Fuel system complete

After detecting deep scratches in the existing fuel tubing (from wing- to main tank), we decided to make complete new tubes. The copper tubing came out nice with the olive drab. Plastic protection around the tuning prevents the kind of vibration-induced cuts that we saw in the previous aluminum tubes. My tank does not have the inlets for wingtanks, so it has to go through a T into the drain plug. Flow tests are performed to ensure that we can cross fill more than 150% of a C90 max usage with a good margin. This was a great leap forward, it has taken quite some hours in the cold hangar...

The fuel cap has a doubler around it. This is due to the fact that the boot cowl was not splitted. When fitting it, a couple of rivets broke around the fuel cap area and this is purely a repair to that. They say that "in the good old days" you would get the boot cowls without rivets on the bottom side, so that it could be fitted more gently.

The last pic is the gascolator. I was adviced to use "Steve's Aircraft" Gascolator by friends at the Clyde Smith restoration seminar in Denver. It's a solid gascolator, and we needed to use a doubler in order to get all 4 screws fastened (the pre-cut hole was not right for the bracket). Admit it: it does look expensive! (...and it was...)

We should be all ready for engine installation next week unless my employer sends me off to Nebraska again...

Firewall / bootcowl

Today we attached the firewall / bootcowl. A challenge to drill the 3 x 2 horizontal holes. Also working on the sidepanels for avionics, fuel valves and mags. Bending new fuel tubes as well.
Next up: waiting for the correct 34" "recording" tachometer cable. Now with firewall attached, we can mount the gascolator. Then we need to finalize windshield strips before instrument panel goes on.