F7F-3N

[Leon]

Nice work on the hard points Dave.This is moving along nicely.

[thug626]

Thank you Leon. There was progress today. It was, however, disproportional to the amount of time I spent at the bench today. :-[The topic at hand today was the ignition harness for the P&Ws. After a fair amount of trial and error, my AMS side and the tattered remnants of my sanity came to an accord on how best to proceed. The harness is made from 0.020"x0.030" strip stock and the wires are 0.010" lead wire. Holes were drilled into the heads and glued with CA. There are 36 wires per engine. These will be trimmed when it comes time to glue them to the harness. The ends of the harness are not supposed to meet. I am now going to enjoy a dark ale (maybe two) and give the MkI eyeballs a rest. Without further ado here is my P&W porcupine.


This is the feathering that was done last night. The wings are getting closer to getting on

Dave

[Deleted]

Great detailing on those P&W's mate!!!Just one thing if I may tho...where are the spark plugs?

[deafpanzer]

Engine is going to look so great with all of the wirings! I'd be nervous to be around it because I will end up sitting on it somehow.

[wbill76]

Nice wiring work there Dave, you deserve the ale-break!

[bbd468]

WOW, thats one heck of a cool pin cushion!!!

Great attention to detail Thugster.

[406 Silverado]

nice work with the wiring...more eye candy

[thug626]

About the spark plugs CB.....Napa was all out and, somebody "borrowed" my gapping gauge ....sooooo....I'm just going to have to forgo the 'plugs this time.

Well Andy, the wires wouldn't hurt if you sat on it. Though there might be the risk of lead poisoning. (puke)Worse yet is explaining how it got "there" . The front of the engine will be rather prominent due to how the cowling "frames" the engine visually.

Thank you kindly for the high praise DickyF. Not sure about the "mere" mortals part. Prick me and, I too shall bleed. In fact I did that just the other day by sticking the tip of a #11 in my thumb. Doh!

Thank Bill! I most certainly did enjoy that break.

The Thugster thanks you bbd468. As for the "pin cushion", read on......

I am glad you enjoyed the eye candy Rob. More to come.

This am was spent routing the wires and scratching a line that runs from the lower front aft. I pulled the lines taut and guesstimated where to trim the line. The ends were attached with thick (ie slow curing) CA. I did not use any accelerator with these assemblies.

You can just make out the copper wire that runs aft. It is 0.003" diameter. It was salvaged from some electronic device some time ago.

Here is the copper wire winding. I think this should last me a good long time.


One engine down. One to go.

Dave

[Deleted]

Dave....all joking aside for a sec.....the detailing you've put into this is absolutely mind boggling mate!!! ....I Luuuuurve it!!!

Re the sway braces,it MAY be just back from a sortie,not just going on one!! (The Warrior returns!)

[deafpanzer]

Loving this... always a pleasure reading your posts. Glad you are here as we have come a long way!

Have a great long weekend if you are not working... bet you are planning a long ride on your moped?

[thug626]

CeeBee, Thank you for the compliment and the idea. Well, I'm sold! THe braces stay on!

Andy, Thank you so very much. Always glad to see you my friend. I'm off until Sunday night...then back at it. MOPED?!?!?! Does this look like a MOPED?!?!?!?

One does not feel mopeds rolling through the neighborhood. With this beast you do. moped......sheesh....of all the #*(*(&*@^%#^& things to say.

The other engine is now complete. Let me run the checklist first to cover anything I may have missed in assemblies for the nacelles and engines. Once that is taken care of there will be primer flowing on the engines and landing gear. Time to check on the replacing of the centerline hard point.

Dave

[bbd468]

Hiya Dave, engine looks fantastic fella....as does that BAD A$$ Bike!!!

[Deleted]

Aug 29, 2013 17:24:30 GMT -5 thug626 said:

CeeBee, Thank you for the compliment and the idea. Well, I'm sold! THe braces stay on!

Andy, Thank you so very much. Always glad to see you my friend. I'm off until Sunday night...then back at it. MOPED?!?!?! Does this look like a MOPED?!?!?!?

That's Definitely NOT a ferkin moped!!!!!......More like a tractor!!!! ....Us Non Colonials,prefer something a bit more painful to ride,because of the really windy roads we have over here!!Something like this...and it AIN'T mine!!!

[406 Silverado]

Love the motor and wiring.

Nice Ducati CB, my brother in law owned one ....before the wife and kids came along. Of course the bike and BMW Z3 had to go..lol

Nice bike there Dave. Where did Andy come up with moped....being a wise a$$

[Deleted]

Cheers,Boss...the Duc belongs to a mate o' mine.....its allegedly one of the latest...everything is strapped to the engine!!! ,Not the other way around,as per.....

[thug626]

bbd468, Thank you for the compliments. A couple of months after I got it my lovely wife got me a set of Vance & Hines pipes for my birthday. Then it sounded proper.

CeeBee, That's a beautiful bike. :)I like pretty much anything with two wheels. I am aware that any bike can kill you if you're not paying attention. I'd only do it faster on the Ducati. It's amazing, the engineering that goes into those beasts! Plus everything is largely exposed....great for us gearheads.

Rob, The Z3 is a very nice car. Just not a family rig. Yeah, he's being a wise a$$....pushin' buttons.....mine.

Dave

[bbd468]

Dave, i had a 1994 HD FX-STC (Soft Tail Custom) 1340ci. for nearly 13 years. All black minor amount of chrome, no decals or airbrush work on he tank.....Just BLACK! Took tha sissy bar and stock seat off and added a lowboy and added some Drag bars w/ 8" risers. Anyways....loved that bike....i miss that bike.

[thug626]

Aug 29, 2013 18:58:48 GMT -5 bbd468 said:

Dave, i had a 1994 HD FX-STC (Soft Tail Custom) 1340ci. for nearly 13 years. All black minor amount of chrome, no decals or airbrush work on he tank.....Just BLACK! Took tha sissy bar and stock seat off and added a lowboy and added some Drag bars w/ 8" risers. Anyways....loved that bike....i miss that bike.

It sounds like understated elegance. The wife has an '11 FLSTC. Gloss, leather and chrome. Lots of chrome. She calls it the "Minivan" of the bikes. To which I have reminded her that nobody, I mean nobody goes out of their way to walk up to you and say, "Hey man. That's a nice minivan you have there". You should see the people looks when I tell them it's my wife's bike.
Hers....


Dave

[wbill76]

Nice finishing work on the pin cushion Dave. Spectacular level of detail with that super fine copper wiring.

[thug626]

Hello Bill, Thank you very much. That means a lot to me.

Dave

[bullardino]

Very nice progress

[thug626]

Yesterday was an odds and ends day for some of those remaining details. I'm pretty sure that all of the big building stuff has been put to bed.
The lower exhaust channel had been rolling around in the back of my head for some time now. I was trying to figure out the most convincing way of pulling it off and, in a way that wasn't too terribly complicated. I thought about putty, resin putty and, various methods using other mediums. I opted to use the styrene strip and sheet method.
You can see by the stock channel on the left that there was a large step at the end of it. This would hardly channel exhaust effectively. Plus, visually, it looks wretched.

Here, the sheet is glued into place. The sheet is 0.015" thick. I ended up using three strips at the mid section as to help the sheet follow the rear contour of the channel much better. The edges of the sheet have since been blended using resin putty. I knew I'd find an excuse to use that stuff.

There was a circumferential dimple on the inside as it happens with injection molding when there is a hollow bellow. In reference pics this surface appears flat.

The centerline fuel tank reworked.

The rear vent redone with 0.010" stainless steel wire. The molded version was a blob of triangular plastic. With that being said, they did however, capture the correct angle of the vent with their "blob"

The sway braces for the centerline fuel tank. These will free float, until the centerline tank is secured in its place. At which time I'll lower these to the tank and, at that time, glue them to the tank.

Now we can't have cowl flaps without the actuators. Can we?

Final assembly and paint are getting close.
Dave

[thug626]

I almost missed your post Luigi. Yours snuck in as I was typing. Thank you for the compliment. More to come.....

Dave

[Deleted]

Looking might fine from where I'm sitting Mr H !!!!!

[bullardino]

Great progress, Dave

[thug626]

Thank you CeeBee. There was a bit more of filling and sanding today. Also taking stock of what needs to be done before the big assembly before painting.

Hello DickyF, Duke? Who's Duke? Did I miss a page? A memo? Aw crap! I'm lost..........again.

Hello Luigi, Thank you kindly.

Dave

[Deleted]

Sept 1, 2013 16:39:12 GMT -5 thug626 said:

Thank you CeeBee. There was a bit more of filling and sanding today. Also taking stock of what needs to be done before the big assembly before painting.

Hello DickyF, Duke? Who's Duke? Did I miss a page? A memo? Aw crap! I'm lost..........again.

Hello Luigi, Thank you kindly.

Dave

Dave,I THINK Dicky was referring to the 'Duke' Cati I posted earlier

[Deleted]

Ferkin done it again!!!

[thug626]

DickyF, It's al so suddenly clear to me now. I figured I was missing something blatant. Thank you for the cognitive realignment. Yes that Hog is a beast.

CeeBee, Thank you and your right......it happened again. Making me feel better about myself as I am not alone in that arena.

Dave

[wbill76]

Devil's always in the details Dave and you dance with him regularly! Nice progress as always.