Chapter 23 – Left baffle seals installed

Today was all about getting the aft left baffle seals installed and done with.  After remaking the larger lower baffle seal segment to extend it outboard, I then redrilled all the rivet holes out to 1/8″.  I also pulled the blue protective plastic off the aluminum parts (all 0.032″ 2024 aluminum scraps from the VANs Baffle Kit) and cleaned those up with acetone before gooping up the baffle seal edges with hi-temp RTV and riveting them into place.

Another shot of the aft left baffle seals installed.

And yet another shot from the forward side.

To do a final check on the aft left baffle seals fit I mounted the top and bottom cowlings, after I secured the exhaust pipes into position with some string… since I noticed that tape wasn’t holding them in place well enough.

I also did another round of sanding and shaping of the top cowl’s aft right trailing edge intersection with the right wing’s TE.

Here we have the installed aft left baffle seals inside the cowlings.  I’m thinking this dog will hunt!  I do see where I may have to pull the very bottom baffle seal into place aft of the CAMLOC, but that may very well be remedied just by putting the top cowl on first and then the bottom cowl on after that, whenever able.

A shot of the left side cowl opening with both the aft left baffle seals installed and the exhaust pipes (note still not finally trimmed to length) secured in position as well.

Here we have a couple of shots of the right side exhaust pipes (also not trimmed to final length) set close to final position inside the cowlings.  I’ll be starting on the aft right baffle seals next.

Moving forward!

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