Progress is stalled for a bit while I finished up the reassembly of the engine on our Christen Eagle II.

Next step will be installing nutplates on the firewall so that can get mounted up, and then hang the engine.



Engine test run went good. Next step is a test flight for the Eagle.

Its ok to go out play on occasion; have some fun but it's time to get back on task, PLEASE. Others are depending on you for their vicarious "rebuilding" fix now get back at it sir.

You got it!

Nut plates have been riveted on the firewall and it's back on the fuselage. The engine mount is just laid in place for fun. It will be attached to the engine before being attached to the airframe.



I have a big hangar move coming up in September. One of the "Riviera Row" hangars that faces the runway has finally come available for my step dad after waiting 20 years to get to the top of the list.

So his hangar with the Citabria is moving across the field and then my 170B and all my stuff is being moved next door into where he was.

The Eagle will still live in the adjacent hangar to my 170B.

New firewall blanket from ACA arrived



Only have 4 nut plates left to install on the firewall.











More prep for the big hangar move underway.

Tech job from 6am-5pm and then spent the evening hanging the firewall and engine.

I'll have more pics posted soon, but had to keep my head down to get it done.

More pics. The new firewall and insulation from ACA is looking really good.





New Lord engine mounts

Took the covering off the elevators and rudder.

This revealed some corrosion damage that needs repair before they can be recovered.

Covered the horizontal stab.

Dope smells almost as good as Parathion.

No stinky, flammable dope with Stewart Systems. My first time using this process and I love it.

More progress on the covering for the horizontal stab



The rusted steel tube in the rudder was cut away and a new piece welded in.





Here's what it looked like before the repair.

Test fitting some new floorboards.







And more fabric progress on the horizontal stab, adding tapes.

If you ever want to remove that aft floorboard after the plane is covered, best to make it in two parts.

What tape under the rivets?

Brand new dataplate arrived from ACA



More progress on taping up the horizontals.









Had to stop because a hawk attacked a pigeon and the pigeon took refuge in our hangar. Poor guy was bleeding badly from a talon attack.



Eventually the bleeding stopped and it left the hangar. It was definitely scared of that hawk more than us!

Then we unfolded the Ceconite envelope on the fuselage to check for fit and let the wrinkles start relaxing.

There's a folded French fell seam that goes down the centerline of the top of the fuselage and up the vertical stab.

Fit looks good compared to the last one we got.



Then there was some hubbub outside and I got distracted.

Karmutzen wrote:If you ever want to remove that aft floorboard after the plane is covered, best to make it in two parts.

What tape under the rivets?

Yeah, I think you're right!

The bare metal gets reinforcing tape applied, then the fabric is glued on.

Then another strip of reinforcing tape is applied and that's when the pop rivets are installed.

Then a finishing tape is applied on top of that.

I like to wrap ceconite on the inside of the wing roots before the before the fuselage fabric goes on. Gives the headliner a bit more rigidity in the fuel indicator area. Might be something worth thinking about.
And nice photo shoot!

A1Skinner wrote:I like to wrap ceconite on the inside of the wing roots before the before the fuselage fabric goes on. Gives the headliner a bit more rigidity in the fuel indicator area. Might be something worth thinking about.
And nice photo shoot!

Great idea [emoji1360]

Thanks!

Your putting us mere mortals to shame with your efforts but it sure is fun to watch your progress, thank you for the updates

My pleasure, and so happy it's enjoyable for you and others.

I'm just an amateur parts replacer with a credit card. [emoji851]

Shrinking the fabric on the horizontals in stages. We did it with more steps than they call for. Started at 250F, then 300, then 325, then 350...





The Stewart Systems process has been a dream. One nifty thing is this eraser which can remove the blue colored glue off the fabric where needed.



Then it's time for Eko Fill, it will take a few coats to fill the weave of the fabric and tapes. The Ceconite 102 medium fabric has a coarser weave than the Superflight fabric, but it's slightly stronger too.











Next we started clamping the fuselage envelope in place for preparation to rough trim it where needed.





And just a random shot of some tools for the fabric work.