45 - Cowling (trimmed); 43 - Engine Installation (random stuff); 38 - Canopy & Window (latch system); 40A - Gear & Engine Mount (installed legs, wheels, brakes); 46A - Leg & Wheel Fairings (main gear nearly complete)

Another couple weeks of searching for items to complete, while I wait for Van's to deliver backordered items (COVID-delays, so understandable). Fortunately, they sent me the main gear legs and the latch torque tube, so I could get another week of work done toward installing the engine.  BUT, I still need the nose gear and link before installing the engine ... oh well, this forces me to continue picking at the fiberglass bits. Here are the details:

- clamped cowl halves together and started fine-trimming the spinner hole and ducts; lots of small areas to sand to get all four areas to fit nicely

- finished fine-trimming of spinner hole and air ducts; drilled #40 holes to cleco (for now) the area around the spinner; cleaned up for next project (dust everywhere!)

- removed fuel hose that goes from fuel servo to fuel spider to take measurements and pictures for Aircraft Specialty - they will fabricate an integral firesleeved hose for me, and hopefully include in their catalog for other RV-14A builders!  

- received backordered powdercoated torque tube from Van’s; installed canopy latch system; tested latch action inside and out - works just fine!  

- installed main gear legs; attached main gear leg axles (wife helped); checked alignment of axles (toe); installed main wheel and tire assemblies

- installed brakes and brake lines from fuselage to calipers (Aircraft Specialty!)

- trimmed and deburred oil door and oil door hinge

- prepped main gear fairings; fit and trimmed main gear fairings so the halves mate as precisely as possible

- drilled #30 main gear fairings for brackets and found that one aft fairing was mis-dimpled at factory; repaired drill holes in aft fairing using epoxy-flox; drilled left fairing and cut gear leg clearance hole; attached nutplates to fairing brackets; installed one bracket temp. on left gear/wheel

- attached other 3 brackets (temp) to gear/wheels; modified left wheel fairing halves to have 5/8” clearance for tire

- finished fitting right gear fairings to each other; #40 match-drilled; cutout gear leg clearance hole; ensured all could be installed on right wheel/gear; floxed all 4 brackets to gear fairings and loosely attached with screws (did this process off the plane, since there was no way to verify proper seating of bracket if on plane)

Finished trimming and fitting the forward parts of the top and bottom cowls - the two halves fit well together, so I drilled the requisite #40 hole: 

43 - Engine Installation (misc.); 44 - Spinner & Prop (spinner plate and spinner cutouts); 45 - Cowling (trimmed to scribe lines)

In an effort to keep busy while I await a number of backordered parts from the Finish and FWF kits, I bounced around between tasks for the engine installation, spinner and propeller, and cowling.  Fortunately, a fairly heavy (~60 lb) shipment from Van's is en route and should be here on Wed - and I hope these are the powder-coated parts that I need to finish the canopy latch mechanism as well as the gear legs so I can put her on her feet.  The latter is needed before I attach the engine, which would be the next major step in (hopefully) a couple weeks.  Meanwhile, here is what I accomplished since the last post:

- attached a bunch of steel fittings to the engine; torqued nuts and attached more wires to the starter solenoid
- primed and attached manifold pressure sensor bracket; separated, deburred and riveted prop governor bracket assembly
- powder-coated steps (H&R Powder Coating in Orlando)
- figuring out how to install B&C backup alternator (i.e., hard-to-reach nuts), as well as the electrical connections to the e-mag - VERY tight quarters for both
- installed B&C backup alternator (torqued 3 nuts at 108 in-lb); what a pain in the ass 4th nut - need another tool to properly torque that nut; EDIT - got proper vacuum pump crow’s foot and wobble extension and it was easy to torque that 4th nut
- drilled #30, and cut spinner plate assembly with pneumatic nibbler and pneumatic belt sander
- riveted spinner back plate and doubler, and deburred edges; removed cutout sections of spinner;
marked scribe lines; started trimming cowl at the spinner and air-intake areas
- trimmed to scribe lines for all areas except the aft lateral lines on the bottom cowl; test-fit to determine interference in the front section (will need to trim a little more)

Finished installing the remaining wires to the master relay and starter solenoid.  After reviewing Ken B.'s and Turner B.'s installations of their alternator fuses and G3X shunt, a couple of these nuts will need to come off to accommodate the starter switch wire and main power switch wire. I'll deal with that once I receive the panel.