Wendell Folks RV-8 Project - Page 50.

April 25, 2007:  Here are the new project photos taken with my new Fuji S700 camera.  The oil cooler is secured to the aft baffle behind cylinder number four.  The oil lines going to and from the engine are also attached.  Two spark plug wires need to have clamps installed to keep them from rubbing against anything as they are routed from the mags to cylinders 2 and 4.  The temperature probe wires can now be secured.

The baffles are ready to accept the flexible fabric that will air-seal the upper cowl to the baffles.

The spark plug wires behind cylinder number three are routed through a smaller hole and a plastic bushing per Van's plans plans.  Rather than cut a large hole to pass the nuts on the plug wires, a slot was cut in the baffle to pass the wires down to the bushing hole.  The bushing is also split to wrap around the wires.

April 28, 2007:  The air-seal fabric installation begins on our Saturday work session.  Wendell had been making cardboard templates using manila folders.  We began replacing each template with the flexible fabric.  The front side baffle plates still need to be trimmed to clear the air inlet ducts of the lower cowl.

April 30, 2007:   Wendell and I had an evening session that found him with much of the fabric installed across the back and side baffles.  I had him trim some of the right side baffle away where it had the potential of interference with the fit of the cowl air cooling inlet scoop.  Here is a macro view up inside at the fabric as it is laid against the upper cowl above cylinder #2.

Looking from the oil door, the back row of fabric is seen laid forward under the upper cowl.  None of the overlapped fabric segments have been tied together yet to insure the correct fit.  More about that later when fabric photos are shown.   Due to the position of the flash on the top of the new camera, I rotated the camera 90-degrees to the right to make this shot, then rotated the photo after it was downloaded into my computer.

The air cooling tubes for the magnetos have also been installed as you can see in this photo.  A piece of safety wire was all that was needed here to get the correct angle on the black tubing.

May 1, 2007:  The evening session tonight continued with the fit of the air seal fabric to the cooling baffles.   I took this photo while Wendell was drilling the front baffles for the blind rivets that will hold the fabric.  I positioned the camera to show the routing of ignition wires, heater scat tubes, and the clean up of the wires to the temperature probes.

Here is what he is really doing from a work perspective.

Here is a view of the thermocouple wires and spark plug wires on the left side of the engine.  A few more tie wraps here and there should help.

After these photos were taken, several trial fits of the cowling were made to insure the fit of the air seal fabric and how it lays against the inside of the upper cowl.  The instructions for the next day's work included making aluminum straps to fasten air seal fabric to the air scoops at the front of the lower cowl.  We talked about the shape and fit of the remaining segments of air seal fabric to be installed.