Engine mount and forward top skin: 4 hours

Now that the interior paint is done I can start working on some more interesting stuff.

I got out the engine mount and started working on getting it installed. This involved a fair amount of research online.

I also got the forward top skin out because I originally thought it need to be on when fitting the motor mount but I learned this was not required.

On a side note I decided to get a new forward top skin from Vans and work on shaping it more before I dimple it to get a better fit where it's riveted to the longerons.

Motor mount temporarily in place and working on forward top skin fit:

Canopy work and cockpit / cabin painting: 9 hours

The following work was done over several days:

• Prepped and bonded on canopy exterior latch plate using sikaflex. Also filled in a small gap on either side of the skirt.
• Removed all hardware from cockpit to get ready for painting.
• Cleaned cockpit / cabin and taped for painting. The area to be painted is actually very small because I'm focusing on painting areas that are left exposed after the interior panels are installed.
• More cleaning. Protected outside of fuselage from overspray. Carefully wrapped canopy in plastic.
• Like almost all the other metal interior parts the cabin will be painted with Napa 7220 primer then Eastwood 2k clear epoxy.
• I initially tried spraying the floor and the upper parts of the cabin with primer all at once but did not get good results. I decided to do the floor first.
• Cleaned up the overspray with scotch brite pads, cleaned, vacuumed and sprayed the floor with primer then epoxy. I went ahead and sprayed the baggage floor even though it will be covered by carpet.
• Once the floor had cured I taped plastic over it and repeated the process on the upper parts of the cockpit / cabin.

Interior painting complete - now I can start permanently installing systems and wiring!

Upper sections coated with primer and epoxy.

Floor complete. I concentrated on the exposed forward areas since the baggage floor will have carpet.

Cleaned and taped:

All canopy hardware removed:

The tear drop shaped plate got bonded to the canopy: