There's light at the end of the tunnel..

Its been quite a while (over a year) since I last posted a progress update on the rebuild, a lot has happened in that time. Unfortunately I neglected VIL for around 5 months while I removed an old hedge that was also our fence, then built a 50m hardwood fence. Slow and tedious work doing it by myself, digging 3-4 post holes at a time then working on that section, little by little it started taking shape. Looks good now though.

 

Also little Alex who is now 20months old has been a great time waster, he is now running around everywhere at a hundred miles an hour, so much fun watching the little almost daily changes, little things from how he links words together to watching him run and move around, he is such an awesome little guy. I'm extremely proud of my son.

 

 

 

Safety first.. He kinda looks like chicken little

 

 

I didn't completely neglect VIL, just before the start of the fence build I was working on the canopy, in this shot you can see the final assembly just before I bonded it all together with the sickaflex, after this shot I worked on the glass work around the front of the canopy where it meets the front dash cover, after I got this part to a stage I was happy with I put it aside while I worked on another problem. 

 

 

Final assembly of the canopy to the frame

 

 

An electrical problem.. Anyone who knows my skills knows that I am very limited when it comes to the dredged mystery of electrics, and to make things worse it turned out that I was the reason for the circuit breaker popping, to get access to the voltage regulator where I thought the problem was I had to release the RH side of the front skin forward of the canopy, after much appreciated help from Russell, an experienced avionic guy from work, tracing wires, checking continuity we eventually worked out where the problem was, I had carried out what I thought was a good pig tail repair to the power cable from the alternator that was also shielded, only problem was one single strand of the shield was touching the power cable causing a CB to keep popping, after a quick fix up the problem was all sorted, then I had to re do the front skin over the electrics, no problem, that job only took a few hours to sort out. I work with some great Avionics guys who don't mind sharing there knowledge and answering my questions on what is the correct way to do certain things.

 

 

Canopy and frame assembled and fitted to the airframe

 

Working on the engine cowling, the front skin forward of the canopy still to go on

 

 

Another area that took a while to sort out was the leg fairings and the intersection fairings. It took me a few weeks of sanding filling, shaping to get both intersection fairings to a shape and contour that I was happy with, I then had to work out where to place the attaching screws so they didn't foul on anything on the inside of the cowl or cabin.

 

I temp fitted the LH wing to help work out the wires that go threw the side of body, some bright spark decided to cut all the wires without identifying them when the aircraft was salvaged, I think I worked them all out properly, I'll know when I go to install the wings

 

 

 

Another part that took a while to sort out was the empennage fairing, I had to cut it down a bit and then fill in the voids between the mating surfaces, when I primed the fairing for the first time there were so many pin pricks in the paint, it took me around 5 fill and prime processes to fill them all in, its looking really good now, ready for final paint when I get that done, just trying to work out if I get it painted before I do the flight tests or after.

 

 

 

Working on the fit and fair of the canopy to the front skin, I had to fill a bit to get a nice alignment between the two, I think I spent over a week on this part sanding, using a straight edge to show the low areas then filling some more before I finally started putting down the primer coats.

 

 

Front skin and canopy masked up, this is the first of many primer coats

 

 

Nice contour lines now between the front skin and canopy

 

 

 

I've started working on the wings and fuel tanks, I'm also tidying up some of the wiring at the wing tips for the transfer pump, landing lights, Nav lights and fuel quantity sender. I've also found some damage to the LH upper wing skin, I did know about it but its been so long I forgot about it, It looks like more damage from when the aircraft was salvaged, I'm now searching for some 2024 T3 .025" to replace the skin, so far no luck. It won't be a big job, should take around 10hrs to remove the old skin, match drill it to the new skin then deburr/dimple, prep for primer then rivet it back on.

 

I already replaced the INDB lower skin on the LH wing due to transport damage, I don't think there is a part on VIL that I haven't looked at or rebuilt

 

I've found a few patches of bad tank sealant on both the INDB and Outboard tanks, took a little while to clean the effected areas before resealing. I filled all tanks with normal fuel and left them for a week or so for the leak checks, I'm confident that I've sorted out any potential leaks.

 

I removed the access panels on all tanks to have a good look inside, just making sure it's all good. I'm getting close to finishing off all the repairs, I've started ordering new replacement decals, fire extinguisher as well as a few other bits that I'll need for the final assembly. I'm still working on the cabin side panels, they are sort of finished, I just need to spend more time on them tidying up the little bits before I take a mould off them, that should be the last thing to sort out before I consider the final assembly, hopefully that wont be too far away, One other thing I have been considering for some time now is the certification, I've asked a few other builders who they used and if they would use them again, some say yes and others say no, I'm so close to finishing I should really get that locked in. This has been a very exciting and rewarding experience so far, I'm sure I'll be learning a whole lot more as she finally comes back together and then back into the air she goes for more exploration with yours truly.  Stay posted, I'll be having a celebration day when she is back in the air.