FINISHING KIT - Page 39.

March 16, 2004:  The finishing kit was delivered by ABF today.  The truck that came did not have a lift gate, and that required me to open the crate on the back of the truck to unload it.  The packed weight of the crate was 330 pounds, so the driver and I had no chance of lifting it off the trailer while it was still packed.  I did not take any pictures of the crate on the trailer with the lid off, sorry.  Here is the first pix taken as the truck is preparing to leave.  You can see that the crate is empty.

This was just the local delivery truck from the Chattanooga ABF terminal.   For those of you that care, the crate traveled about 2,940 miles to get to my garage.  Looking past the crate, you can see part of the fiberglass cowling sitting on the garage floor just to the right of the fuselage.  You can also see the remains of that orange road sign that became the removable parts of my instrument panel seen on previous fuselage pages.

I took inventory of all the parts and put away the rivets, screws, bolts, tires, etc. over a 6-hour work session.  I also broke down the crate and put away much of the scrap wood.  The canopy is wrapped in clear plastic and now resides in my living room to the right of the entertainment center at the end of the love seat recliners.  The elevators are also stashed behind the recliners.  Living the single life, there is no worry about anybody sitting down in the recliners and rocking back against the elevators.

The tires found a home on the top shelf in the garage.  The fiberglass gear leg fairings are on top of the two main tires.  That aluminum fork you see is the castering nose wheel weldment.  All three axles are there along with the inner tubes for the tires.  The nose wheel split rim is there also.  The two red caps you see are on the ends of the flexible brake hoses that go to the pilot-side brake pedals.

In this picture you can see the steel roll bar (canopy bow) that supports the wind shield once the canopy is cut apart into two pieces.  The steel roll bar is just sitting in its approximate installed position on the fuselage.  Both halves of the fiberglass cowling are visible in the foreground.

Down by the garage door sit the engine mount and the canopy sliding frame - steel parts all.

Now you are up to date on the arrival of the finishing kit.  I will post more pictures as I start to use all this stuff.