Installing Instrument Panel & Prepping Fuel Selector
TLDR
- Sealed the sides of the top front skin
- Started to prep fuel selector
- Installed dashboard and instrument panel (partially)
- Wires connected behind dashboard & powered on
- Dashboard bracket installed
- CO sensor installed
Detail
Top front skin
The sides of the top front skin got a row of sika 295 for added water proofing.
I ran a blue painters tape along the edge of the aluminum side skin, then a 1/4” vinyl tape above, then another line of painters tape. Then I removed the middle vinyl tape to leave a perfectly distanced line for putting the Sika 295 in.
Fuel selector hole cutout
Since I’m using the fuel boost pump system from MWPB, I needed to slightly mod the fuel selector mounting position by enlarging the mounting hole.
The kit comes with the jig to set the hole size. I drilled 4 holes and cleco-ed the jig piece on the leather where fuel selector would go, then used a cutoff disc to cut away most of the material. Lastly I used a dremel sanding bit to remove all the extra material so the hole cutout was exactly the size I needed.
Dashboard & instrument panel
Dashboard
Then I put the dashboard on top of the front skin. The fitting was a little difficult as a single person job, but wasn’t too bad.
One tricky part was connecting the air vent when the dashboard was going in. The. space wasn’t really big. Fortunately I’m pretty skinny, I wiggled my hand quite a bit and finally secured the air vents using some zebra clamps.
Instrument panel wiring
After the dashboard was in place, I proceeded to connect wires. So far I still have a few loose wires: airmaster controller, the fuel pump power, heater related stuff.
I conducted a power on test after the wires were connected. Unfortunately the screen did not turn on. I fell into panic and started to shoot emails to MWPB for help. This process went back and forth for 3+ hours. And at last I realized I simply forgot to turn on avionics switch…
CO sensor
The sensor did not have a pre-built place behind the panel, so I decided to install it on the side wall of the center channel. The sensor is pretty lightweight, so 2 m4 rivnuts were more than sufficient.
FP1 Connector Problem
Before connecting the FP1 connector (this is the power lines of the boost pumps), I noticed the wiring in the connector was wrong. I haven’t got a chance to fix it yet, but pretty sure I need to rewire some pins some how.
On the wire diagram, the FP1 connect should have pin1 to pin 15 all filled. However on the female side, my pin 14 is empty and pin 16 is filled. The male side has pin1 to pin15. So there is a clear mismatch. Furthermore I can’t be sure the pins are in their correct location. So I guess I will take apart both to inspect next time.
