Just an update on my build and related non-build activities today and yesterday . . .

I started out yesterday by wanting to get a quick round of paint in before the multi-day bout of rain and T-storms rolled into the area, which were scheduled to start mid-afternoon.

I wanted a label for my oil box that, quite conveniently, would identify the box as “OIL.”  I had thought about it a number of times while building the box and just decided to do it in a quick and EZ manner.  I painted the lid top black and then –using PowerPoint– made up a good sized block lettered version of the “OIL” label.  I then taped my “OIL” stencil pattern to a wide piece of painter’s tape and carefully traced the letters with a razor knife.

I then simply affixed the painter’s tape block letters over the black painted lid top.

Again, not absolutely perfect, but I’m not building an oil box, I’m building an airplane so I want to get this thing off the plate of things to do.

I then shot the oil box and lid with a few coats of yellow paint.  I added an extra coat for extra measure so that when I wet sand it, the carcasses of all the tiny little divebombing gnats that apparently love yellow so much they’ll literally die for it . . . would not show up in the final paint.  I guess painting this during the day is like being a big boxed food manufacturer, lots of bugs for added protein!

I let the yellow paint cure for about a half hour then brought the parts inside.  By the time I grabbed my keys, wallet and phone to head out to Harbor Freight for some consumables and check out some tools, the rain started.  While out, I also stopped by Lowe’s to pick up a long 3/4″ x 1/8″ piece of aluminum to use as a spacer on the longeron for the canopy build.

Now, the rest of the story….

When I returned from my errands I was ready to get back to work on the build.  I checked my task list and at the top was a note to call U-Haul to reserve an auto hauler trailer for moving the fuselage down to NC.  Time was a bit critical in that U-Haul has different rates for summer than the other 9 months of the year, with the summer rates being about 3 times the price as the rest of the year.  The demarc date for this price increase is Memorial Day, but as long as you reserve the trailer (or truck, etc) prior to Memorial Day you still get the significantly lower rate.

On the phone with the U-Haul bubbas they then asked for the year, make and model of the vehicle I was hauling.  Since I like to be up front about stuff but also realize the bias companies have against catering to anything aircraft related, I told them it was for a wheeled project I was working on.  The bottom line ended up that if it wasn’t a standard vehicle with a normal make and model, they simply would not rent me an auto hauler trailer.  I’ll spare you my commentary on what I think about our current social mores.

Concerned, I then spent a few hours investigating possible courses of action that would facilitate and result in my ability to move my fuselage down to NC.  This of course included researching what constitutes “wide loads”  for both Virginia and North Carolina.

In short, all things considered, my build endeavors were done for the evening.

After the detour I took yesterday, I started off this morning by heading to a local ma & pa diner to have breakfast and list out my tasks for the day.  I had to make a couple quick stops and by the time I returned it was HOT in the house.

I haven’t had my AC on (due to my cheapness…ha!) but it was time to deal anyway with an AC issue I’ve been having, which I finally deduced as most likely a clogged evaporator drain (all evidence points to this being a side effect of the AC drain being filled with rocks and garbage [I was told most likely the building crew] that was discovered by my tenant while I was in Germany… not only did it physically block the draining but facilitated the growth of algae, mold, gunk, etc. that blocks the drain line and forces the water to exit where it can out of the unit).

Again, due to my cheapness, and not wanting to pay the extortionist HVAC guys a ton of money only since they know the simple magic and I don’t, then I went into quick apprentice mode on becoming an HVAC “technician.”   Anyway, I believe I found the issue and thus had to go into HVAC repair/maintenance mode.  This is not only for my immediate comfort, but something I would have had to address anyway to sell the house…. so the work gets done either by me (on the cheap) or by a certified technician (muy expensivo!). So far the progress has been good, but it will take a few hours a day over the next few days to really clean up some of the rust in my drain pan, clean the drain lines, etc.

So that, folks, is where I am on the build…. and the move.