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Carl Bells RV7A N947CB
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Date: 11-16-2007
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Number of Hours: 8.00
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Manual Reference: Laird Owens Plans
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Brief Description: Building the Laird Owens Panel
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Today I started the Laird Owens instrument panel fabrication. I received the panel yesterday after waiting about 3 weeks from placing the order. Laird was hard to find, but easy to work with once I got a hold of him. His plans are nicely done and quite complete. The real challenge is to get the new sculpted three dimensional panel to fit tightly in the 2 dimensional area where Vans panel goes. There are difference from plane to plane, because they are made from aluminum sheet metal, not machined steel blocks and so the fitting has to be done slowly and carefully. Also the panel was developed for the RV 6 slider and there seems to be difference from this plane to the RV 7. I decided to start with a thin wood panel template to get in the ballpark for the LO panel. This is one of those deals where you measure many times and different ways, then cut slowly less than required, and then do it again and again until it fits just right. The template proved to me that I would not be able to get a good job using the dimensions from Lairds plans. Since I’m early in the process, we’ll see how my method goes and if it all works out without major fiberglass repairs.
I was OK with my progress today even though there was not a lot to show for it. The first hurtle was fitting the three sub-panels out of Vans panel. Laird shows a layout for Vans old panel, which was just a long rectangle with a flange on the bottom. The new panel is already shaped to fit in place, so there was a lot less to work with. To compound the issue, Vans panel has the mounting holes in it around the perimeter, thus giving even less metal to work with. After cutting a pasting the sub-panel patterns on the panel, I found a way of barely getting them out of it. It was very close, with nothing to spare. So next session I will start whittling away at Lairds beautiful panel until it slides into the allotted space.
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No this isn't the panel, it's a template
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Panel pieces cut from Vans panel
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How they look in the inlays
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