I previously delayed the next few steps from when I was working on Section 29 in early January (reason for the gap in this and the previous Part) for a couple reasons. One: I ordered, and was waiting on, the black aluminum vents from Van’s to replace the plastic ones from the kit. Two: There is a note in the plans that says, “Delay the following steps until after the completion of Section 35 to eliminate the possibility of interference with the bottom of the instrument panel”.
So, now that the instrument panel was installed, I came back to this Section to complete these few steps. First, I separated the F-14186-L & -R NACA Vent Brackets. Here are the Brackets after I separated them, deburred the holes and cleaned the edges. They are now awaiting treatment with Alumiprep, Alodine and Akzo primer.
The note didn’t necessarily apply to separating the NACA Vent Brackets, but will definitely apply to the VENT SV-10 Fresh Air Vents. First, the Fresh Air Vents had to be trimmed as indicated in the picture below. I measured the correct trim lines and marked them with a Sharpie. I used a belt sander to remove a majority of the material and 320 grit sand paper for the final trim
I’m sure this wasn’t completely necessary, but I clamped the two Fresh Air Vents together to make sure they were the same.
Now, in preparation of applying silicone adhesive and paint, all the surfaces of the two Vents were sanded until there were no shiny areas remaining. Here they are. I still need to apply additional silicone around the black “rings” to fill in some gaps from when the parts were manufactured. After that, they will be ready for assembly and installation on the airplane.
