order with ACS.

I then prepped the foam for glass using duct tape.  I of course left the 6061 tubing clear since it will become an integral part of the upper duct vent transition.

Since the air will curve a bit “up” (all relative here) coming out of the duct, unlike the lower GIB duct vent, I decided to create 4 sides to the duct transition (transition from the fiberglass duct to Skeet tubing and then to the eyeball air vent) so I needed to get the “bottom” of the duct transition glassed first.  Thus, I glassed the bottom with 1 ply of BID and peel plied it.

After the BID cured I pulled the peel ply.

And then trimmed the glass.

Here you can see both sides of the upper duct transition vent.

I then set the initially-glassed duct transition vent in place in the top of the main duct channel and taped it up in prep for final glassing.

I then laid up a small ply of BID just over the top of the foam piece area (taped) for strength, and then laid up a ply of UNI and a ply of BID to create an overlapping flange on the existing duct.  I of course could have created the entire duct transition piece to fit inside the main duct channel, but I wanted to optimize airflow as much as possible.

And here’s a bigger picture view of the GIB upper duct vent transition and the rest of the duct network.  If you’re thinking maybe the duct transition piece is a bit too high, you may be right.  But I’ll be able to adjust the height through trimming down the aluminum tube length and/or hacking off some of the main vent channel if need be.

Here’s a bit clearer shot of the fresh air / heater air valve with the control arm clearly visible.

Tomorrow I’ll continue to work on my GIB area tasks.  As you can see, I’m nugging it all out and getting significantly closer to being done in the back seat area.  That being said, I will be receiving out of town visitors late tomorrow night. They’ll be here until Sunday, at which point I’ll be heading back down to North Carolina for nearly a week.  However, when I return I should have no further distractions until I head out to RR.

 

Chapter 22 – Piece of cake!

Yeah, not so much!

I started off today running around doing a million errands.  When I returned home I tested out one of my ELS-950 sump low fuel level sensors.  Here’s a video showing how it works.

With my sensor function test good to go, I then applied a light ring of Permatex 80725 around the threads of each sensor and then installed them into their respective ports on the vertical face of the thigh support fuel sump.

Here’s a wider angle shot showing where the sensors are situated on the front of the sump front wall.

I then taped up the sensor wires to keep them out of the way for when the covers are installed.

I then added a spot of tape to the aft ring of each sensor cover and mocked them up in place.  Looks like they’ll fit just fine.

I then spent a fair bit of time labeling all the left and right sump low fuel level sensors’ wires.

I combined the 2 sensor ground leads into 1 wire by solder splicing them together.  Here they’re prepped to be soldered.

And here the ground wires are solder spliced with a lead leading to the Triparagon.

After the sensor wires were all squared away, I then attempted to run 2 wires from each of the floor LED lights embedded in the sensor covers through the conduit on the face of the sumps . . .  the same Nylaflow conduits that I had just run the 3 sensor wires through.  I had tested this out earlier and there should have been plenty of room for 5 wires, but the wires just weren’t to be routed no matter how hard I tried or what method I used.

This was one of those tasks that every step you take to remedy the issue, the problem keeps getting bigger and wider, kind of like a big ‘ol pile of horse crap.  After messing around with the wires, my attempts to reroute them in my GIB headset jack conduit (I could spend 4 big paragraphs just on that cluster alone!) was to no avail.

So I punted.  It was late and I just didn’t want to screw anything up ( . . . further).  In short, out of the myriad of tasks I had planned to knock out today, I got about 3/4 of one complete!

Yes, so tomorrow will be about completing the other GIB area tasks I had planned for today!

 

 

Chapter 22 – Not so much…

Today I started out by heading down to a local restaurant, grabbing breakfast and consolidating my current three 3×5 card task lists into a single task list.  With my list consolidated I was motivated to get to work.  As I was leaving the restaurant I got a call from an old friend.  It’s always hard to not talk to friends or family that I haven’t heard from in a while, so I chatted a bit.  Well, I’ll be darned if that didn’t roll right into another call from yet another old friend.  My though was that I have to accept the fact that most people only have time to really chat during the weekend . . . . so I chatted some more.

A bit later, I checked the mail and found the Permatex 80725 Plastic Pipe Sealant that I ordered was delivered quite ahead of its stated delivery date.  Up until last week I was simply considering using pipe tape to install the ELS-950 sump low fuel level sensors, but after further thought I decided to order the sensor manufacturer’s recommended Permatex 80725 to better ensure no leaks.  To be clear, as a function of the low fuel level sensors they must be situated below the high fuel mark, making the ELS-950 sensors installation seals critical to having no fuel leaks.

With my preparing to install the sump low fuel level sensors, I needed to create wire labels for both the sensor wires and the GIB LED floor lighting wires that are located in the sensor covers.  Besides just wanting to keep my wires identified, in this situation it’s even more vital since all these wires are hidden away for the first 12-18″ and ascertaining what wires go to what would be much more difficult without wire IDs.

With all the obvious effort I’ve done on my electrical system, this little ditty here shows how extensive the task is:  As I was listing out my wire labels to print I realized that I didn’t have enough consolidated information on exactly what component power wires connected to my power busses at which tabs.  With the addition of a few extra unexpected electrical components over the past 6 months –including these low fuel sensors– it’s really too easy to lose sight of exactly what power wires feed from what buss, and exactly what tab a specific wire may get connected to.

Thus, yes, another unintended and unexpected task reared its head… I determined that my sheet of notebook paper with the Main, Endurance and Battery power buss connections listed on it just wasn’t enough.  I needed it in electronic format as a worksheet in my electrical system spreadsheet, so I made that happen.  Then I spent a few hours inventorying every instance and every wire that connects to a power buss, including each buss’s threaded feed stud.

Besides the information listed on my tattered notebook sheet, I did an accounting for the already labeled tabs on the physical ATC fuse busses.  I then went through literally every wiring diagram to account for every listed power buss connection in the diagrams.  I then went through my components list to ensure that the power feed for every electrical component going into the plane was accounted for.  Through all this I found some discrepancies in the required fuse sizes.  Finally, with a complete accounting of all my buss power connections I was able to reorganize some connections on the respective buss tabs.

I then printed out a number of labels.  Unfortunately, with all my above shenanigans I simply ran out of time, and energy, to start on any major shop tasks.

 

 

Chapter 22 – Cheat when you can!

I started out today by cleaning up the inboard face of the heat exchanger by sanding the edges of the added upper & lower ducts where they overlap onto the main assembly.

I then cleaned up & prepped the heat exchanger for glass, or actually for 1 ply of carbon fiber.

Here’s the ply of carbon fiber after I laid it up and peel plied the edges a bit to ensure it stayed in place.  I didn’t go with the traditional super sexy carbon fiber look, since the reason I’m adding the carbon is I believe that with this heat exchanger being inboard of the ducts, it will get rubbed on with legs, knees, small marsupials, etc. over the years.  If it was painted, as I’ve seen with many a canard, over time the paint would simply rub off.  I wanted something that would not only be a good contrast with the gray granite paint that I’m using for the cabin, but that would be hardy enough that it would withstand getting rubbed on over the years without discoloration or deterioration of the surface.

I used fast hardener so a few hours later I trimmed the carbon fiber and got the heat exchanger pretty much back to the way it was before, just with a ply of carbon fiber on the face of it.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with the aft end, I just knew I didn’t want to attempt making my layup infinitely more difficult by trying to put carbon fiber here and wrap it around.  Admittedly, my original plan was to get much closer to the edge but the carbon fiber apparently had other thoughts on the matter.

With so much stuff to get done on this plane, I punted and went with the 80% solution to get this thing in the done column, and simply painted the aft end . . . In the grand scheme of things I don’t think anyone will really notice that the aft “face” is painted black.

I then got to work on the fresh air/heating air routing valve.  Below is the valve assembly in its component parts, ready for assembly.

And here’s after I riveted it all together . . . the second time!!  You see, the valve hinge had to go in first before I riveted all the main pieces together.  So of course I went to Tahiti for a few minutes in my mind while I riveted the first couple of rivets to get it all together.  My fault, but what a royal PITA to drill those rivets out.  Plus, it widened the holes a bit so I used a bit longer rivets and merely mashed harder!

Ok, so she ain’t perfect, but it looks like this dog will hunt.  The one thing I’m not overly happy with is the height of my valve, since it’s taking up valuable space in my duct and reducing the duct’s cross section for airflow by almost 0.5″.

Here’s a shot to see where this valve is in relation to everything else.

And here’s a few shots of the valve and the attached control arm.

I then added a cable mount bolt and a cable to test out the function of the valve.  It’s simple and I don’t think there should be any issues (besides having to trim down the upper edge of the valve since it’s just a hair wide.)

With my ductwork tasks done for the evening, I focused on getting the cable runs to the GIB headset jack squared away, primarily at the Dynon Intercom harness connector.

After doing over an hour’s worth of research and brushing back up on the intercom wiring, I then cut the wires to length, stripped the wires and then added shield grounding pigtails by using ground solder sleeves.

The pilot and GIB Mic/PTT wires share a common ground at Pin 2, so I went ahead and did a solder wire splice to add a small length of 20 AWG wire to the 2 shielded wire ground wires.  BTW, I used the Bob Nuckolls’ technique for solder splicing 2 wires together.

Here’s my soldered wire splice.

I then added a piece of shrink wrap over the soldered joint.

Here’s a shot of my Dynon Intercom wiring harness . . .  so far!  You can see that I labeled the main cable insulation and terminated the individual wires with the included D-Sub sockets.

Wrapping up the evening, I terminated the sockets into the Dynon Intercom 25-pin D-Sub connector.  I also stripped and heat shrank the GIB headset jack ends (the sides in the left GIB armrest) of the cables in preparation for installation.

Tomorrow I’ll continue to work on knocking out all this extraneous build stuff so I can get on to the nose, canopy and strakes.

 

Chapter 22 – Back in back

Today was one of those days where I was in full build mode all day long, but then at the end of the day it felt like I hadn’t done much.

First off, once again the nice man in the brown truck (UPS) brought me more airplane parts… Today I got the COM1 and XPDR antennas that I ordered, terminated with the appropriate fittings. One more thing off the list!

I started off on the actual build by drilling a few sets of tiny holes to inject fresh epoxy into some air bubbles along the joint of the front extension pieces that I had glassed onto the left GIB armrest.  This armrest is definitely the ugly duckling of the armrests, and admittedly looks pretty nasty where I glassed the front extension pieces into place (I was originally planning on having a throttle handle back here, but then realized first that it was located too far aft, and then second, that I simply wasn’t going to install one).

That’s why it’s so cool, and so much fun honestly, to see it turn out like this with just a few passes of a primer spray can.

I let the primer cure for a few hours, cleaned up and sanded a few minor imperfections, then shot two coats of the gray granite interior paint.

I then let the topcoat cure for about 6 hours before shooting it with a couple coats of matt clear coat.  A little over an hour later, when it was dry to the touch, I set it in place to get the pics below.

I have to say, I’m really digging this color.  It’s not super flashy nor does it make a huge fashion statement, but it really does look good.  And of course, as I often state, the pics don’t do it justice.

Although I documented my painting sequence on the armrest, it’s not all I did today, nor was it the primary goal on my task sheet.

I don’t have any pics showing my progress, but today I actually determined the size and shape of the valve lever arm for the heating/air system.  This valve is the one that will determine whether incoming fresh air is left alone to be routed through the ducts for cooling air, or diverted to the heat exchanger for heating air.  I cut out, shaped and cleaned up the pieces to ready them for install via flush-mounted rivets.  I was getting ready to drill the holes for my rivets when a buddy called and I ended up meeting him out for dinner and  a couple beers.  So… I’ll get some pics of my heating/air valve work tomorrow.

In addition, as I was trying to consolidate my metal cutting tasks, I had on my list to cut an L bracket for mounting under the Matco parking brake to secure the brake’s ON/OFF actuator cable (with an Adel clamp).  As I was trying to finalize the dimensions on that bracket for cutting –remember, I have to pull saws out of an outside shed so I like to cut all that I currently have on my list at one time for efficiency’s sake– I determined that I don’t need a bracket at all, just some 1/4″ Nylaflow and a click bond mounted on the left side NG30 plate and I’ll be good.  So, check the parking brake cable install design off the to-do list as well! [Note I said install design, and not the install itself].

Again, tomorrow I will continue to work on the GIB area stuff, with the heating & air system valves my specific priority until I get those finished.

 

Chapter 22 – Kick plate finished!

Today I started out by pulling the GIB kick plate out to check the forward mounting bracket layup.

The mounting bracket looked good with the angle appropriate to how the lower corner of the cockpit is shaped.

I could tell by the bottom of the cured mounting bracket that not all of it was in contact with the taped fuselage corner . . . I guess gravity isn’t what it used to be!

I first drilled the #8 screw mounting hole through the kick plate and part way through the forward lower bracket when it decided to remove itself from the kick plate.  I then drilled and riveted a K1000-8 nutplate to the mounting bracket, and then trimmed all 4 bracket sides with the Fein saw.  Finally, I drilled anchor holes and sanded the bottom of the mount that will get floxed to the fuselage corner.

Here’s a few pics of the completed forward kick plate mounting bracket.

I then remounted the composite forward mounting bracket onto the kick plate.

Knowing that only a small portion of the mounting bracket had been in contact with the cockpit corner when I set it, I slathered it up with flox before remounting the kick plate.  I used fast hardener… so a few hours later after it cured I pulled off the kick plate to find that my mounting bracket floxing endeavor was successful.

While the kick plate mounting bracket flox was curing I took my fuel sump low fuel level sensor covers outside and painted them with the Rustoleum granite paint that I will be using for the interior cabin paint.

While the fuel sump low fuel level sensor covers’ paint was curing I called Mike at ACK to go over my ELT install configuration.  He gave me some very key information that will be very pertinent to my ELT installation.

I then determined the size of the phenolic LED light mounting reinforcement plates, cut them and then 5-min glued them into place (after I removed the paint and sanded the glass where they were mounted inside the covers).

I then determined where the 2 LED holes would be situated, then drilled the holes.  I tested out the angle of the LED light beams, so when I drilled the holes I made them a bit more horizontal in comparison to the aircraft waterline.

With the LED mounting holes ready, I then prepped the LED lights for mounting by soldering the red & white LEDs and wires, including a 470 Ohm resistor on the shared ground wired.

I then added heat shrink to secure & protect the solder joints.

Although the pic below looks like you’re looking down into a fiery volcano, I included this representative shot of the red LED test lighting.

Here’s the white LED test.  Again, the light showing up in these pics is more drastic, contrasting and harsh than what is really viewed in person.

Here are another couple shots of the sump low fuel sensor cover LED floor lights from the front, facing the camera (which I shot at an angle so they wouldn’t “blind” the camera).

Again, this is a representative view of the red & white LED lights glued in place into the right sump low fuel sensor cover.  The left looks pretty much the same of course.

Concurrent to the work I had been doing on the LED floor lights, I also primed & painted the kick plate with my gray cabin granite paint.  Over 4 hours later I hit it with a couple coats of matt clear coat.

This is about an hour later after the clear coat was dry enough to set the kick plate in place  to get this pic.

Here’s another shot of the painted and clear coated GIB kick plate.  BTW, I checked the weight of the kick plate just prior to painting it and it weighed in at a whopping 5.8 ounces.

Tomorrow I’ll continue my quest to finish all things GIB before moving on with other parts of the build.