Stjohn's RV-7

4 hours.
And that’s a rough estimate, because I’m going to tally up the last 3 or so days with this entry. After I puzzled and puzzled until my puzzler was sore, I figured out that the only way these push tubes are going to get painted is if I just paint the bloody things. Many things were suggested, most of them variants on “blow a lot of paint in the tube and swirl it around.” This turned out to be the way to go, except when I poured some from a can into the tube. Oh, and important safety tip: Those red plastic cups people swill bad margaritas from at parties? They melt when paint hits them. “Use a cup to catch the excess,” was the advice. I should have thought about what happens when a volatile solvent hits a cheap plastic cup, but instead I spent 20 minutes power-washing spill off the concrete. A soup can was a better pick for that task afterward. So with that done, I moved on to the actual hardware. Fascinating setup, the bellcrank assembly. Drilling out the brass bushings was interesting, but I got that all done without too much trouble, and the only thing I fouled up was making the spacers for the aileron hinge bolts.. No biggie, got a length of 6061 5/16.058 tubing coming from spruce this week. Got one done correctly, and I should be able to finish the other in short order. But the left aileron fits on great, of course I’d expect it to, it’s a QB aileron. the bellcrank works, and everything moves freely. I have to get into the manual to see how to initially set up the push tube adjustment before I go tightening everything down on the bellcrank assembly. The next thing to do, past the right aileron, is the flap braces, then the flaps. Then I have to figure out if I want to do a return line for a fuel injection system.
Pics soon.