Brief Description: More finish work on nose gear pant
Applied what I hope will be the final micro filler on the nose wheel pant. I expect I'll still need to apply small amounts of Bondo once I apply some primer and see where the low spots or bumps are. Also did some trimming of the pant to clear the tire and strut.
Enlarged the cutout on the lower cowling to clear the nose strut and exhaust pipes. I had to remove some of the flange on the leading edge of the cutout. I expect that is there as a "Gurney flap" to create a low pressure area to help extract warm air from the cowling. I've seen some aluminum flaps on some of the Sonex planes, so I may need to add more flap of some sort if cooling is a problem.
Trimmed some of the exhaust pipe for more clearance to the firewall and removed about 2" from the exhaust tip outside the cowling. Bolted the exhaust pipes to the engine with the gaskets. The right bank was a loose fit but the bolts pulled the flange together fine. The left bank was a tight fit and I needed to rig a ratchet cargo strap to pull the pipes apart enough to get the gaskets on. If the EGT probes weren't installed, might have been better to completely remove the pipe and figure a way to spread the pipes for a looser fit. I found the supplied 8M1.25x20mm long bolts would bottom in the head unless a flat and lock washer were used along with the gasket. The next shorter standard bolt is 16mm and might have worked ok without adding the flat washer. I used a liberal coating of Never-Seez on the bolts. The Never-Seez is good to over 2000 degrees.
