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[September 12, 2009]


Today I worked on the final touches of what I needed to do to the panel to finish it up. The first thing I wanted to be sure of is the canopy didn't interfere with any of the instruments in the panel. I know I measured everything 1,000 times before, but I just needed to know.


I also wanted to see how the canopy frame overlaid the panel. I have a few doodads I needed yet to install.


An order from ACS the other day provided me with a double heatshield I installed on the left pipe to shield two fuel pipes.


I also put the one from Van's on the front right exhaust to shield the oil return hose. I think I am going to buy yet another one for the alternator cable.


I have done as much as I can with the electrical system. It was time to take the panel out to finish it up and paint it. This was a little heartbreaking since it was fun to play with, but it needed to be done.


It took a good amount of time to get everything out.


First on the agenda was the map box door latch mechanism. I am using a latch that you basically just push the door shut until it clicks.


Here is the mechanism. I really lucked out because I can reuse some #40 holes I had. For some reason the spacing was spot on almost.


With the existing holes the door was about 1/16" too far out. I still need to enlarge the holes, and I will "walk" them to where they need to be.


Next up was drilling some holes for the annunicator lights. I decided to just have annunicator lights for what needs to be paid attention to. No need for lights for fuel pump, lights, pitot heat etc.. I just want a light to go off is something is not right. The three of them illuminate for the alternator, EIS or EFIS. Well, there are two EFIS's, and both can throw alarms. So I am going to use soem diodes in order to cause either EFIS to light the one light.


I decided to install the 1/8" stereo auxiliary audio input jack here. It kind of balances out the throttle quadrant.


Next I put some switch guards I bought from http://www.periheliondesign.com/. This is to protect the Avionics Master from inadvertently being switched off.


I needed to modify the anti-rotation bracket slightly for the screws for the switch guards.


Next I enlarged the holes for the dimmers to 1/4"


And then put in some new holes on the anti-rotation bracket.


I am planning on going with the new ACK 406 Mhz ELT, but it hasn't been released yet. So I needed to mount the remote ELT unit to the panel. The 406 Mhz remote is the same as the 121.50 Mhz remote panel, so I bought that separately for $50 from ACS just to get it mounted to the panel. Kind of a waste of money, but I needed it to move forward.


I also drilled the holes from the trim indicators. Don't know why I didn't do this sooner.


Since I am about out of panel space, I was able to squeeze in the DC power point here on the right side of the panel. I am not thrilled about this location, but it was the last spot left.


I kind of screwed up the altimeter cutout. It was perfect when I had just the altimeter in it, but the NuLight's changed the cutout to be smaller. so I taped the back of the panel with packing tape, made a damn out of clap and filled it in with an epoxy/flox slurry. I am hoping it sticks and is solid enough.


I also had a little Oops on the avionics cutout, so I filled this in a little as well. Great day in the shop! The panel is nearing completion!

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Last Modified: August 13, 2023