More work on the front deck today. I don't love how the panel fits at the sides, but there's not much that can be done about it. The cutout leaves a 1/8" gap on each side that will show the attach bracket behind the panel. I did some research, and it looks like it's hit or miss. For some people the panel fits perfectly, and for others it has this gap. I have no idea why the difference. Some people go so far as to cut their own panel blank to make it fit better, but I don't quite care THAT much. Once I decide what color the panel will be, I'll paint the bracket the same color. Hopefully that'll help hide the gap.
Each side of the panel is attached with two screws into two pieces of angle. I remember reading blogs that said these little brackets took a ridiculous amount of time to finish. They are two little tiny brackets! How hard can it be? Well, they were right. Two tiny brackets on each side took me 2 hours to finish! There is nothing complicated about the setup, but it requires a lot of putting things together, taking them apart, putting them together, etc.
This is the result of my 2 hours of effort:
I have a bunch of random things to do to finish up the front deck. The center rib is attached to the firewall with a piece of angle. I peeled back the skin and clamped the angle in place so I could match drill it to the rib and firewall. In typical fashion, I had to take the center rib out and rivet the angle to it then reinstall it so I could drill the firewall holes.
After this I pulled the skin all the way off because I need to prep and prime parts. The skin won't be riveted in place until after my avionics are wired up, but I'll have to put it back on to build the canopy frame.
I hit all of the firewall flange holes with the die grinder to deburr them. That stainless steel is sharp and tough!
The outside ribs of the front deck (the ones that go from the firewall all the way back to the panel) won't work as-is because they will interfere with where the glass displays will go in the panel. Van's designed this plane before glass panels were a thing, so reworking these ribs is pretty much a standard modification these days. The portion of the rib that is between the subpanel and instrument panel is just there for support of the instrument panel and isn't structural. I cut each rib just aft of the subpanel. I will still use the cut off portion - once my instrument panel is laid out, these ribs will be reattached to the subpanel using a piece of angle. I'll just move them side to side depending on where the glass panels and radio stack land. I'll probably put the ribs towards the center of the panel and use them as supports for the center stack mounting racks.
The last thing I need to do on the front deck before I prime parts and put it all together is make the two weather seal angles that are riveted to the curved portions of the subpanel (basically a tiny shelf that weather seal sets on and the canopy front skin seals against when closed). Simple parts, but very time consuming to make. I got one done. The second will have to wait for tomorrow.
