Time for flaps.

This step required fabrication a few little bits.

Once the brackets were produced, things moved along fairly quickly.

First was installing the flap weldment. This involved three bearing blocks, two which had already been predrilled to the 705 bulkhead, and the middle one that required holes and a cut down the middle. I could have saved myself some time here by better reading the plans. The bearing block comes oversized, front-to-back, and needs about 1/4″ or more removed from the front. Instead, I just drilled the top-to-bottom holes in it based on the dimensions provided, positioning each hold based on the end.

In the end, the cut to take off the material fully cut off the errant hole, so I didn’t need to reorder any parts, but it was all a pain.

Once these are made and the flap piece is in you can mark where the tunnel cover needs to be trimmed. Wish I would have waited to prime this piece, but oh well.

the rest of the flap mechanism was fun to assemble. The sides are very thin, and require great care to not bugger up.

I’m waiting to prime until I receive a new quart of primer. I think this will allow for the finish to be a gloss, instead of the matte that has taken up most of the interior at this point. This fairly visible portion, the center forward tunnel cover, and a few other prominent pieces will utilize the new can of primer that should come out a bit better than the old.