First item of business this morning was to get the brake line bulkhead fittings torqued in the bottom of the gear towers. This included tightening the brake lines that run down inside the towers. Next up was attaching the landing gear U-blocks to the bottom of the fuselage. Getting the four outboard bolts, washers, and nuts started with the U-blocks in place was a challenge.
My plan is to jack up the front of the fuselage, slide the gear legs into place and then torque all the fasteners (three inboard and two outboard for both the port and starboard sides). I will do this, of course with no weight on the gear legs. Hope this plan works. Before installing the legs, however, I have to decide whether to go with the fasteners from Van's or upgrade at least the nuts and washers. There have been numerous reports of thread stripping on the nuts and/or frequent loosening of the outboard nuts and bolts. I may go ahead and order the stronger nuts and washers but think the stock bolts are probably fine. Actually, I suspect all the hardware is fine but it would be easier to do the upgrade now rather than later.
I went ahead and installed the motor mount permanently. I should be able to do any additional drilling on the firewall with the weldment in place.
