3 hrs. on some skins and nose wheel assembly.

Since it was just a test fit I decided that instead of wasting time lining up 4 layers of metal I took off the front top skin....

...put on the soundproofing (the good stuff) and put it aside for now.

Took out the rear interior skins and put on edge grommet as shown because wires pass by there.

Gathering the parts for the nose wheel assembly.

While I was reading the instructions about that I also read about fitting the main gear fiberglass in this channel.  This has a height of about 70mm and the instructions say you need to file down the top of the landing gear fiberglass.  Is that true?...

The landing gear is about 35mm thick in the center section, so why does it need to be filed down?  Does it need to be flat to lay evenly up against the top of the channel?  I haven't tried it yet, but the position of the bolt holes in the fiberglass suggests it wouldn't press up against it.  I could be wrong though.

I've been keeping these small bushes aside for awhile.  The manual doesn't mention where they go, but I think it was BobZ that sent me the marked up manual as to their location.

See the inconsistency in the part numbering?  Well, the diagram is consistent, so it's fine.

Starting the assembly...

Don't tighten down the top section because you need to fit it through the bushing.

Needed to be hammered in.

Put in the lower half bushing too...

One of the bolts didn't seem to be catching so I had to apply lots of pressure while turning in order to get it to catch.  I used to hands to do that, but couldn't take the picture at the same time. ;-)  As you see below though, I ended up taking these parts off again so I could insert and tighten the two bolts that hold this section together.

Getting there...

Here you see how I took off that top section in order to do the bolts.

The bottom was trickier because you need to put these washers in there.  I used some painter's tape to hold them in place.  Tricky...  NOTE: I suggest assembling it first without these washers in place so you can check for the tightness of the nose gear turning.  I didn't do this...

After the assembly was completed it was quite apparent that it was difficult to turn the nose gear...  Looks like I'll have to disassemble at least some of this to grind down the closing bracket...  Ugh...