Red Anodize HOBBS 1082.5 hrs

Friday afternoon, on my way home from work, I swung by the anodizing shop to pick up my parts. I was downright giddy to see how they all turned out. Upon first inspection, my excitement fell away with a thud. Let me explain... 

I was quite disappointed in the job the shop did. There were several areas of dark color....it almost looked like when I do alodine and don't rinse the parts properly. And the color itself looked more like plum or maroon than bright red--although that may not be under their control. They claimed the dark spots were because of the Alclad...I'm not buying it, if that was the case, all of them would be consistent and they weren't. On top of the fact, I removed all of the Alclad on the cosmetic surfaces...to be honest, I don't think they really knew what Alclad was judging by their questions. I just think their QA was shoddy. My business is worth $100 to them...chump change in the grand scheme of things. And yes...I realize I could've thrown a fit...bitched and moaned about it until they fixed it, but thats really not my style for something so petty. I'd just rather be pleasant than a jackass, the world could use more pleasantness I think. :)

After the initial disappointment wore off...and I got them home, they started to grow on me...maybe they weren't 'THAT' bad?? Bottom line is, I really don't have much desire (time, effort) to have them redo them...I can live with them as they are...it will add to the character of my plane, it was never intended to perfect and its not like it looks horrible. Take a look for yourself, see what you think...is my disappointment overblown?

As you can see, from a distance and quick glance...they look pretty good...not so bad huh?

But when you look closer, you see the dark areas I mentioned...these parts were the worst of the bunch. On the bright side...and yes, there is always a bright side, its 'artistic'...kinda gives it a 'rustic' look eh? :) Ok, maybe I'm reaching...

You can see it here on the edges...click to enlarge

The good news is the rudder pedal parts came out almost perfect...was happy with these.

And after some careful riveting...I had four fully riveted rudder pedals ready for install...cool eh? I will probably be afraid to put my feet on them later for fear of messing them up, but whatever...onward.

I bought some black UHMW tape from Grainger for a few odds and ends on the plane. Does that look like a roll of 5 yds?? Its a little pricy, but you can get it in black if you desire...most places, including Van's sells it only in a translucent color...that turns yellow in the sun.

So, my first application was to add it to the angle attach brackets for the canopy side latch. Just stick it in place and then trim to fit with an exacto knife.

I cut out these holes for the washers...but later removed the washers as I didn't like the size of the rather large gap and how it felt when I rotated the lever--grinding metal to metal. Sliding on just the UHMW tape was much better so I think I will leave the washers (spacers) out.

And the sub-assembly ready for riveting...well, pretty much (I need to work out details on how the spring attaches to the bolt which wasn't clear in the instructions)...I will say the action of the mechanism is very good as it snaps in place convincingly. I really felt like I got my money's worth with this after market product...much, much nicer than the spartan stock version IMHO.

And now, the moment I've been waiting for...riveting these bad boys in place...again, carefully as to not mar the surface with the rivet gun. I used rivet tape and it worked fine...not a big deal. Again I sealed these for water leakage before riveting them in place...although I didnt use ProSeal this time as I wasn't in the mood to mix up a batch, I used the same paint-able silicone I used on the static ports (and later for the antenna's), should do the same task...much easier.

If you look closely at this pic, you can see that I had to drill out all of the pop rivets holding the side spar caps on. I needed to do this to access the rivets directly above them on the side canopy rails. I just got out of sequence here because I was waiting on getting my canopy rails anodized. They were easy enough to drill out...just a waste of time and money...certainly far from the worst thing that has happened on the build so far.

I will note that there were at least two or three rivets on each side that were...how should I say...lets go with...'a bugger' to get to. I could think of some much more colorful words to use, and I actually did use a few of them in the shop...but hey, this is a family site so I'll leave it to your imagination. ;) In the end, I ended up getting pretty clever to buck them and all is well now. I used the end of a 7/16" dia stainless steel rod on one and a 1/4" steel plate for the others that I had laying around the shop. Keep in mind, if you're clever...and you are...there are a lot of things laying around the shop that can be used as a bucking bar in a pinch.

And lastly, I saved some of the 'blue death' to wrap them for protection while I work on the canopy. This was satisfying to get done as it starts to take its final shape...now onward to that canopy frame!