The weather was finally good enough today to open the workshop doors and get access to the front of the fuselage so it was an opportunity to fabricate the firewall. First a piece of particle board was match drilled to the engine mount. Then the outline of the fuselage was carefully marked on the board which was cut out to act as a form block for the firewall. The firewall is a sheet of 0.018" stainless steel. It was match drilled to the form block and then the edges hammered down to form the lip which will be riveted to the fuselage sides and bottom
and carry the mount for the cowl. At the top a strip of stainless steel will blend the gap between the windscreen and cowl. I'll need to weld about 16 tabs to the front of the fuselage to secure the firewall and may rivet some stiffening aluminium angle to the rear to carry the weight of the battery and other firewall mounted items. But those are jobs for another day - it is raining again!
The weather was finally good enough today to open the workshop doors and get access to the front of the fuselage so it was an opportunity to fabricate the firewall. First a piece of particle board was match drilled to the engine mount. Then the outline of the fuselage was carefully marked on the board which was cut out to act as a form block for the firewall. The firewall is a sheet of 0.018" stainless steel. It was match drilled to the form block and then the edges hammered down to form the lip which will be riveted to the fuselage sides and bottom
and carry the mount for the cowl. At the top a strip of stainless steel will blend the gap between the windscreen and cowl. I'll need to weld about 16 tabs to the front of the fuselage to secure the firewall and may rivet some stiffening aluminium angle to the rear to carry the weight of the battery and other firewall mounted items. But those are jobs for another day - it is raining again!
