Left seat audio wiring, and misc: 5.6 hours

• Assembled left seat audio wiring harness (this was the bulk of the time)
• Removed left seat
• Located and drilled hole for seat heat wiring
• Disassembled instrument panel structure
• Started on fuel tank attach support brackets

Working on audio wiring harness:

Left and right audio wiring harness complete:

Seat work and misc: 1.2 hours

• Tested the left seat heater. It does not use very much power - 3amps in high and 1 amp in low. This includes upper and lower panels.
• Prepped left seat headset audio wiring harness materials

Seat work, headset jack wiring harness, misc: 7.5 hours

• Prepped and painted left seat back hinge
• Made wiring labels for headset wiring harness
• Worked on more paint removal from interior panels
• Made headset audio harness for right seat (a lot of soldering, heat shrink tubing, crimping, testing, etc.) - this includes standard aviation mic and headphone jack and a Bose lemo jack which includes power for ANR headsets
• Riveted left seat back hinge
• Test fitted seat
• Researched seat heater wiring

Right seat audio harness complete:

Left seat looks great!

The seat is very comfortable. Tron is disappointed he doesn't have a seat but he's still ready to go.

Shorter flights are probably better for him:

Organized hardware, fitted left seat: 4 hours

• Organized hardware
• Ordered stainless steel hardware for cabin heat valve and some extra angle for instrument panel
• Fitted left seat
• Made stainless steel hinge pins for both seat backs
• Drilled and prepped left seat back hinge for riveting
• Started prep on right seat back hinge

Drilling hinge to seat back:

Aft fuselage wiring, pushrod cleanup: 5.2 hours

• Touched up a few spots on the aft elevator pushrod
• Did some test crimps on the amp mini connector pins for the led lighting
• Crimped male pins on baggage led strips
• Crimped female pins on supply wires and installed connectors
• Wire tied all wiring aft of the baggage compartment
• Attached amp mini connector plugs to interior led strips
• Attached plugs to interior led dimmers
• Organized shop area

Mini connectors:

Aft fuselage wiring:

Another angle:

Dimmers and led strips ready to install:

Aft elevator pushrod, interior lighting: 3.4 hours

• Finished aft elevator pushrod
• Fitted the pushrod ends to the tube
• Measured and drilled ends and tube for blind rivets
• I tried priming the mating surfaces of the pushrod ends and tube but the primer was too thick. I ended up removing the primer and using my alodine pen - worked great
• Riveted ends on pushrod
• Prepped, primed and clear coated pushrods
• Tested LED strips and PWM dimmers
• Measured current draw and all 4 strips aft of the instrument panel only draw 1.5 amps on full bright

I have been reading up on interior paint and some guys like to just spray a clear gloss coat over the primer. I like the primer color so I thought I would experiment with this look on the pushrods. The clear also gives them an extra layer of protection. Initial results are promising.

Drilling pushrod tube and ends for blind rivets:

Clear coating various pushrods: