The Firewall.
Spookily enough....I'm right out of armour plate at the moment !. So...next best thing...MDF !. Its cheaper, its easier to work with, its bl**dy lighter to carry around and when painted, will look just right.
As I dont have a spare Merlin lying around...yet... ready to bolt on the front of my Project (All donations greatfully received and put to good use !!) I decided to put a sheet of Ali behind the Armour plate (MDF) so that there is no ruddy great hole where there shouldnt be. I dont have the skill set or tools to make the pressed plate that fits in the middle, so its just plain and flat. Likewise, I will be fitting a flat plate to the r'send of the cockpit tub to finish it off, so I'm not following plans to the n'th degree.
To strengthen the Ali, I added an inch around the firewall plate to peen over and to help with extra 'meat' for rivetting the panels on, when I get that far. Unfortunately, due to the curvature of the top profile, its all 'rucked up' so I either try and beat it into shape...but that will stretch the Ali... or take it all apart and trim off the extra. Not sure what to do yet.
Not that you can see, but I'm using metric nuts and bolts here. My local hardware store doesnt have the type I should be using so for ease, and as its not going to be airworthy, I've decided to use the dreaded metric stuff. Before final paint, I will get a modelling grinder across the top of each bolt to remove the metric details. This will be an interesting job one evening as I still have 32 extra bolts to fit to each of the lower armour plate profiles....yup, my shop had run out of those too !
The blue on the Ali is a protective plastic sheet that will be removed and when I've finally got the 'tub' together, it will more than likely be polished....highly !.
Hoping to get some right- angle Ali strips early next week, then I can start on the flooring and then look at adding the lower side panels and the firewall. With that done, I need to then make all the internal ribs, to give the required profile and strength and then I can look at mounting my instrument panel. woopee !
What I do need to find out, is a wiring diagram for the Mk14 gyro gunsight, so I can see if I can get the aiming reticule to work. I dont even know if its a 12 or 24 volt system so I have some research to do here.
Right, thats enough for today, I'm off for a cold beer !