Fit, drill, deburr, and dimple all F982 front cover parts.
Fit and drill Andair fuel valve to fuel valve cover plate.
This required a 1" cutout, and I didn't have a unibit that big. So the first order of business was a trip to Home and Aircraft Depot to buy a big-ass unibit. Sure is expensive, but that's the second time I needed it. Also picked up some Rustoleum primer, Hammered Black, and Hammered Silver paint. Other builders reported using Hammered Grey, and their pictures looked great. But I have been unable to find the grey in any Austin store after a year of looking. I'm at the point where interior decisions have to be made. Decided the silver would be a good choice, along with black highlights.
Scuff, clean, and prime valve cover plate and three aft cover plates. Shot primer first, then the Hammered paints. After getting these painted, I'm very happy with the results. The Andair valve looks very nice on the Hammered Black cover plate.
Rivet nutplates to all front cover parts.
Started trying a cutoff wheel to grind down the aft end of the floor stiffeners to allow the inboard gear weldment tab to clear. But that wasn't working well, so ended up using a Dremel bit to do the cutting. Taped a peice of .025 scrap to the bulkhead to avoid damage, a necessary step. Used sandpaper to polish it off. Again, this is much easier done before riveting the stiffeners in. A clearance of .125 is sufficient.
Decided to trial fit the landing gear weldments. They take a little coercing, but I'm happy that they will fit. Need to get them drilled, then they can be installed permanently. That needs to happen before fuel plumbing can commence.
Made a drift pin for wing/gear weldment fitting. That took about .5 of misc time.
