RV-7 N890GF

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  • Started Plenum

    Now that the baffles are all trimmed, riveted and in place on the engine, I started work on the plenum. The plenum is an alternative to the baffle seals that Vans provides. The original design uses the seals on the baffles to press up against the top cowl creating a seal to prevent air from…

  • Finished Snorkel

    The last few steps to finish up the snorkel include riveting the flanges to the fiberglass. I used pop rivets, with small washer on the shop head side in order to distribute the force onto the fiberglass to prevent cracking. I also primed the snorkel. With the flanges riveted, I then prepped and installed the…

  • Continued work on Snorkel and Baffles

    I continued working on fitting the snorkel to the lower baffle. I had to modify the angle of the top of the snorkel to better fit under the inlet. There was a gap between the flanges and the underside of the inlet ramp. I added fiberglass material to the top of the snorkel, let it…

  • Started Work On Snorkel

    With the cowl done, and the baffles in progress, I decided to start on fitting the snorkel. I started by fabricating a spacer to fit in the inlet hole. This allowed me to temporarly align the snorkel to the inlet. The starter motor had a lug that was interfering with the snorkel, so I removed…

  • Began Fitting Baffles

    With the cowl complete, I can really dial in the baffles. I started by installing all the baffles on the engine. I trimmed several pieces around the aft part of the engine to better fit, as well as around the valve covers. Once the baffles were installed, I put the lower cowl on. Immediately I…

  • Finished Cowling

    The last step in finishing the cowling installation is adding the SkyBolts to the split-line to join the top and bottom cowls. I started out by marking the lower and upper cowl split-lines where they overlapped in order to make the top and bottom edges mate perfectly. Once Everything was marked, I used a long…

  • Continued Cowling

    With the top cowl clecoed in place I was able to drill out the 15/32″ holes for the SkyBolt grommets. I’ve spaced out the holes resulting in 17 skybolts across the top cowl. I drilled each other hole to full size with my unibit and then full size with a 15/32″ bit. I then placed…

  • Began work on Cowling

    I started work on the cowl. I’m using the SkyBolt fastener system for my cowling. I began with the top cowl and alignment with the spinner. I installed the firewall flanges to support the top cowl. I’m using 3″ spacing along the top center and then it transitions to 3.25″ spacing towards the sides. The…

  • Underside Empennage Fairing

    I spent some time working on the underside fairing for the tail. I decided to go with the standard Van’s design using the aluminum close out and the rubber seals. It needed some trimming to get a consistent gap along the bottom of the horizontal stab, but once it was in place, I then installed…

  • Finished Canopy Fairing

    I was able to finish the canopy fairing. It took several iterations of sanding/filling/priming/repeat, but I got the fairing to a place that far exceeds what I thought I would be able to achieve. This is the final step in the canopy fabrication. I have some minor paint clean up that I’ll do as well,…