I decided to do something easier today. I chose fitting gear access plates on the bottom of the fuselage and fabricating the fuel tank vents.
I began by putting the plates in position and marking where the fore and aft bends should start to get the plates to conform with the curvature of the fuselage. Using a Sharpie I drew a series of lines across the plates about 3/16" to 1/4" apart and then slowly bent the material along the lines. The radius of bend is tighter at the front than the aft edge so the bend lines are closer together at the front than the rear. Anyway, I made the bends a little bit at a time and after a few passes the plate smatched the fuselage contours in a nice smooth curve.
Next, I fabricated two vent tubes from aluminum. I took a short piece of tubing and put a smooth 90 deg bend in one end. Using a hacksaw I cut off the bend in the tube so the resulting tube opening would face directly into the slipstream. I cut the remaining tube length to 2", flared the one end, and threaded it onto the vent bulkhead fitting that goes thru the cockpit floor inside the gear tower. The cover plates were then drilled, dimpled for #6 screws, deburred and installed temporarily. I have decided to use rubber grommets passing the tubes thru the access plates. They are a tighter fit and don't interfere with the flare sleeve and nut on the bulkhead fitting. Makes a neat job I think.
