Very useful video on rod end bearings and fire extinguishers from Vic Syracuse.

I don't have any pictures, but I wanted to pass along how my last flight went.  This was the first flight since installing the preheater and the back seat seal and both worked like a champ.

The day was quite cold (upper 20sF (about -2.7C)), so I had turned on the preheater the night before.  On startup, the oil temp was almost instantly about 90F and ran smoothly from the first crank.  My experience on prior cold starts was that it would run pretty roughly for the first few minutes.  Not this time at all.  Smooth as silk.

Up in the air, I found the cabin quite comfortably warm.  That's never happened before on cold days.  The draft from the back seat was quite strong and as far as I could tell from the front seat, that was totally gone.

Big wins for winter flying!

I've been doing some winterizing of Sadie.  I wanted to install an engine pre-heater so I can avoid cold starts, which are hard on engines.  This is the system I chose (lowest wattage is fine).  Turn it on the night before, put a thermal blanket over the cowling, and in the morning it'll be nice and toasty, ready to fly.

The other thing I wanted to do was reduce/eliminate the draftiness of the rear seat.  Lots of cold air comes from underneath the rear seat and it makes it pretty uncomfortable in the cabin.  The solution there was to copy what another Sling builder did and install a cover under and behind the rear seat.

Putting the special epoxy on the heater which attaches underneath the engine case.

There's also a band that goes around the oil tank to heat the oil there.

A nice flat spot under the engine for the heater.

Pressed into place and duct taped to let it cure.

Under the oil tank is a thermostat.  Attached that with the epoxy, strain-relieved the wire with RTV and taped it to cure.

All installed with the plug zip-tied in place.  I'll have it connected to a remotely controllable outlet, so I can turn it on from home the night before a flight.  Sweet!

The piece that will go under the rear seat.  Measure twice, cut once... ;-)

Cut and bent to size with cutouts for the seat belts.

Bottom installed (BTW, I put a thin (1/16") adhesive-backed rubber sheet on the underside of the sheets.  It helps in sealing the edges and provides some extra insulation.  I installed 8 M4 rivnuts for the bottom (5 in back and 3 in front) and 4 rivnuts for the back.

All done!  Hopefully, much less cold air will come in!