Ok, again, a lot of smallish tasks getting knocked out over the last couple of days.

First off, I measured the gap between the top centerline CAMLOC position on the front edge of the top cowl with the D-deck to be about 0.085″ thick.  When I pulled the top cowling off to work the top centerline CAMLOC attach flange thickening, I forgot that the cowl hadn’t been off since I created the aft cowl stiffener.

So I pulled the peel ply and cleaned up a couple rough spots on the layup.

Here’s a closer look at the cured top cowl aft stiffener.

My hypothesis on the D-deck CAMLOC flange for the top cowling is that somewhere during the cure cycle (way back when) it drooped a bit from about the 10:30-2:00 o’clock positions, considering I have a gap between the flange and the 5 ply perimeter layup (see pic below this one).

The resulting gap, as I mentioned above, between the top centerline CAMLOC mounting hole and the inside surface of the top cowling is around 0.085″.  To fill in all but 2 plies of BID worth, I’m using a small patch of 1/16″ (0.063″) G10, with the front edge beveled to slide forward into that D-deck-CAMLOC flange gap… as seen below.

After getting the G10 filler piece drilled (1/2″ hole), sanded and prepped, I then floxed it into place.  I used a taped 1/2″ OD tube and a clamp to keep the G10 firmly in place during cure. Now, if you look in front (left in pic) of the added G10 piece, you can see the light area where I first packed in flox into the separated layers of glass.

And another shot of all that, after the flox cured and the G10 pad was secured in place.

After sanding and prepping the cured, in-place G10, I then added a micro fillet around the G10 filler piece (micro for weight) and laid up 2 plies of BID.  I then peel plied the BID.

Obviously this pic is a bit later after the peel ply was pulled and the edges razor trimmed.

I started out Day 2 with a similar operation, only using stepped, pyramiding 3 plies of BID to fill in the area above the top left CAMLOC on the D-deck and peel plied the layup (pic 1).  I used MGS 335 with fast hardener on these filler layups, so a few hours later I pulled the peel ply and razor trimmed the layup (pic 2).

After the layup above, I then took the final half of the wheel pants outside and sanded it in prep for micro and final finishing.  Yes, this is lower priority, low hanging fruit stuff, but I want some of these small tasks that take 30 minutes or less off the to-do list to knock it down a bit.  It’s part of my mental game to stay motivated I guess.

I combined these pics below although I started the task yesterday by applying the first round of insulation to the fuel injection spider stainless steel distribution lines that go to each cylinder.

Today I finished the task with the second, final outer insulation layer on the stainless steel fuel distribution lines. Technically, the task will be officially finished after I receive some Tefzel zip-ties that I ordered from Stein Air, albeit the hard part is definitely over (this was not just a simple, quick feat of adding these insulating sleeves).

As per Cozy builder/driver Buly, he used -4 fire sleeve on his topside fuel injection distribution lines to keep them from heating up too much when needing to do a hot start (which is the main risk of having the fuel injection spider lines on the top of the motor in our cooling configuration).

Again, I’m using a double-layered approach using insulating sleeves from McMaster-Carr (see pic below).  The first layer is heat-reflective wrap around sleeving, “made of aluminum with a fiberglass liner [which] reflects heat away from contents and withstands temperatures up to 390° F to protect against internal and external heat sources. It resists chemicals and fluids. The slit along the entire length permanently seals with an adhesive strip. It meets ASTM D350 requirements for self-extinguishing material.”  The outer, more durable layer is a heat-reflective slit corrugated sleeving that “reflects heat away from contents and withstands temperatures up to 300° F to protect against internal and external sources of heat.”  Moreover, I’m securing these sleeves in place with Tefzel zip-ties, which are quite capable of handling engine compartment temperatures.

I finished the evening out by making a video with a new (to me) but a little older (like me!) Akaso action camera that I nabbed for pretty darn cheap off of Ebay.  I figured I would put it to the test by using this tiny camera to record this video on my current gas cap safety lanyard effort.  Admittedly, the internal mic on this video camera isn’t that great, but after editing & processing it’s passible.

I’m getting close to finishing up a couple more key tasks, getting the shop cleaned and organized, and then a big project update video before I press forward with my top side micro finishing of the bird.

Moving forward!