Today was another scorcher.  And with that mandatory notice out of the way, my goal for the day was to get as far on trimming and shaping the left fuel feed line to allow for installing an on/off fuel valve.

As I mentioned in my recent video, I WILL NOT be installing a fuel valve for the right fuel line at this point due to time and space constraints.  The 90° bend in the left fuel line up to the fuel selector valve was not a pretty sight, and since it needed reforming, I decided to go ahead and install the left side on/off fuel valve now.

This was pretty much the status of things when I started today . . .

I then cut about 1.5″ off the end of the left fuel line tube to allow me to get it out and free from the transit slot in the thigh support rib.  Of course it’s tight quarter working in this area, so I simply used side cutters for this initial cut.  Then once I positioned the tube where I wanted it, I used my tube bender to place a 90° bend on the tube.

I cut the the tube to length, then slid the anodized blue tube nut and sleeve onto the tubing before flaring it… again, tight quarters!

Here’s the newly bent, prepped and flared left fuel line, ready to attach to the fuel on/off valve.

Which I did here to check out fit and alignment…

I then spent a good little bit determining the height and angle of where I wanted the fuel valve to allow me to get the width and height of the 3/8″ foam pedestal it will sit atop.

Out of a scrap piece of BID covered 3/8″ thick PVC foam, I then cut out the left fuel line on/off valve mounting pedestal.

Employing the tried and true KISS principle here I simply plan to secure the fuel valve to its mounting pedestal with zip-ties, so I drilled, prepped and micro’d in a couple nubs of -6 3003 aluminum tubing into the top area of the pedestal.

I then zip-tied the fuel valve to the pedestal top edge, slathered up the bottom foam edge of the pedestal with micro and then threaded the fuel valve to the end of the left fuel line.  With the fuel valve fastened to the fuel line, I then did some minor reposition on the pedestal as I weighed it down for curing.

Tomorrow I’ll add a fillet to each side of the pedestal and glass it in place with 2-ply BID tapes before moving on to my final cross-connect fuel line between the on/off valve to the fuel tank selector valve.