Cut, fit and tacked into place all the remaining tie bars except for the lower diagonal (ran out of 7/8" * 0.049 tubing). Final welded all joints doing as much as possible with the mount connected to the frame to ensure that the dimensions were maintained accurately. Welding these thicker tubes made a pleasant change from the thin stuff in the fuselage with currents from 45 - 65 amps used.The mount was then removed from the frame and test fit on the fuselage. The bolts went into place with only a little help from an "Irish screwdriver" :-)
Next job is to cut out the central sections of the undercarriage socket reinforcing tubes and hone the bores to take the 1-1/2" tubing that supports the undercarriage legs but this will wait until the missing diagonal is in place to make sure nothing moves while it is welded.
