Tonight I did a final fitting of the cockpit rails. I clamped everything down and then checked several times to make sure that the rails were parallel. I then drilled the rails into place. Then, I fabricated the 816b angles that anchors the forward part of the rails to the front of the cockpit. Later, these will be drilled and bolted in. Thanks to my cyber buddy, Luis Luciani, I learned that bending the tabs on these little babies can lead to cracking unless you utilize a sufficient bend radius. To accomplish that, I took the belt sander to one of my vise jaw protectors. Actually, these aluminum angles are simply used to protect the work, not the vice jaws. By sanding a gentle bend into the angle, I made sure that the bend radius in the little tabs would not be so sharp that they would crack. Thanks for the tip Luis!
Rails drilled and clecoed onto the cockpit longerons
The angle/bracket thingies that anchor the rails to the front of the cockpit
Vice jaw protectors (note the right one is sanded in a curve for bending radius
