Pre-final Body Fit:

Now we get to fit all the body parts again to make sure that everything fits around the machinery. We don't want any rubbing or chafing of any components and we want the correct clearances between the airframe and its surroundings. You can see the inevitable Cleco bolts holding things together, as usual.

The windscreen was fitted accurately and masked with tape inside and out, for the paint shop; radiator fairings were cut and shaped to fit just inside the body panels, which aren't as symmetric as you would imagine, although you would never pick it by eye.

Heat shields were cut and fit. All these were swirl polished, at Kevin's suggestion and they do look very nice. The oil tank was fitted and plumbed. Undercarriage fairings were cut, filed, shaped; with nutbolts fitted for quick assembly later. Eyebrow windows were fitted also and all body panels were made ready for the paint shop.

At this time, the cutting, modifying and filling of body panels has to be completed, so that the finished product from the paint shop will all be part of the final build and not as easy to amend later. Needless to say, after all this was completed, we took it all apart again and sent the body panels, plus all the bits and pieces to the paint shop.

Panels back on.

Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4

More soon ...