Valcom radio installation.

A coat of paint.

The cover plate and some other parts primed and ready for paint.

Cover plate on and radio in. It even powers up and operational check is good. Now need to take it apart and prime and paint the cover plate to match.

Cutting out and installing a new cover plate.

Mounting the radio rack.

Another one of the '10-'11 winter projects was the installation of a legal radio. I ended up with a Valcom 760 single com radio. The radio has a very good track record, flip-flop capability, and takes up very little room in the dash, which is very important on this airplane.

Installing the engine and more build.

The push rods, rocker arms, and new rocker shafts installed. Just need to check the dry lifter clearances and install the valve covers.

Starting to come together now.

2 of the cylinders installed.

Getting everything laid out to start installing the cylinders. They came with new pistons and rings already installed and fit. All that's left to do is pull the piston out far enough to get the new piston pin installed and push the cylinder onto the engine.

3/25/11 my cylinders showed up. They were done by Brown Aviation out of Tulsa, OK. They are now .015" oversized with all new exhaust valves, guides, seats, and intake seats and guides replaced as needed.

Some days I look at it and wonder if it will ever fly again.

At this point the magnetos and oil sump are installed and almost ready to install cylinders. I am also waiting for a new drive gear for the starter to finish assembling and installing.

These are the new engine attach bolts, bushings, and washers.

Putting an engine together.

Installing the generator and the oil screen housing and screen. At this point I went ahead and installed the engine on the airplane.

Accessory housing is on and everything is torqued down.

Installing the camshaft and crankshaft gears.

The crankshaft went .020" under on the main and rod journals. The camshaft was rejected so I had to buy an overhauled camshaft. 4 of the 8 lifter bodies were rejected due to spalding on the face. Sighhhhh, nothing money can't take care of.

Case halves togher. The string that is sticking out where the case halves meet together is silk thread. The sealant between the 2 halves is a combination of loctite 515, aviation permatex, and silk thread.

Installing the bearings and the thrust washers.

Getting the case halves cleaned up and ready to start putting together.

Connecting rods being installed.

I didn't really like how the covers turned out after the plating, so they also got primed and painted.

All of the external hardware along with the valve covers were sent off and "gold plated". This is not the right term, but they had some kind of plating process done and they look gold, so that's what I call it.

Finally got all the engine parts back. The case, oil sump, etc. get a light coat of primer followed by a spray coat of Continental gold.

While waiting for all of the engine parts to come back and some warmer weather to paint the top of the wing, it was a good chance to clean up and paint all of the little parts that will be installed once the engine goes back together.

The spray coats on top of the wing.

I've been leaving these out, but these are the holes that had to be cut to remove the screws on the boittom of the wing for the fuel tank straps. The same process was done here as on the top of the wing as far as laying in a couple of small circular patches adn going through all the different coats.

The final coat of poly-spray has been applied and it is ready for the color coat of poly-tone.

This is the silver poly-spray. This is after 2 cross coats and some wet sanding.

This is after another coat of poly-brush. I have also taken an iron to any of the pinked edges that may be trying to curl up and fixed any imperfections with the iron. It is now ready for the silver coats of poly-spray.

This is after the first coat of poly-brush has been sprayed on.

Installing the fuel tank.

The fabric clips installed and all of the reinforcing tapes on. From here there is one more brushed on coat of Poly-brush and then ready to start spraying on the Poly-brush, poly-sray, and color.

First brushed on coat of poly-brush.

All glued down and the first shrink done.

3 of the 4 edges glued down.

Laying out the new piece of fabric.

All of the anti-chafe tape is in place, tank is strapped down, and ready for the fabric.

Sealing the fuel tank.

A light coat of primer over the bare aluminum and it's ready to put back in.

I went ahead and sealed up a ways on the stiffener as a bit of preventative maintenance.

This is where the fuel tank was leaking. The stiffener that runs across the top is spotwelded to the tank and clear at the back the spot weld was pulled apart. The sealer is a 2 part fuel sealer.

This was a pressure gauge set up to pressure the tank to a couple psi and then make sure I don't lose any pressure.