Finished all but four very tough rivets and the tightening of some screws in the landing gear box assembly. Couldn't have done it without Connie's help and her patience. I was behind the door when God passed out patience so I am probably a little challenging when the shop is HOT and things are not going so well. Maybe that's why they say homebuilt experimentals have ended more than one marriage.
The one area that presented a little issue was the attachment of the air ramp to the firewall (the rolled area). The air ramp is made of relatively thick material and the rolled portion does not mate well with the face of the firewall. I attempted to increase the roll so the flange would set flush against the firewall with little or no strain but that was uunsuccessful. When clecoed, there was pillowing between the rivets and I just couldn't do anything about it. So, I came up with a field mod that makes a better looking installation.
I picked up some 1/8" thick aluminum from the hardware (one pieces that was about 1/2" wide and another that was 3/4"). I match drilled two strips, one for the front seen in image 2 below and one for the back side of the firewall. The flange of the air ramp is sandwiched between the strips. Of course, the strips had to be countersunk as appropriate to match the dimples in the air ramp flange and firewall material. I don't particularly like adding extra material to the airframe but this mod looks much better than the gaps between rivets.
