There were quite a number of ‘small’ tasks that needed to be finished before the paint shop.

This is one of several cowl intersections that I improved. I can hardly say fixed. I have narrowed the edge margins and spent a few hours increasing others. Not a lot of pics because it was all incremental, Just days of work.

Now this was really bothering me. The pitot is off center. How did I let this slide? Well no more, time to fix this.

I heated the tube with a soldering iron until the epoxy became soft and then the pitot slid out easily. I widened the slot to the right and then reset the pitot nearer the center. The usual hot glue and sticks while the epoxy went hard.

After a clean up post cure, its now much closer to the middle. Not perfect but I can live with it.

Given I’m off to paint soon I thought its a good time to do the rear cowl intersections. They were not good. It was a last chance to do them before paint. Mind you the cowls will not be painted until after the engine install. I will be putting in an oil and coolant door for starters. I did want to take the time now to at least get them a little closer at the rear. One less big job for later.

Who knows what the cowls will look like when they are done.

Another day or so worth of work was to remake the top of the nose gear box and then make new brackets and reposition the white controller box from the top of the gear box to the side. All done as you can see above.

I went over the windows with fresh tape. It was later replaced by the painter.

A few final looks before the paint booth.

Will it be a sharks head, a fish or something else? For now the plane gets to be painted white.

A final test before painting to see if the gear goes all the way down to the kneeing position. Yes it does.