Finishing touches. 12 hrs

The past week or so I have been putting he finishing touches on the cx4. I've done numerous things like installing the stops on the ailerons, verifying proper deflection, labels, replacing airspeed indicator and verifying accurate readings with a water manifold, and lots of other small tasks. I'm just about ready for my FAA inspection which happens next week.  I'm kind of curious how many people are following my blog so if your a follower could you please comment and let me know. I plan on continuing to enter on here after the first flight with flight testing info and any changes that are made

controls 2 hrs

Last night I worked on fine tuning the controls.  I about have them worked out.  The ailerons are kind of tricky to get them just right.  I think Ive got them where they need to be.  I will double check my work today and move onto something else

Rework oil line 2 hrs

Today I reworked the oil line going from the case to the oil cooler because it has a slight kink when the cowling was on and I was afraid it would restrict the flow of oil. 

Final assembly 8 hrs

Yesterday I worked on final assembly.  I did several things.  I put the wingtips and tips on the tail.  I mounted and rigged the trim tab.  I mounted and safety wired the aileron hinges.  I installed the cowling.  I put my seat in and did some touch up painting inside

CX4 to the airport 5 hrs

Today I loaded the CX4 on the trailer and hauled it to the airport. What a big day!  My friend Daniel and my Dad helped me take it to the airport.  I am lucky that my airport is only 1 mile from the house with no turns.  Once I got it to the airport, I put the wings on and hooked the ailerons up.  I the taxied it and found out that I had a brake caliper rubbing on a tire.  I took the caliper off and ground a little material off of the dead side of the puck.  Then I taxied again and all was well.  I rigged the ailerons per the plans. 

Reprinting silver. 5 hrs

Today we sanded the silver down and repainted it. Looks good now!  I also installed the tank cover, hooked up the rudder and tailwheel.  I installed the cotter pins in the rudder bolts and rudder cable bolts. I installed the canopy and hooked up the brakes. 

Painting silver on wings. 4 hrs

Today I taped off the red that was painted yesterday, and painted the silver on the wings.   There were some issues with the metallic on the silver. We will sand them down tomorrow and repaint the silver stripes. We also repainted a couple of the white parts I that I wasn't happy with. 

Painting red on wings. 5 hrs

Last night I taped the wing off and painted the red stripes on the wings

Tail assembly 3 hrs

Tonight I took a break from painting to assemble the painted parts onto the fuselage. This way instead of moving a bunch of parts outside the shop to avoid overspray, I can just move the fuselage out, and everything is safe from overspray. I have the stripes left to paint on my wings and rep ain't a couple of parts. I got the horizontal stabilizer mounted to the fuselage with the elevator.  I connected the push tube to the elevator horn and tourqued the bolt. I torqued the horizontal stab bolts. Then I mounted the vertical stabilizer and the rudder. I also peeled some more tape

715 hrs total

Painting silver 6 hrs

Tonight I taped off all of the silver on the fuselage and tail. We also painted all of the silver on the fuselage and tail. 

Painting. 16 hrs

The past two days I've been painting. I got a good painter finally. This guy makes it look so easy. I am doing all of the prep work and he is doing he spraying. On Saturday we painted one of the wings white and the fuselage. Today we painted the red on the tail and the fuselage. I am so excited. It looks really good!

Stripping. 12 hours

For 3 days I have been stripping the wing because the paint was rough and had fish eyes in the primer. I hired a painter who didn't know what he was doing and I am paying for it. Not much to show here, but a lot of scraping, sanding, and scrubbing. :-(

Paint 7 hrs

Tonight I made my paint booth and my painter started painting.  We painted almost all of the small parts and one of the wings with the white

Paint prep. 5 hrs

Last night I did more

Paint prep. More of the same

Paint prep 6 hrs

More paint prep today.  Ughhhh. Lots of parts and pieces. My son and I got the rest of the rivets filled and I cleaned cleaned cleaned parts. I picked up my paint today and got two boxes of stuff for a whole lotta money. I am using ppg concept paint and a ppg dp50 epoxy primer. Whoa. Expensive stuff. I also got a free ppg sticker that says, "I just got screwed at the paint store".

Paint prep 5 hrs

Today I did more paint prep. More rivet filling and cleaning and sanding. Boring.  I also filled my fuel tank all the way up to check for any leaks. No leaks noted.  I sanded the cowling rough spots don't on the cowling and taped off several things that I don't want paint on.