My shop was elected as Party Central for New Years Eve, and my airplane was in the way so I assembled the landing gear and installed the wheels so I could move it around and get it out of the way. Everything is loosely assembled and will need to be taken apart and final assembled after painting.
* The slots in the clamping bars that hold the main gear need to be lengthened a little bit. I used a dremel and needed to remove about 1/32" or so.
* I had the boot cowl in place, and the forward hole for tail draggers needs to be drilled through the skins. To locate the hole I used a 5/16" drill bit through the mounting hole on the fuselage to make a dimple, and then a stepped bit to make the hole by drilling up from the bottom. The stepped bit helped to keep the hole centered on the fuselage mounting tube.
* I found that there was not enough room to install the washers on the LH main gear mounting bolts. The RH fit fine. I plan on grinding the offending weld in this area in preparation for paint.
* I also found the inner main gear bolts to be too long. I used a spare nut as a spacer for the time being, but will order and install the proper length bolt for the final installation.
* Several of the holes in the main and tail landing gear legs were tight enough on the bolts to remove the bolt plating. A quick zip with the proper sized drill bit fixed this. The material removed was almost un-noticeable, but it made all the difference.
Wheels installed.
No room for washers.
Spare nut used as spacer in temporary installation.
