Update for 3rd quarter 2023:

 There was a fair amount of work accomplished over the summer despite another trip to Europe for paragliding the last week of August!

Right fuel tank fuel gauge sender wired.

Twisting wires for the landing / taxi lights and pitot heat.

The left tank has an inverted fuel pickup in it and guess what ... the fuel sender is behind the tank and can only be reached with the tank removed ... so that's what happened :(

Working on the wiring for the left wing.

Preparing the inside of the top cowl for paint.

It looks so much better with some white epoxy paint on it.

Heated pitot tube / aoa sensor installed and wired.

Bottom cowl also much more appealing after paint!

Motivational picture of my work friend's beautiful RV-8.

Fuel flow testing.

Checking for tight fuel fittings. On the first start attempt it seems that we had an a loose fitting that was allowing air in the system.

Taxi light and landing lights are wired. (taxi light shown)

More fuel flow testing.

Installed taxi / landing light lenses. They has some small scratches but they polished out nicely.

Working on wiring for the autopilot roll servo and magnetometer in the right wing.

Connected and ran wires for wingtip nav / strobe lights.

Installed new ELT instrument panel remote control.

Initial install of lower cowling heat shield.

Finished up with aluminum tape and sealed edges with epoxy.

Working on the ELT install in the baggage compartment floor.

ELT floor cutout.

Finished fuel tank install, started wing cradle: 6.5 hours

I dimpled all the holes in the tank and joint strip for #8 screws, installed the many nut plates on the joint strip then installed the tank. The tank was installed in a temporary fashion with just enough screws and bolts for verifying the fit. (The tank has to be removed to fit the wing to the fuselage.)

I also made a lot of progress starting the cradle that will hold the wing for the rest of its assembly and storage.

 

Leading edge holder for cradle:

 

Posted with Blogsy

More fuel tank mounting prep: 6 hours

Today involved a lot of hole drilling. I re-attached the tank and opened up the joint strip screw holes to final size. Then I took the tanks off and used my #8 nut plate jig to drill the rivet holes for the approximately 30 nut plates on the joint strip. Then I countersinked all the rivet holes.

I also prepped the holes on the z brackets for their nut plates. After deburring all the various holes I installed the nut plates on the tank z brackets.

 

Z bracket nut plates:

 

Joint strip screw and nut plate holes:

 

Posted with Blogsy

Started fitting left fuel tank: 5.7 hours

Getting the fuel tank fitted involved several rounds of temporarily attaching and removing the tank. Then I drilled the pilot holes for the screws in the joint plate. The object was to get a smooth transition between the tank and the other skins n the wing. I initially had some "pillowing" of the skin around the leading edge joint plate (which appears to be a common occurrence).

I ended up eventually adding additional screws to the joint plate to hold the skin more snug to the joint plate. This is one of the options used by other builders.

I also drilled the holes in the tank brackets for the 3/16 bolts that hold the tanks to the spar.

Wing tank / leading edge in place:

 

Using a modified rivet fan to locate my additional screw holes for the joint plate:

Posted with Blogsy