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Wheel pants before engine?

N

Navy76

Active Member
I just learned this morning not to expect my engine before the end of May. BIG disappointment! I ordered the engine through Van's on 22 Jul 19 so roughly six months, which was the estimate at the time, would have been February. I think the whole Superior XP-382/-400 recall has really put a wrench in the works but I was hoping it would have worked itself out by now. Apparently it has not.

Now I am thinking of other things I can do while I wait. AFS is doing my panel now and I think it will be ready sometime after the first of the year and I have plenty to keep me busy until then.

I had previously planned to wait on the wheel pants and gear fairings until after the engine was mounted and cowlings installed because I assumed that I'd need the full engine weight on the gear to get the correct camber on the wheels. As I think about it, however, it seems as though the wheel pants must be installed relative to the wheel so I could probably go ahead now.

My question is if installing the engine is really a prerequisite for installing the wheel pants and fairings?

I have room in my shop to install one wing at a time (I could actually install both wings if I kick my tractor out but the plane would be stuck in the shop. :)) I was planning to not put the wings on until after moving to a hangar. In view if my extended wait, would I gain anything by putting the wings on one-at-a-time in my shop? Is there anything else I should do now to save time after the move to the hangar? FWIW, I am planning to paint after phase 1.
 
Wheel pants before engine

We are in the exact same position. Ordered at Oshkosh and told I?m in the queue for May. Was hoping for Jan. Now trying to figure out what all we can do while we are waiting. It?s frustrating.
Kerry
 
You will install the leg fairings and wheel pants with the weight off of the gear, so no impact to having a lighter airframe except maybe being easier to handle.
 
Not sure if this is a 14 or 14A but either way, you can definitely get started with the wheel pants and if it is a 14A, also with the upper and lower gear leg fairings. If a 14, you can do the lower gear leg fairing but not the upper.

Even though I did not have to wait long for my engine, I finished all my wheel pants/gear leg fairing and many other things by the time the engine had arrived. They all were done to the paint ready stage.
 
That's good news! I can move forward with the fiberglass work so at least the wait won't be a total setback.

Kerry, I agree, very frustrating.

Lyn
 
I did all the fairings and wheel pants long before the engine. I would imagine that it is much easier without the engine. You have to lift the plane completely off the ground to line up the wheel pants. All after you sand the pants and fairings you will find out how many pins holes are in those bloody things. I think mine are finally pin hole free or close.

Maybe you have done the following, but here are other things to spend your time on:

1. insulate the firewall. I did this with the engine mount in place and it was a real PITA. I wish I had done this prior to engine mount.

2. I also went with whisker's instead of the Archer antenna. That was a fun project.

3. change out the canopy latch to the after market one (JDAir.com). I would do this, but don't feel like spending time on it.

4. start putting everything on the firewall that you can before putting on the engine(section 43 pages 2-4).

5. put in extra firewall pass thru ports (prior to insulation). You can get them from Aircraft spruce. I put all the wires through the AS pass thru, then only put the cables through the original pass thru ports. do this before insulating firewall

6. If you are using the standard exhaust, pull apart the nose wheel and put the tail pipe in place.

7. three coats of 50:50 epoxy: acetone applied to the inside bottom cowling. Then maybe put in foil.

8. Cut out the prop sections on the spinner.

9. assemble the back spinner plate and prime.

10. Do all the pre work on the cowling that you can. there is a bunch of trimming to be done. Cut down all the piano hinges.

11. If you have the panel in place, put all the wires thru the FW.

12. put all the cables through the FW.

13. I bought the FWF hose kit from Aircraft Specialty, so you can install a few of those before hanging engine. In particular, the fuel line from the FW. I think that is it much easier to tighten without the engine in place.

14. If you want to spend more money, put in rudder trim kit--the one that uses springs and connect to the rudder pedals.

Maybe there are other small projects to do as well. Maybe people will disagree with some of these prior to hanging engine. We will see.
 
Firewall pass throughs

How many more pass throughs do most people add to the firewall in addition to those included in the kit? Where area typically on the firewall? Center, side, upper, lower?
Kerry
 
kmbusse said:
How many more pass throughs do most people add to the firewall in addition to those included in the kit?...
Kerry
Click to expand...

I just used the supplied pass throughs with room left over for more wires if I had needed any, and that's after a couple of non standard larger wires for my secondary bus.
 
n982sx said:
I just used the supplied pass throughs with room left over for more wires if I had needed any, and that's after a couple of non standard larger wires for my secondary bus.
Click to expand...

This was my experience as well. Because I sealed the passthroughs with fireproof sealant, I put a few extra wires (including some shielded multi-wire cable) through each one and labeled them for any future needs.

If I were building again, using the FM-150 system, I might route the mixture cable differently and use a dedicated passthrough. It's tricky to use the assigned passthrough and route it around exhaust and other structure.
 
keen9a said:
You will install the leg fairings and wheel pants with the weight off of the gear, so no impact to having a lighter airframe except maybe being easier to handle.
Click to expand...

Agree 100%. I had to jack the airplane with engine on airframe to do this. Much easier to do engine off.
 
The reason I put all the wires through a single pass through and the cable through the others is that someone suggested that the cables tend to move and can be an issue with the wires long term. I will take a picture of where I put the extra pass thru and post it on my FB page. Although I assume that there is a video there where you can see the pass thru. It is top center. All the wires come out and head to the engine mount. They split there left/right.

BTW even if you don't mount the oil cooler, there is some assembly and maybe priming of the parts that mount the oil cooler you can do before mounting the engine.

As far as the exhaust goes, I put it in place and connected the tail pipe to the airframe attachment points. This way it does not move around that much. It completely baffles me that this was not put in place in the plans before the nose gear.

I will eventually find out if the mixture cable is an issue with the FM-150. If so, then I will put in an eye-ball pass thru or something to put it in the correct place. This is a very good reason to not put on the top skin early. The QB people just have to deal with it.

cheers
ken
 
Ditto,

There are a lot of things you can do out of sequence. I did most of the fiberglass before the engine came in, including most of the cowl (but be careful, don't final cut.) You might be able to get some interior work done as well. If you are doing baffles, you may want to get powder coated, as well as any other brackets etc. Just don't rivet your top. forward fuselage skin until the very end, you will be in that area a lot and it is much easier to do from the top, rather than under the panel.
 
I assume that you are talking about powder coating the baffles in the engine area. If so, then I really like that idea.

I second the idea of not rivet on the top skin. I actually just took it off this week and put is back on. I won't rivet that until I am sure I am done. For example, I think that I might have to put an eye-ball pass thru for the mixture cable. I won't know where that will go until I get the exhaust on.
 
Cwood2000 said:
Ditto,

There are a lot of things you can do out of sequence. I did most of the fiberglass before the engine came in, including most of the cowl (but be careful, don't final cut.) You might be able to get some interior work done as well. If you are doing baffles, you may want to get powder coated, as well as any other brackets etc. Just don't rivet your top. forward fuselage skin until the very end, you will be in that area a lot and it is much easier to do from the top, rather than under the panel.
Click to expand...

I wish I had know this at the time. I was hot to get it "looking more like an airplane" but it would have saved me a lot of time on my back.
 
I want to powdercoat my baffels. To date I have riveted together the larger parts of the baffles. Can I send them to the powdercoat now or do I need to wait for the engine for final trimming /adjustments?
 
Powder coating

We just got our baffles back from the powder coating. We did the steps to. We had to trim some metal to get the proper fit to the engine and the cowl. The pieces we trimmed to fit around the cylinders you won't be able to see. The baffles, on top, near the cowl, we had to trim some. After you riveted the rubber in place you would probably not see much of any grinding work you might need.
 
shanecfi said:
We just got our baffles back from the powder coating. We did the steps to. We had to trim some metal to get the proper fit to the engine and the cowl. The pieces we trimmed to fit around the cylinders you won't be able to see. The baffles, on top, near the cowl, we had to trim some. After you riveted the rubber in place you would probably not see much of any grinding work you might need.
Click to expand...


Great thanks for the response.
 
JDAir Canopy Lock well worth the effort !! Thanks JD for a great product !!

JDAirHandle-M.jpg
 
Thanks for all of the great ideas everyone! Now I?m worried that I won?t be able to get it all done before the engine arrives. 😉
 
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